Hip Hops_Sum19_Ed-final.qxp_Road Trip_Cinci.qxd 5/30/19 6:40 AM Page 34
LIQUIDS | HIP HOPS
BY ROGER BAYLOR PHOTO BY ANDY HYSLOP
When the subject of your passion makes the huge leap from obscure cult following to international phenomenon, it’s no longer enough to laze in a comfortably upholstered corner booth while reading the sports
New breweries
page and chasing chicken wings with a full-flavored robust porter.
continue to sprout,
Instead, the usual electronic outlets intrude upon the winter months with a
but amid a maturing
pressing question: What’s the biggest craft beer trend coming THIS year?
craft beer segment,
We mull the ever-shifting details. Will dry Brut IPAs supplant juicy New
more breweries
England IPAs among hopheads? Are kettle sours yielding to wood barrel
are closing than
souring? Can craft-brewed lagers make a dent in the hegemony of
ever before.
mass-market brands? Is 2019 the year when craft beer’s bubble finally bursts? No, probably not. The biggest craft beer trend as yet maintains its exalted status as a powerhouse, one still enjoying wide appeal despite its annual growth rate falling below double digits.
34 Summer 2019 www.foodanddine.com
There is some pushback, and befuddlement is understandable when confronted with an IHOPS Pumpkin Pancake Stout (yes, it’s real). But whether an individual favors this inspired concoction or dowdy Miller Lite, it cannot be debated that having a choice in beers is better than having none at all. In turn, with so many of us taking expanded choice for granted, perhaps we haven’t noticed the corollary: craft brew-
ing’s inexorable evolution from mom ‘n’ pop shop to buttoned-down boardroom. Glancing quickly at Google, there seem to be as many publications and web sites devoted to the business of beer as those documenting the pleasures in drinking it. The word “craft” itself seems misplaced, if not fatally compromised. How can millions of barrels of beer be “handcrafted,” anyway? Fortunately the brewery failure rate in