Seasons Change Early in Craft Brewing’s War Against Boring Beer

They say that Labor Day weekend is summer’s last hurrah, and in places with four real, distinct seasons this may be true. In Los Angeles, however, summer sticks around. I can barely hear the Monday Night Football announcers over the drone of my air conditioner struggling to beat-back the day’s lingering 90-degree heat.

I’m not complaining; I love summer. But I can’t fool myself too much longer; the light is changing. Twilight deepens earlier with each passing day. Even in LA, summer is winding down.

Forced to face the first signs of fall’s inexorable approach, I reach into the beer fridge for a classic fall beer – a Hangar 24 Brewery Oktoberfest, and I hope it will help me cultivate an acceptance for autumn.

The beer has been sitting in the beer fridge since early August, waiting for summer’s dog days to pass. Pumpkin beers have been on store shelves for a month already, and – if the recent trend of ever-earlier seasonal beer releases is any indication – the appearance of winter brews can’t be far behind.

Sipping the rich lager, I wonder if I’m the only one who isn’t ready for the leaves to turn, the air to chill, and the beers to turn darker and spiced. Co-Founder and Chairman of the Boston Beer Company, Jim Koch, doesn’t share my feelings.

“In New England, we’re always looking forward to the next [season]. By the end of January, you’re kind of done with winter,” Koch told me in a recent phone interview. “I think it’s human nature to look forward to the next season.”

That impulse is partly why seasonal beers seem to hit store shelves earlier each year. Called “seasonal creep,” this phenomenon in craft beer is mirroring the back-to-school sales in July and the Christmas decorations going on sale in September, and it’s making a lot of beer drinkers take to social media to decry what they see as a growing threat to all that is true and authentic with beer culture. Here’s a blog post bemoaning the trend from 2009, and here are articles from the past few months from NBC News and The Washington Post.

While there is no denying that each season’s beers are hitting store shelves earlier than is ideal, Koch says instead of complaints, most customers he speaks to welcome the early arrivals.

“The majority of consumers are looking forward to new beers,” he said.

If one of the godfathers of the craft beer movement tells me that beer drinkers want their seasonal beers early, I’m certainly not going to argue with him. Koch knows the seasonal beer game better than just about anyone. Samuel Adams was one of the first craft breweries to have a yearlong seasonal rotation, and the brewery has seen seasonal beers become hugely popular with beer drinkers – they’re second only to IPAs as the most popular segment of the craft beer industry.

“I think for us this year, Oktoberfest is hitting stores about a week or two earlier than we would have liked because we ran out of Summer Ale faster,” Koch continued. “That’s the other piece of it: our beers will show up on the store shelves when the store runs out of the previous season.”

Not the reasoned attack on beer traditions that beer geeks often affirm, the root of seasonal creep is a combination of the logistical realities of nationwide distribution and a fierce competition for retail shelf space.

“Craft brewers don’t have the market clout that the big brewers have,” Koch explained. “The big brewers [and] their distributors will sweep the shelves. As a craft brewer… if you run out of one seasonal [and] you don’t have the next one to put on, [retailers] are going to change for something else.”

The big craft breweries with wide distribution footprints, such as Boston Beer, Sierra Nevada, and New Belgium Brewing, set trends in the industry, and they want their seasonal brews to be the first on the shelf to directly compete with “crafty” brands, such as Blue Moon and Shocktop – owned by the multinational brewing corporations known for their retail strategy of aggressively targeting shelf space.

The big regional craft breweries do much to advance craft beer and capture market share from the macro brewers, and their seasonal releases offer an attractive and approachable entry point to folks who are beginning to explore craft brewed options. If the price of craft beer’s increasing popularity is some releases from major craft brewers hitting stores a couple months earlier than what’s ideal, I say that’s an easy price to pay.

Beer geeks – the dedicated craft fans who are most often offended by seeing a summer ale on a store’s shelves months too early – are far better served by seeking out smaller, local craft breweries.

These brewers are closely tied to their environment and customers, and their beer is brewed to be more in tune with the local climate and the palates of the populace.

“Seasons mean different things to different parts of the country, particularly in California,” Koch said. “LA has seasons, and you feel them. Now, you come from Boston, and it doesn’t seem like [LA] has seasons at all. But you guys [in LA] are attuned to what are probably more subtle changes in the weather.”

LA’s lingering summers, balmy autumns, snowless winters, and perfect springs give local brewers ample inspiration to create brews that are a match for the region’s ambience; beers that might feel forced in other areas. Such is the case with two recent brews from one of LA’s largest craft breweries: Golden Road Brewing. In the face of a summer that dwindles even as the mercury rises, the brewers introduced two beers exclusive to their pub: a hoppy blonde ale and a light, crisp saison. Two sessionable brews perfect for enjoying the fading LA summer.

Another Southern California craft brewery that is closely in tune with the seasons is Redlands’ Hangar 24 Brewery. In addition to their four seasonally released brews, the brewers make beers that feature fresh, local produce throughout the year. Called the Local Fields Series, the revolving lineup of half a dozen beers follow seasonal harvests and feature things like citrus, sour cherries, and dates.

“I think our Local Fields Series is a perfect example of how Southern California, with its mild change between seasons, really is not on the same growth and harvest schedule as a more severe climate might be,” said Hangar 24’s Owner and Master Brewer Ben Cook. “Different produce is picked fresh throughout the year here, rather than everything coming in a fall harvest. Thus, we select different locally grown fruits to make a beer with while they are at their peak of freshness.”

Cook says this is a throwback to more traditional brewing cultures, where “different styles were brewed at different times of the year, or in different regions, to make the best possible beer for that time of year. It really is no different than how food is grown and consumed while fresh.”

Beer culture in America was too long dominated by commodity brewers selling more image than beverage, but the tides are shifting. Craft brewers are changing people’s opinions of beer, and the biggest craft breweries are using their seasonal releases as a tool to capture even more of the market.

Dedicated craft beer fans are quick to grouse about seasonal creep, but these are the beer drinkers who are better served by seeking out locally produced brews that better fit their region and climate anyways. There’s little sense in railing against the incoming tide of next season’s beers. Autumn is just beginning to grasp LA, and it won’t be long before the winter warmer beers from craft’s biggest breweries hit stores. But I know that LA’s local brewers will have some tasty, autumn-appropriate beers on tap when fall is in full swing, and that’s what I’ll be drinking.

John comes to us from the LA area, where he writes for the Los Angeles Times and his entertaining website, beeroftomorrow.com.