There once was a car called the Edsel. Ford launched the car in September of 1957. It was supposed to be the zenith of the big fin car era. It had deluxe everything. Massive, exaggerated fins, more chrome that in the movie Excalibur. After years of chasing the fin era, Ford finally made its statement. In a world of fins and chrome - it had the biggest and most-est.
It came to late. The market was overwhelmed with such cars. And the Edsel, having been in the design stages for years, was an absolute bust. Americans had all the fins they needed - what they wanted were smaller, more economical and streamlined cars. The Edsel was the biggest flop in the history of the automotive industry up until that time. Ford later made up for it with the Mustang. But there's the rub. It took a disaster and then a pivot.
I'm not trying to pile on here. The current trend in the craft alcoholic business is in shrinking market share and consolidation. I personally posit it's a combination of right-sizing and product differentiation (or not enough of it). But there is also a seismic change - a sea change - in process here. A change so very profound it will change the industry.
In the mid-2000s the first Beer Bros made their appearance. An unending army of slightly-to-rotundly heavy men, in flannel shirts, with their giant, bushy beards, and their 70s truckers hats, rolled over the industry. Like New Dealers in the 1930s, they looked down their noses at the establishment, and dictated the new style. Culturally speaking they seemed somehow to look like 90s grunge roadies who had somehow slid their way into the brewing industry.
They discovered the new hops out of the west (approx. 2009) - Citra, Mosaic, Simcoe, Centennial, Cascade, Amarillo, and Strata and started making wet and dry hopped beers. A wave of innovation swept over the industry. They made westcoast and east coast IPAs. They made NEIPAs, DIPAs, TIPAs, 2x IPAs, 3X IPAs, and a boat load of others. They hopped anything that could think of, constantly pushing the boundaries.
From 2012 to 2025, the Beer Bro held sway over the craft brewing scene, from nano-, to micro-, to boutique- to craft- to mid-teir-brewery offered a slew of such potions. And the public scarfed them up. The more hops they pushed, the bigger their beards got.
And with them came a series of tasting rooms out fitted in "industrial-chic". This inescapable look blended raw, utilitarian elements from old factories and warehouses with retro lighting, featured exposed brick, concrete, metal (like iron, steel, copper), weathered wood, open layouts, and utilitarian furniture, creating a rugged, urban sophistication. Not to mention the millions of gallons of flat black paint that coated any exposed space other than brick or steel.
I embraced the first few years of innovation. There were black beers with hops, malty beers with hops, stouts, porters - they put that shit in everything. And it was always fun to try.
But something funny happened on the way to the brewery (to borrow a line from Sondheim) - the absolute hyperbolic, steroid inducing over the top pushing of these styles in massive numbers to the detriment of the menu. I saw with my own eyes more than a dozen breweries that offered a dozen IPAs and maybe three (some times four) non-aggressively hopped brews. I was oft reminded of the old Henry Ford quote - You can have the car in any color, so long as its black. Adjusted for this period - You can have any kind of beer you, so long as it's IPA.
Not since the appearance of Pilsner in the late 1800s has the industry been affected so. This new wave of hops inspired thousands of homebrewers to make the leap - and open their own place. Breweries opened in record number - swelling the ranks of brewery associations all over the country. The Breer Bro was responsible for opening more breweries in America than at any other time - more than at the turn of the previous century. It was the Golden Age of Beer.
But I am here to say that the wave of hopped beers glutting the market is partly responsible for its own demise. And the interior decorating skills of the Beer Bro have passed.
I am not gloating. I am writing to tell those fighting to stay alive during this period, that it is time to exchange their rustic charm for something different. Breweries like Talea Beer Co. and Treehouse Brewing in the northeast have changed the game. They've traded in the flat black for more contemporary looks - brighter rooms, more polished surfaces. Treehouse now offers a dozen various IPAs, but also offers another dozen non-hopped/lightly-hopped beers.
Maybe - just maybe - the problem with craft brewing is the lack of choice or a certain sameness from brewery to brewery. Maybe breweries need to change their lineup some. I know I have 15 breweries near me - most of them offer the same exact beers. Maybe that's the industry's problem? It did wonders for the industry back in the 1960s and 1970s, when the entire industry made the same exact style - which made price wars and consolidation oh so much easier.
Tree House
Athletic Brewing
Bottom two - Talea
Are Treehouse and Talea outliers? Maybe. But I also think they are signposts. I think this is a turning point in the craft brewing business. Adapt or die. Brighten up your beer list. Sure, keep your IPAs but offer something different too. More Kolsch, Scottish Wee Heavy, Alt beer, fruit/combination/co-ferments, etc. And brighten up your tasting room.
Historian Frederick Jackson Turner declared the American Frontier closed in 1893. The West had been conquered. Civilization, settlements, laws, became the order of the day. The Wild West was declared done.
So maybe it's time to shave the beard, drop a few pounds, and put on a solid color shirt.
Because we now pronounce the era of the Beer Bro over - dead. Dominus. Dominus. The Frontier is closed. The Wild West of Hops is done. Those not embracing this next turn maybe buried next to the Edsel.
Réquiem æternam dona ei, Dómine.
Et lux perpétua lúceat ei. Requiéscat in pace. Amen. Amen.
Anima ejus, et ánimæ ómnium fidélium defunctórum,
per misericórdiam Dei requiéscant in pace. Amen.