IPAs and the Lack of Choice in the Craft Beer Market
I have a confession to make. I don’t like IPAs. There are some that I’ve enjoyed, but generally the hoppy, and often fruity beer is not my thing. Which generally is fine, you don’t like something, buy/drink something else. Unfortunately, at least in the beer world, that is becoming more and more difficult to do so as one main type of beer, the IPA increasingly takes over a larger and larger percentage of the beer market. This oversaturation of the market by just one or two styles of beer is bad for the consumer and, I think, ultimately bad for the industry itself.
Everything has trends, from movies to slang to clothing. Some of these trends end up staying until they are simply part of the landscape – like skinny jeans – and some disappear after a while – like overalls. Food also has trends. Just think of avocado toast, which just started to appear on menus a couple years ago and is now ubiquitous.
But there is a difference between something being trendy and something overwhelming the industry until it pushes other things out. Then its not a trend, so much as a boulder squishing down everything else in its path. And that is what IPAs are doing, at least in the craft beer market.
Only a couple years ago, when I would visit a bar, they would have a solid variety of beers. There’d be a couple IPAs, a few stouts/porters, a saison, some light beers, and some maltier reds or browns. Now, it’s mostly IPAs with a stout or porter, and one or two light beers – usually including a sour. There may be a seasonal beer, or one or two other options, but overall, the choices have shrunk dramatically, making it clear that this is IPAs’ world, and we’re just living in it.
Compare this to the wine industry. Wine, like everything else, also has trends. The biggest one I’ve seen, comparable to the IPA boom, is the rise of rose wines. But if you look at a wine bar, they still have plenty of red and white wines. You can still get a big, buttery chardonnay even though they aren’t trendy anymore, along with the very trendy rose. Trends are accommodated without sacrificing consumer choice.
I often think of capitalism, and thus any given company or industry, as acting in feedback loop. A company produces something, and if enough people buy it, then they make more of it, which pushes more people to buy it – either because they like it or because of a lack of other options – which incentivizes a company to produce even more of that product… and so on. This is what is happening in the beer industry with IPAs and, to an extent, with sours.
In a way, it’s similar to how the mass-produced beers worked before the craft-brew explosion. Beer was, with a few exceptions, a light, cheap, mass-produced lager. It was by no means the only game in town, but it was definitely the main one, and so people bought the product not because of its quality, but because it was what was, by and large, available. It took years of emerging breweries and changing brewing culture before beer was no longer synonymous with the Budweisers of the world. The way the craft beer industry is going, IPAs will become the equivalent of the mass-produced lager, but for craft beer.
This path is not only bad for consumers, who have fewer options, but will ultimately harm the industry itself. People who don’t like IPAs, like me, will be frustrated by the lack of other options and buy less beer. I highly doubt that IPA fans, who would stick around regardless, will be enough to overcome the gradual bleeding of customers away from craft beer. And the craft IPA doesn’t even have price in its favor. Beers like PBR and Coors are cheap, it’s part of what makes them so popular and competitive. Because even if you don’t like them, there will still be a significant number of customers who shrug and go “eh, its cheap” and buy it anyway. But no one wants something they don’t particularly like and which is comparatively expensive. There’s just no upside.
Customers resent a lack of choice. We will still buy things, but will also be disgruntled doing it. And in this case, there is no reason to flush the goodwill of customers away. No one has to drink beer – there are plenty of other beverages to drink, alcoholic and not. The goodwill of the consumer is particularly important because they can leave the market entirely.
Breweries can make IPAs and other styles of beer at the same time, they have been doing so for decades. Bars and stores can have a variety of beer options, just as they have a variety of wine options. The IPA fans will not abandon beer because their preferred option, the IPA will still be there, and with plenty of choices. But the people who don’t like IPAs, people like me who want more variety and more choice, will be much happier.
