'Hazy' is the lager of craft beers

Expensive lager.

It needs to be said.

"Hazy" is the lager of craft beers.

Now, hear me out.

As my friends will tell you, I've been an annoyingly enthusiastic advocate for craft beers since I was fortunately introduced in my comments section to their existence by the gentlemen Stu McKinlay and the late lamented Neil Miller. Just as they promised, I was introduced to "a flavour explosion," to beer tasting of real hops, to the delightful bitterness of the hop balanced against the malt of the mash ...

Sorry, I just had to dash to the fridge.

So ... we did get what craft beer promised, and for two decades we've been rolling in it: we've had beer with dry hops, with wet hops, hopped beer with single hops, with blended hops ... and when it all comes together ...

Flavour!

Taste! 

Hops!

And now, after two decades of exploring the outer boundaries of flavour in a pint glass, we've been fobbed off instead with another bride—with a bland sickly sweetish concoction called a Hazy.

It's there left behind in your fridge after a party. It's there taking over every craft-beer bar, where beer with real flavour now struggles to be found among the ciders, alcoholic lemonades, and a welter of assorted Hazys. And it's all the 'craft beer' you'll ever get offered in those other excuses for a bar.

It's what happens to pioneering in every field: The tree breaks clear of the forest, and the fungus creeps out to reclaim it.

Hazy is a fungus.

An abomination.

It's the beer lager drinkers drink now there's less lager around to be found. "I'll have a Hazy," your friend says, who'd really prefer something ever closer to the sugar fields. But this is what he gets.

Why are they so popular: " Because, says a trendsetter's website, they are "less bitter and offer lovely sweetness that’s liked by everyone." Their "fruity, juicy profile is approachable even to non-beer drinkers." And they all taste the bloody same. So non-beer drinkers can drink them to feel included, even if what they really want is an ice cream. And real beer drinkers are elbowed out to somewhere less convivial.

But you're not paying lager prices to drink this dross. You're paying real money to drink slops.

You're paying good money to drink expensive lager, while good beer with real flavour is discarded out the back of the beer menu.

We need to rebel!

Bring back the flavour.

Bring back the hops!

Beer. Real beer.