Craft beer has gone stale: let’s hear it for age-old favourites

A report from Theguardian says Vladimir Nabokov prized simple tastes — “bacon and eggs, beer” — and argues that the so-called craft era has made beer anything but simple, with hazy dubble IPAs and triple brown mocha porters and IPAs that, in the hands of American craft brewers, have become aggressively hopped and often startlingly bitter and/or sour.

Theguardian notes the term “craft beer” was coined by the Brewers Association to mean “small, independent and traditional”, yet many early pioneers have been snapped up by multinationals and the American craft sector declined last year even as IPA tightened its grip.

The piece describes counter-trends: Beavertown Neck Oil appearing on draught at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, the enduring popularity of mass-produced Guinness with gen Z, and an observable uptick in people ordering lager amid complaints about the effects of IPAs on the middle-aged stomach.