Craft Beer Trends for 2017
Pop the champagne it's time for 2017! The year ahead is lush with new ideas for the craft beer world. Ready to try your hand at some unique new flavor profiles, or find out where beer bottling is trending? Sidle up and lend us an ear, we've got some of your craft beer trends for 2017!
Oh baby. IPA's have got a brand new bag. Juicy IPAs have thrown off the mantle of the palate-punching bitter taste profiles of the past and are now moving to a pillowy, fruity, tropical vibe. "Juicy" hop varieties like Mandarina Bavaria, Zeus and Mosaic give these hazy, sunset-orange IPAs their new, softer flavors. Some breweries are even trying their hand at adding actual juice to their brew. Samuel Adam's new "Rebel Juiced" features straight up mango juice!
- Hot Heat
The chili beer
has a checkered past but we're hoping this trend brings it to a new, tasty
level. While chili beers have often been relegated to homebrewers chucking hot
peppers into their recipes, these new recipes incorporate heat into a variety
of brews. Think spicy, chocolatey stouts to create a mole-like effect or cream
ales flavored with jalapenos.
- Growler goes Crowler
Meet your new
growler: the crowler. The growler we know and love has gone can. These 32-ounce
monster cans first introduced by Ball Canning and Oskar Blues are starting to
replace the traditional brown glass growler.
What's their appeal? Breweries love them because they don't have to deal with unwashed glass growlers or customers who complain their beer went flat. Customers love them for basically the same reasons. Buy a crowler at your local brewery, they fill it and seal it right there. There's no risk of beer gone bad if you can't drink it in the next five days.
- Sweet Sour
We love this
cool trend (or shall we say sour trend?). Breweries are now adding yummy Lactobacillus
bacteria to their cooled wort before it gets boiled and fermented to produce
sours. What are Lactobacillus bacteria? Look no further than that tub of yogurt
in the fridge. This gut-friendly bacterium causes what's called 'kettle
souring', and is a quicker, easier and safer way to making sours than
introducing wild yeast strains. Currently, there are very few year-round sours
available on the shelves but we're thinking that's going
to change soon.
