So there is no doubt that the craft beer and homebrewing scene has taken off in a big way. Sure there are some sour grapes over increased prices, and some that are preying on those new to the community, but it also means that an increase in availability of ingredients.
In general I really think this is great, and I am all for experimenting with new hops and certain additions.
However I do think that this can go a bit out of control. There are plenty of examples where the desire to almost reinvent the wheel (so to speak) almost becomes more of a mission, than just making a beer you want to drink again and again.
The "holy grail" is to make the same beer consistently again and again. This is the one achievement that the large commercial breweries manage to do on a large scale. Our ingredients are after all subject to seasonality, so they change over years, but unlike say wine, we do look for consistency.
So when I find local craft beer with both exotic, (or local for that matter) ingredients not natural for a beer, I cannot help thinking that they have taken it too far..
I can relate this to my own NE-IPA "Lilys Voodoo potion" It started out with an addition of fresh mango. I did quickly move to using different hops to create the flavours that I was looking for. It actually made it a lot easier to make a beer that was consistent between batches. The number of variables were less, and as a result I had more control on the final result.
So it is my humle opinion that instead of the cool and different ingredients, go back to basics, and focus on quality, and consistency. Neither really went out of style, whereas the funky, cool, unique, but not so great tasting beer quickly did..
