For our 129th Session, our host will be Eoghan Walsh, who writes Brussels Beer City. For his topic, he’s asking “what beer style would you like to see being brewed in your local market that is not yet being brewed?” and has titled his topic Missing Local Beer Styles.
Here’s a fuller explanation:
In 2017 it might seem odd to think that there are beer styles missing from our local markets. We seem to be living in an era of almost ubiquitous choice – where almost every style of beer is available to us either in bars or online, and where new styles quickly break out from their local markets to be brewed by craft or independent breweries around the world. Often though, this choice feels like one between an IPA, a session IPA, a double IPA, a NEIPA, a black IPA (although, really?), West Coast IPA, fruited IPA, etc.
You get the picture.
Local means local
And outside of large metropolitan areas, areas with a large craft beer culture, or regions without recourse to online shopping the spread of different or new styles can remain limited. That’s not even to mention the local or regional styles that disappeared in the last 50 years. And that’s why the theme of this month is styles missing from your local brewing scene’s canon. And you can take local as a relative concept, depending on your context – your town or municipality, county, region, even country if you really are isolated. And local also means brewed locally, not just available locally. Essentially: what beer style would you like to see being brewed in your local market that is not yet being brewed? Simple enough question.
Eoghan then suggests some themes you could consider:
- The “Dodo” – a local or regional style that has died out and not yet experienced the same revival of the likes of London Porter or Göse.
- The “One-hit Wonder” – that one one-off or limited-run style from a local brewery that was never made again, to your eternal dissatisfaction
- The “I used to be cool once” – a style that burst through in the first flushes of the “craft beer” revolution, but which has since died a death, albeit one now much-lamented
- The “Phoenix” – narrowing your focus from the style to a specific exemplar of said style, that is no longer in production, from a particular brewery – think of the birth-death-rebirth cycle of a Thomas Hardy’s Ale for example.
- The “Contrarian” – you could always take the contrarian approach, and call out a style being produced locally that you’d really rather not see again. Ever.
So what local beer styles do you think are missing from where you live? There’s a lot out there, so I imagine it’s hard to know what’s not there. But have a drink, and start thinking about what’s not in your glass, but should be. Simply leave a comment at the original announcement and leave the URL to your post there.
