Craft beer is dead

Craft beer is officially dead. There is now only "good beer" and "shit beer".

Let's think back to what "craft beer" was when it first arrived as a mysterious buzzword. It was all about passionate people who wanted something different from the same four shitty lagers you'd see down your average local pub. It was people hand-bottling extravagant, overly-hoppy beers no-one had tasted before. It was people wax-sealing bottles and putting 110% in to how the presentation came across.

How can we still say that craft beer exists when someone of BrewDog's size (and repeated fuck ups) were still classed as a "microbrewery" (at least they were on Untappd as of a couple of months ago). How can we still say that craft beer exists when we see recipes continuously get watered down year after year to try and profit more - the very thing craft was supposed to stand up against from the macro elite.

I feel like I've also seen a shift in the landscape, especially since Covid hit and then the Cost of Living Crisis started decimating both breweries and hospitality venues. It's no fault of either to want to keep people employed and keep a fairly good product flowing off the lines, but how can you compete when governments are either corrupt, don't care about the industry, or even worse both at the same time?

We've also seen Beer Duty (at least in the UK) rip apart the DIPA & TIPA offerings we used to so famously see. Yes, you still get them, but everything feels more dull and slightly more boring (and less alcoholic, although probably a good thing) these days...

We've gone from North Bar hitting the scene in 1997 before craft beer was even a phrase, to the North brewery side struggle with cashflow and then subsequently be bought out, which at least, Kirkstall has saved yet another local brewery from vanishing. Times change, but this time it feels less exciting. As a side note I should probably say I was a part of the North Beer Club, which I've subsequently cancelled as I genuinely believe it has gone downhill. It may make a comeback, but when you push discounts in venues as one of the advantages, and then just make your discount code hard to find, by choice or not, that is quite ridiculous, especially in 2024. Surely get the simple things right first and the rest will continue falling into place.

We've also seen scandals. Yes, you get scandals in every industry, but then sometimes an industry gets too big for its boots (Macro anyone?). Scandals break trust. Scandals ruin the shine of an industry.

I don't see much passion left anymore. Whether everyone is just exhausted from the last half decade of ups and downs or not, or if it's just something bigger now. Are people just getting bored of beer? I doubt it. It's been around for far too long for that. I just don't think anything exciting is happening anymore.

Even sitting at this side as a blogger/media outlet (you may laugh but we do try), I have witnessed a recent "dulling" of the scene. I don't think it's just me, or is it? Maybe my lust for it all has changed, like a palate changes over time and appreciates different tastes.

On another note we've also tried to monetise what we do at this side several times, but let's face it, budgets are tight and venues don't want to pay for the extra promotion. It's cool, we get it, and it doesn't change us wanting to promote the scene, but at the same time it's also depressing when you're trying to help out the very venues you see struggling often. I can only take so much whining from various angles whilst also witnessing nothing being doine to fix the issue in any form. However as much as we do most of this for passion, we just can't do what we do on the same scale forever, for free. This is what gets businesses into trouble in the first place.

This scene has stood by us since we started doing this back in 2018 (as if it's been 6 years already...), but more recently it feels like the fun and life has all but been sucked away. We will never forget the free drinks as a thanks for constantly sharing your stories, or the beers delivered to us during lockdown from breweries trying to get established. The merch sent to us "just because". The events we've been so warmly invited to and all the people we've met along the way. However, on the other hand, we've also witnessed people take advantage of our good nature, or even just non-constructive criticism here and there towards some people just trying to help out. You can have an opinion all you want, but is it a valid opinion when it comes down to it?

Good beer, or as you all call it, "craft beer" is now just another business. Another industry. A way to make money. Will that affect quality? Yes. Is it necessarily a bad thing? Not at all. Why do I rarely check anything into Untappd anymore? Maybe it's because my time is limited these days, or maybe it's more because I've seen that same beer rebranded several times before and I can't be bothered to come up with an abstract rating for it.

Don't get me wrong, Leeds is lucky. Leeds still has some epic breweries (all of which we fully promote here). It seems the theory small over large-sized breweries still does ring true. I still see quality in that side. Can we attempt to keep it this way?

Maybe it's time to just call it a day? Either way, grab me a "good beer" and I'll help out where I can if quality and decency are still both involved... 🍻👌🏻