'Light, fizzy beers are losing popularity' - July 2006
Bet that headline got your attention, didn't it? Go ahead, indulge yourself and read it again. Feels good, right? It should, because if this declaration is to be taken at face value, it marks nothing less than a tidal shift in the battle between the flavourful ales and lagers of so many craft brewers around the world and the pallid brews of the mainstream. It means, in short, that if you're a fan of flavoursome beer, then your side is now winning.
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, according to Ron Beatson, a hop breeder at New Zealand's HortResearch, today's beer drinker is in search of bigger hop aromas and bolder flavours in their beer. To this end, says a story published at beveragedaily.com, Mr. Beaston and his team have been busily developing new strains of hops that will produce "tastier, richer beer."
Says Mr. Beatson: "Light, fizzy beers are losing popularity and we are seeing an increased demand for a broader number of styles such as dark beers, pale ales, and pilseners."
Leaving aside for a moment Mr. Beatson's unfortunate characterization of "dark beers" as a style, and the fact that those light, fizzy beers do still control the majority of the market, this is a remarkable declaration which, so far as I can tell, marks the first time a prominent industry insider has suggested that beer with significant flavour and aroma is replacing bland beer as the international mover. Regular World of Beer readers will have been of this mind for some time, of course, but for a such as statement to come from a scientist working for a company like HortResearch, which no doubt earns the bulk of its revenue from the big, international brewers rather than the little specialty operations, well, that's a major revelation.
Funded in part by the hops growers of New Zealand, the study would appear to be largely motivated by industrial self-interest, and therefore of less consequence than what I am attributing to it. But it's important to remember that, for all the lack of apparent hop flavour in many of their brands, companies like Anheuser-Busch, InBev and SABMiller buy considerably more hops than do any number of craft breweries put together, and so it is with these companies that the hop growers' self-interest really lies. Indeed, according to the beveragedaily.com story, HortResearch's initial results have already drawn the attention of no less than Anheuser-Busch.
What's more, this comes on the back of the opening of the new German Hops Museum in Wolnzach, part of the Hallertau hop growing region, and the development of that district as a base for agro-tourism centered around hops. Also just arrived is the news that specialty hops brokers HopUnion and Yakima Chief are merging into one entity designed to more efficiently provide specialty brewers with the intense and aromatic hops they crave, and according to Mr. Beatson, modern beer drinkers increasingly love.
Why, it's all enough to make a hop head's mouth water in anticipation!
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