Summary

Pastry stouts, craft beers designed to mimic dessert flavors, are gaining popularity in North Carolina and across the U.S. due to their nostalgic appeal, novelty, and as a means for craft breweries to attract customers amidst the challenges of the pandemic.

Abstract

The craft beer scene in North Carolina, with its over 340 breweries, is witnessing a surge in interest for pastry stouts—beers that taste like desserts, candies, and baked goods. This trend is part of a broader movement across the country, with notable brewers like Derek Gallanosa of Moksa and Jared Lewinski of Listermann Brewing contributing to the style's popularity. Pastry stouts are appreciated for their ability to evoke childhood memories and for their immediate appeal to consumers who may not be traditional beer aficionados. These high-alcohol, high-calorie beverages come in a variety of flavors, such as German chocolate cake and blueberry maple, and are seen as a way to innovate and bring customers back to breweries during the pandemic, as the shift to off-premise sales has impacted many small brewers who rely on taproom revenue.

Opinions

Randy Mosher from Beer & Brewing and Derek Gallanosa from Moksa believe that pastry stouts are enjoyable for their fun, nostalgic flavors that evoke childhood memories.
Jared Lewinski from Listermann Brewing suggests that younger drinkers are drawn to pastry stouts because they offer immediate gratification without the need for extensive beer knowledge.
Greg Engert of the Neighborhood Restaurant Group notes that craft breweries are expanding their appeal beyond hard-core beer drinkers, likely due to the pandemic's impact on the industry.
Bob Pease of the Brewers Association points out that most small brewers depend heavily on direct sales at their breweries, which have been affected by the pandemic.
Bart Watson, chief economist for the Brewers Association, expects brewers to continue focusing on innovative beers like pastry stouts to stand out and attract limited customers during these challenging times.

Ready to Drink Your Dessert?

Nostalgia, novelty and necessity drive demand for pastry stouts

Instead of a drink with dessert, some brewers recommend pastry stouts, which combine the flavors of both. Photo by Artem Beliaikin on Unsplash

My state of North Carolina is awash with beer.

With more than 340 breweries and brewpubs, it’s reportedly home to the largest number of craft breweries in the South.

My own little town at the base of the Blue Ridge Mountains has three breweries, all popular stops for hikers, climbers and campers on their way to or from the nearby Linville Gorge Wilderness area.

North Carolina is also a bastion of barbecue, so my beer consumption tends to run toward pairing an ice-cold brew with a pulled-pork sandwich.

If I want something sugary to wash it down, it’s going to be sweet tea or regional favorite, cherry flavored Cheerwine.

So, I was pretty puzzled by pastry stouts.

Interest in stouts that are crafted to taste like favorite desserts, candies and baked goods has been brewing for a while.

Even America’s newspaper-of-record, the New York Times, just gave them a nod, noting that the best brews, “deliver whimsy and delight, two words not typically associated with the past year.”

“They transport drinkers to a time when a great dessert could make your day.”

Beer & Brewing’s Randy Mosher similarly writes that “pastry stouts are fun and can be startlingly good when they work.”

“The thing that’s coolest about them is how they trigger childhood memories, often quite strikingly, and the emotion those loaded memories can bring,” he added.

Derek Gallanosa, head brewer at California brewery Moksa, is “widely considered to be one of the leading pastry stout brewers in the country,” according to Comstock’s Magazine.

He says that pastry stouts’ novelty — that they don’t taste like beer — is another reason for their popularity.

“They simulate dessert, which a lot more people are familiar with.”

No expertise necessary

And, you don’t need to be a connoisseur to enjoy them.

“I think especially for young drinkers, this new cohort, it’s like ‘Why do I have to sit here and be challenged? I want something that tastes good to me right now,’” Jared Lewinski, head brewer at Cincinnati, Ohio’s Listermann Brewing, told The Takeout.

“They don’t need to know the history and the ingredients. They just need to know it tastes like a cupcake.”

Pastry stouts pack quite a punch, with an alcohol content of 10 percent or more, lots of sugar, and calorie counts that can exceed 500 per serving.

There are certainly enough varieties to satisfy just about anyone’s sweet tooth.

Tacoma Washington’s Peaks and Pints, for example, offers pastry stouts in German chocolate cake, Mexican hot chocolate, and coconut macaroon flavors.

Washington, D.C.’s 3 Stars Brewing makes Mallratz, a stout crafted with cinnamon buns and cinnamon sugar pretzels.

And Michigan-based Saugatuck Brewing offers a blueberry maple stout designed to taste like “you crammed a fat stack of blueberry pancakes into a pint glass and smothered it with maple syrup.”

Because so many craft brewers are making them, Tavour, the country’s largest online craft beer retailer, recently added Pastry Stout and Imperial Pastry Stout categories, Bloomberg reported.

A pastry stout even showed up on Liquor.com’s list of 12 best stouts for 2021, and several made the list of the best stouts to drink this winter.

Bringing customers back to the brewery

Innovation is also driven by necessity for craft brewers eager to grab and hold patrons’ interest.

More than 90 percent of the country’s 8,300 breweries are smaller, independent outlets.

Greg Engert, the beer director and a managing partner of the Neighborhood Restaurant Group, told the New York Times that many craft breweries are aiming to reach beyond “hard-core beer drinkers.”

That’s likely because the coronavirus pandemic has not been a boon for everyone in the beer business.

As Daily Beast columnist Lew Bryson explained, there are two channels for beer sales.

The first is “on-premise,” sales made in taprooms, restaurants, concerts, sporting events and other popular venues that have been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.

The second is “off-premise,” sales made over the counter at liquor stores, grocery stores, convenience stores, and pharmacies for home consumption.

Sales at grocery stores have increased dramatically, rising to nearly 44 percent of U.S. alcohol sales. That’s the highest market share in five years, per Grocery Dive.

Unfortunately, surging store sales aren’t enough to offset lost sales on-premise, per The Daily Beast.

And, as Bob Pease, the president and CEO of the Brewers Association, told the Daily Beast, most small brewers get the majority of their revenue directly at their breweries.

As the industry grapples with ongoing challenges, Bart Watson, chief economist for the Brewers Association, expects demand for “what’s new and different” to remain strong.

“Brewers right now need more than ever to stand out and attract the limited customers willing to visit breweries, so, in the short-term, some may lean even more into beers that they think will garner attention,” he told Wine Enthusiast.

My interest was piqued, so I ambled on over to the taproom at local Catawba Brewing Co. to pick up some of their recently released candy bar stout.

At $18 for a four pack, a serving of the “drinkable dessert” was smooth, rich and no more expensive than many fancy baked confections.

Even better, it was a sweet way to support a local business.