"yarmot":3mci5o36 wrote: Ah right.
So then it's our job as a consumer organisation to jump on the back of the brave few - who have taken the time, jumped through the hoops, cut through the red tape and invested their own money in their business - demanding they be more inventive than the standard red, gold and black and only brew what we want them to brew?
Or should we support them fully in what they do, in order to gradually create the market conditions that demand ever more extreme styles of beer?
It took CAMRA 35 years to embed this in GB. In the meantime, we can brew the ridiculously hoppy stuff at home.[/quote:3mci5o36]
I'm not jumping on peoples backs. I'm asking for more choice, and won't apologise for that. If you are happy with the standard fair, good for you, but some of us want a bit more hops in our beer, and that's what we are asking for, and will keep asking for!
I don't think we all have to agree on what we want, or otherwise nothing new would ever happen. If that was the case, a lot more people would still be drinking bog standard marco beer. I fully support my local microbreweries, brewpub, festivals and pubs/offies selling Irish Craft beer, and go out of my way to do so. I've also made a commitment to this consumer organisation, by becoming a member, so consider myself to fully support the Irish scene. However, I also ship in a lot of my beer, in order to try a variety of beer, but would rather source more of that beer locally. You mention rediculouly hoppy, so are either using this as an extreme example or maybe not a fan of the hoppier beers, so why would you be bothered if they are made or not.
We are not asking the micro's to exclusively make hoppier beer, but just to consider it, as the standard brews get a bit boring to me, not matter how well they are made. This is especially true at beer festivals, where we expect to see something a bit different along with the standard beers. This can be a good barometer of what might be popular.
I brewed a corney of fairly hoppy beer for the Brew It Yourself expo at the F Well last year, and it went down just as well as the Oatmeal stout. Some people liked both, and some preferred one over the other. That is called having differnt tastes and preferences. Some people had never drank hoppy beer in their life, and thought maybe there was fruit in it, and guess what? Some of them loved the hoppy beer!
Camra has taken 35 years to get where it is, and I applaud them for all the work they do. However, they could still do with moving with the times to a degree, so I don't necassarily want to see Beoir stuck in the past, right from the start. I do a good bit of drinking in the UK and the US, and I hope Ireland won't take as long to catch up, as some people think it might or should.
The F Well, Metalman, the Porterhouse and some others are are brewing somewhat hoppier brews, and I applaud them, but I want to see more. I don't see anyone requesting them to exclusively brew very hoppy beers, but just want them to consider it a bit more, as at the grassroots there is a want for it. This thread came about from discussion at the recent cask festival, and is aimed at the micro brewers, as they are often on this site. If they can brew spiced and pumpkin ales, don't see why they can't brew some hoppy ones, as reckon they would be more popular, but that is just an opinion. A lot of the time, it might just be down to a bit of dry hopping, which doesn't meant that they need to sacrafice a whole batch to trying out something new.
You seem to be telling us to stop asking for hoppy beer, and just to brew it at home, or set up our own micro, but I want to see more hoppy beers available commercially, so I can support my local micro to a greater degree. It might even give some of them the edge over others. I'd love to open my own micro in the future, so you never know, but for now I am a consumer, so will continue to give this consumers opinion. I'm completely at odds with your post, but respect your right to make it, as this is a forum for open and frank discussion, so good luck to ya!
