NYT Opinion & GABF Highlights

So Many Beers, So Little Time

by Chauncey B, the So Cal Craft Beer Blogger

Last week a friend (and SCCBB reader) sent a link to a New York Times guest Opinion essay, “Wacky Labels and Silly Names are Killing Craft Beer.” The essay, by former Wall Street Journal reporter Mark Robichaux, makes some valid points, though the headline is terrible.

I teach business writing at the University of Southern California, and Mr. Robichaux’s opening paragraph does exactly what I tell my students to do — grabs my attention and impresses me to keep me reading . Robichaux instantly evokes a parallel memory. “From that first stolen sip of my father’s Schlitz…” Yeah, that’s where I started, too.

Then Robichaux waxes philosophical in a way that resonated with me: “Beer has always been more than a drink. It’s a reward. A ritual. A refuge. But even I can admit: Beer has a problem.”

Citing a December 2023 article from NBC News, Robichaux reports that beer consumption fell to its lowest level in decades. He cites demographic issues (fewer younger drinkers) and problems with its image as a “carb-heavy relic for dads and dullards.” He also claims that the drinking rate among Americans is at its lowest since the 1930s, according to an August 2025 Gallup pole.

More alarming, perhaps, is Robichaux’s reporting that, “according to the Brewers Association, craft beer sales fell 4 percent last year,” and that, “for the first time in two decades, more breweries closed than opened.”

Among Robichaux’s targets are the higher alcohol double, triple, hazy, juicy, and dank India Pale Ales (IPAs). “Beer isn’t bourbon,” Robichaux complains, “You don’t swirl it in a snifter and reflect on your childhood. You drink a few, with friends, and it’s supposed to refresh, not knock you out.”

It was at this point in the essay that I reflected on my own current tastes and predilections. I’m much more interested in drinking lower alcohol, well-crafted Mexican lagers, Pilsners, Kolsches, ambers, and stouts, paired with delicious food.

I’m eating far fewer desserts than in my callow youth and I gave up colas and other sugary sodas years ago. So, often when I sip the latest “gotta have it” hazy, it just tastes so over-the-top sweet that it makes my teeth ache and wipes out half the taste buds in my palate. And then I wonder if I’m going to have to call someone to give me a lift home.

But that’s just me. I wholeheartedly support people drinking beer that they like. And if it’s a bourbon-barrel-aged quadruple hazy stout, sour, or “other strong beer,” more power to you.

Robichaux goes on to have some fun with absurd beer names and graphic design, which don’t really bother me as much as they bother him. He then closes his essay affirming that beer should be “the drink of moderation, laughter, and second rounds.” It’s a point of view.

I would argue that there all kinds of ways to drink the myriad styles, brands, and versions of beer out there (see below) in moderation, definitely with laughter, and quite often with second rounds, or at the very least, tasters. Reminds me of a tee-shirt I saw once (or twice): “So many beers, so little time!”

One last pair of thoughts: the number of breweries closing versus those opening is strictly a function of the marketplace, not an indication of craft beer’s demise or lack of popularity. And sales might be falling because of an uptick in craft ciders and hard seltzers and even a resurgence of interest in cocktails on the part of the youth demographic.

And if we were talking about cars as opposed to craft beer, would you say that certain connoisseurs’ predilection for Rolls-Royce La Rose Noire Droptails ($32M), Bugatti La Voiture Noires ($18.7M), or Pagani Zonda HP Barchettas ($17.5M) is threatening the Average Joe or Josephine’s enjoyment of his Subaru Crosstrek or her Ram 1500 pickup truck? Apples and oranges, if you ask me.

What’s your take on this? Please comment, either by using the comment feature (which doesn’t work the way I’d like it to) or by emailing us at socalcraftbeer@gmail.com.

Great American Beer Festival 2025

It’s great to peruse the list of GABF winners every year to see which breweries that we’ve covered have won awards, and which SoCal breweries that we HAVEN’T yet covered have taken home bronze, silver, or gold. Both Lawless in North Hollywood and Los Molinos in San Clemente are in this latter category, and are begging for a visit.

Judges at GABF evaluate 108 styles of beer, many with multiple sub-categories. You’ve probably heard of a lot of them. But have you heard of Smoke Beer (Style 36, with six sub-categories, such as “Other Smoke Beer” and “Bamberg-Style Helles Rauchbier”) or “Swedish-Style Gotlandsdricke” in the Historical Beer category (Style 23, with eight sub-categories)? Neither have I.

The average beers entered in each category is 71. The Top Five most-entered beer style categories are:

• Category 107: Juicy or Hazy India Pale Ale (301 entries)
  • Ventura’s MadeWest Brewing took a Silver in this category
• Category 105: West Coast India Pale Ale (300 entries)
  • San Clemente’s Los Molinos Beer Company took Silver in this category
    Note to self: time for a road trip to San Clemente
• Category 51: Dortmund or German-Style Oktoberfest (186 entries)
• Category 47: German-Style Pilsener (184 entries)
• Category 45: Hoppy Lager (171 entries)
  • Ventura’s MadeWest Brewing took a Bronze in this category

The most-medaled breweries include:

• Fat Head’s Brewery, Middleburg Heights, OH (2 golds, 1 silver, 2 bronze)
• UPP Liquids, Bend, OR (2 golds, 2 silvers, 1 bronze)
• Westbound and Down Brewing Company–Westbound Mill, Lafayette, CO (2 golds, 2 silvers, 1 bronze)

Here’s a LINK to ALL THIS YEAR’S WINNERS

And here’s a LINK TO ALL WINNERS IN CALIFORNIA. In this category, it’s nice to see some of our favorite SoCal breweries, like Radiant, ISM (scroll down to “March” on this link), Green Cheek, North Park, and Claremont.

I was delighted to see that San Fernando Brewing’s O’Melveny Red Ale took Gold in the “Other Strong Beer” category. I just enjoyed a pint of O’Melveny with Eleanor and Boss Beer Blogger 93 KHJ at Truman Tavern in San Fernando a couple of weeks ago.

O’Melveny & Myers is one of the oldest law firms in Los Angeles. The beer is named after O’Melveny Park in the San Fernando Valley.

The park is named after Henry W. O’Melveny, founder of the law firm, and also in 1927 one of the original members of the California State Parks Commission. As a side note, I once worked with some archivists and alumni historians at Polytechnic School (founded in 1907) in Pasadena, CA. They had a running joke about the “six degrees of O’Melveny,” which I think about every time I sip this beer.

Another GABF surprise comes from a brewery we visited with BeachRock Bill many moons ago, on the Hop Highway in San Diego: BattleMage Brewing snagged a Silver for their “Summon Ifrit” in the American Amber/ Red Ale category.

Cheers! Until next time,

— Chauncey B, aka the So Cal Craft Beer Blogger

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