Maine and IPAs --- Or, is there life beyond Pale Ale? (Bangor: buy, organic)

[Mark S.]

After you walk past the usual corporate beers (Bud, Miller, Coors, etc.), why is it that 90% of the beers in the store are Pale Ale? Is this a Maine thing or a nationwide trend?

I went to Bootlegger's, which certainly has a wider selection, but even so: It's still 90% pale ale.

Why???

Why do so many people like flavorless beer???

[American girl]

Originally Posted by Mark S.

After you walk past the usual corporate beers (Bud, Miller, Coors, etc.), why is it that 90% of the beers in the store are Pale Ale? Is this a Maine thing or a nationwide trend?

I went to Bootlegger's, which certainly has a wider selection, but even so: It's still 90% pale ale.

Why???

Why do so many people like flavorless beer???

I don’t drink beer but I do like wine. I had a wine merchant tell me once there are only two kinds of wine. The kind you like and the kind you don’t.

[ABQConvict]

Originally Posted by Mark S.

After you walk past the usual corporate beers (Bud, Miller, Coors, etc.), why is it that 90% of the beers in the store are Pale Ale? Is this a Maine thing or a nationwide trend?

As a craft beer aficionado since the early 90s and a former professional brewer in the craft brewing scene from the mid-2000s to the mid-2010s, I have followed the trends in beer style popularity for almost three decades. This is my brief and basic impression of the popularity of Pale styles in the US over that time.

By and large, I would say that the Pale category (which includes IPA and Amber) is the most popular style family of beer brewed by craft breweries across the US.

From the mid 90s, with the emergence of Sierra Nevada Pale ale as one of the first craft brews to hit any sort of nationwide success, through the present plethora of breweries countrywide, the PNW/northern California and Colorado/New Mexico have been considered the preeminent regions producing Pale styles.

Pale ales are charactrerized by a strong malt character due to a bill containing mostly Pale and Crystal malts which produce a robustly sweet and thick bodied beer that can stand up to and balance the often intense hoppiness that characterizes American Pale beers. I consider part of the popularity of Pale styles to be due to the contrast in basically every appreciable category of taste to the lightly flavored, lightly bodied, and low hop character of most mass produced beers which overwhelmingly represent the American Light Pilsner style. Combined with the year-round drinkability, being refreshing in summer and warming in winter, Pale ales surpassed Stouts, Porters, Browns, as well as lager styles to become the flagship style of American craft brewing.

In the last 10 years or so, New England (and New York) breweries have stepped up with a sub variety, the "Hazy IPA" (also called New England IPA after having been developed at Stowe, Vt brewery, The Alchemist, and widely adopted in New England) which is now starting to be brewed by craft breweries countrywide. Possibly the most significant development in the style in recent years, and shifting the focus from the strongholds of the Rockies and PNW in terms of influence on Pale styles.

There has been a bit of a backlash for many years now against the utter domination of the Pale style, especially the IPA, due not only to its perceived overrepresentation by craft breweries, overshadowing other deserving styles, but due to the "inaccesibility" of the often very bitter brew by more casual beer drinkers and those who would appreciate the availability of a greater variety of styles since the IPAs are taking up a lot of shelf space in stores. However, any real affect of this backlash I have not seen on store shelves. Still way heavy on the IPAs in particular.

[leastprime]

I wouldn't be surprised to discover that 2020 Hop crop to be a bit smokey. I hope that most of the hops were harvested in August before the local PNW fires and smoke from CA.

IPA no flavor? Not here in the PNW if you buy a craft beer.

[Submariner]

The 'HomeBrewers of greater Bangor'

https://www.facebook.com/hbogb

Is a nice group of people. They usually meet every month. I try to attend 5 or 6 times a year.

They will attempt to brew anything.

[ABQConvict]

Originally Posted by leastprime

I wouldn't be surprised to discover that 2020 Hop crop to be a bit smokey. I hope that most of the hops were harvested in August before the local PNW fires and smoke from CA.

IPA no flavor? Not here in the PNW if you buy a craft beer.

There has been some effort to decentralize the hop crop since for much of the 20th century it has largely been grown within a couple hundred miles of the Yakina and Willamette Valleys in Washington and Oregon.

From the 19th through the early 20th centuries, most of the hops in the US were grown in New York until a blight devastated the crop causeing a huge shortage. Most dedicated hop farmers uprooted (heh) and headed to Oregon and Washington where the majority of US hops are grown today.

By spreading out the crop, we can hopefully weather disasters, blights, droughts, etc.

In recent years California, Nevada, New Mexico, and New York have really upped the acreage.

[Submariner]

A great many small organic farmers produce hops, in Maine.

[Matt Marcinkiewicz]

'Flavorless' and 'India Pale ale' do not belong in the same sentence. Your palate is skewed, sir--or perhaps you've contracted the Covid (hah).

[Serious Conversation]

It must be more of a regional thing, but that doesn't mean that Baxter, Allagash, Maine Beer Company, etc., don't do other great styles. Allagash Witte is well known nationally. Orono Brewing is always doing something.

[massnative71]

Originally Posted by Mark S.

Why do so many people like flavorless beer???

Originally Posted by Matt Marcinkiewicz

'Flavorless' and 'India Pale ale' do not belong in the same sentence. Your palate is skewed, sir--or perhaps you've contracted the Covid (hah).

I agree that with some of the lousier IPAs you taste the "bitter" and not much else. I think IPAs are what's popular in much of the country these days, and mostly what you'll find in your standard beer cases at a Hannaford or Circle K. Go to a place that specialized in beer like Hogan Road Deli in Bangor, you will find a more comprehensive selection.