Does it seem to anyone else like the craft beer thing has peaked already and is maybe on a slight decline? Richmond has seen several craft breweries close, and hardly any new ones have opened. I feel like the problem continues to be the distributors, who favor the bigger players like Devil’s Backbone (owned by Anheiser-Busch) and the various breweries owned by Boston Beer Company. Smaller operations are left to struggle to do their own distributing or rely solely on sales at their taphouse locations. I think there was a bill in the VA legislature not long ago that would’ve cleared away regulator hurdles for the smaller operations, but that bill didn’t go anywhere.
Yeah! Here are my thoughts on that. The effects of the gluten free health fad are complex. Some people credit it with increasing the availability of gluten free brands and products in stores. The variety of products labeled gluten free or certified gluten free has definitely increased over the past several years and I can’t imagine they’re all intended for people with diagnosed Celiac, who make up less than 1% of the population. They’re generally safe for Celiac and the quality has gone up a lot on average as well. It probably increased the number of restaurants offering a GF menu, but that’s more questionable - other than dedicated GF restaurants, which exist but are still rare, a lot of restaurants don’t get it quite right, so that doesn’t really help. Another angle is that non-celiac gluten intolerance has emerged as an issue that possibly up to 5% of people experience, but medical science hasn’t quite sussed it out yet.
The ‘backlash’ is something I never thought I’d have to deal with regarding a disease, and that’s partially understandable due to how ridiculous some people were about eating GF for health (things that annoyed restaurant workers like making a big deal about GF pasta and then ordering a beer with it). However, I believe that people should be able to eat however they want without judgement from other people - if someone wants to avoid gluten, so what? The trend got a strange cultural aspect where it was associated with hipsters or yuppies from the coasts, basically US liberals (as in Democratic party), so it took on quasi-political vibes. The negative attitudes are much like what some people have regarding vegetarians or vegans. People act like it’s snooty, like they think about vegetarians (“they think they’re better than us! Too good for our food!”), or some sort of affectation. And then, a lot of people - even some doctors and nurses - believe that Celiac is ‘fake’, or can be cured, or doesn’t exist at all, and they act like people with Celiac are anxious or deluded, which is ridiculous. A lot of people confuse legit Celiac with non-celiac gluten intolerance, which is more like lactose intolerance - it can be very uncomfortable but it isn’t an autoimmune disease.
I looked into brewing my own beer partially because I wanted non-alcoholic gluten free beer, which is quite a niche. Overall I decided that beer was more complicated than I was willing to deal with at the time. I did get some simple brewing kits and made a few ciders/wines, basically prison hooch style, and that was fun though they were hardly amazingly flavorful.