Both Stone Brewing and Oskar Blues have gone back to their back catalog of beers and re-released beers that had not been on tap or cans for a while. And while the nostalgic part of me thinks that is a fun idea, I do wonder if the constant stream of new releases from breweries over the last few years will make this idea a non-starter when the hip breweries get to the same age as Stone and Oskar.
Because, you have to build a following for a beer. You can’t really do that if there were two new beers the previous week and another on the next week. It is the same long-term issue I have with pre-season seasonals that are off shelves before the season is over. You disconnect the beer from the time of the year that you are celebrating.
This is not an Old Man Yelling at Clouds post, if a brewery chooses a new, new, even more new path, that is absolutely fine. But that path means that you are bound to lose some nostalgia as well as a chance to have a flagship beer. You will create a new mindset in the customer who will open the door expecting a new beer on tap or in 4-packs.
Maybe the pendulum will swing back to core beers.