The culture around beer shifted from cheap low alcohol content drinks with little variation, to more expensive high alcohol content drinks with a ton of variation. Then, as with anything that hits a “trend”, the market tries to capitalize on it beyond what demand actually cares to express, and prices go so far through the roof that nobody gives a shit anymore.
Nobody that was already drinking cares about the health issues (or at least they didn’t just suddenly change out of the blue). They just got a taste for something that gradually got priced out. If you got your taste for beers on fancy 10%ABV stouts that now cost $7 a can/bottle, you aren’t going to just buy whatever is now in your price range. You just stop buying beer, and get other shit.
15 is affordable by me. Highest I’ve seen is $33 for a 4 pack. Might as well just go out to a bar at that point.
Some of them feel like they are almost worth the expense. Founders makes some amazing beer of all varieties, and the Goose Island Bourbon County stouts are all phenomenal… But then there’s shit like Southern Tier trying to sell yet another stupid twist on a flavor nobody has ever done for $5 more than last year’s variety. It’s just pointless to engage in it now. Better off enjoying cheap wine.