American Craft Beer Gets Weird

American Craft Beer Gets Weird

By now, you've probably noticed that craft beer is tapping into the mainstream market. Beer gardens and bars aimed at highlighting craft beers are on the rise, but chain businesses are also making an effort to stock brews made more locally, which means Americans are indulging in craft brews at home and at their favorite Friday night spot. As if friends needed more reason to get together over a pint, some apps transform trying new beers into a competition. Untappd, for example, allows users to log beers as they try them, awarding different badges for types of beers or number of beers tried.

With hundreds of beer styles defined by the Brewers Association and thousands of breweries in the United States, these apps also help beer enthusiasts keep track of which beers they've already tried and which ones they liked best. The rapid craft brewery growth has sparked conversations about the market's saturation,1 and although craft brewers show no signs of slowing down, the populated market does make it harder to stand out.

Some breweries are banking on visual appeal by rebranding2 their merchandise with updated logos and redesigned bottles and cans, but others are pouring their creativity into new brews. Sometimes, that means craft beer gets weird.

Barley, Beards, and Brains

Beer is made with four basic ingredients: cereal grains, hops, water, and yeast. Barley is the traditional cereal grain used in beer, but other types, like sorghum and rice, can be substituted. Beer without barley might seem strange, but using an alternative cereal grain, or extracting the gluten from barley, is done to create gluten-free beer.3 This makes the beverage accessible to those with Celiac disease or gluten intolerance, but most weird beer isn't made to account for dietary restrictions.

Rogue Ales of Ashland, Ore., offers dessert-esque brews through a collaboration4 with famous doughnut shop neighbor Voodoo Doughnut, but the brewery first made headlines with its Beard Beer,5 which is brewed with yeast collected from the Brewmaster's beard. Beard Beer won gold at the 2015 World Beer Championships and is one of the few weird beers brewed as a constant offering, instead of a limited edition beer. If beard yeast sounds unappealing, it's actually tame compared to some of the other ingredients breweries have used.

To celebrate The Walking Dead, the Dock Street Brewing Co. of Philadelphia crafted its Walker6 beer with brains – well, roasted goat brains. In keeping with the animal theme, Right Brain Brewery of Traverse City, Mich., debuted the Mangalitsa Pig Porter7 in 2016, which takes bacon beer to the next level by using the rest of the pig. On the vegetarian side of beer, an avocado beer from Angel City Brewery8 in Los Angeles might be particularly appealing for guacamole enthusiasts.

Weird beer has also been inspired by aquatic ingredients, with a handful of breweries producing oyster stouts.9 3 Sheeps Brewing of Sheboygan, Wisc., used real squid ink10 for its small batch of Nimble Lips, Noble Tongue Vol. 3, while Marshall Wharf Brewing Co.'s Sea Belt Scotch Ale11 uses seaweed, a hook for a brewery near the Atlantic coast in Maine.

Resources

  1. Stop Panicking: The US Hasn't Reached Peak Craft Beer. VICE. Accessed May 2022.
  2. Craft-Beer Branding Wars: 10 Breweries That Have Stepped Up Their Packaging Game. First We Feast. Accessed May 2022.
  3. 12 Gluten-Free Beers That Actually Taste Good. Bon Appétit. Accessed May 2022.
  4. How Rogue Voodoo Doughnut Ale Went From Troll Beer to Sensation. Inside Hook. Accessed May 2022.
  5. Brewmaster Makes Beer From His Beard Yeast. Smithsonian Magazine. Accessed May 2022.
  6. A Microbrewery Just Made A 'Walking Dead'-Inspired Beer With Real Brains. Insider. Accessed May 2022.
  7. Mangalitsa Pig Porter. Right Brain Brewery. Accessed May 2022.
  8. Guacamole in your beer? It’s time for Angel City Brewery’s Avocado Fest. Los Angeles Times. Accessed May 2022.
  9. Getting To Know Oyster Stout, A Beer Made With Oysters. Food Republic. Accessed May 2022.
  10. 3 Sheeps Brewing Company tries something completely different with squid ink in beer. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Accessed May 2022.
  11. Craft Beer Reaches New Depths As Mainers Brew A Batch From Seaweed. NPR The Salt. Accessed May 2022.