Category: Beer Industry

my occasional rants and raves about what is going on in the industry.

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California Craft Beer and the Law

There were some interesting positions taken (I know, That’s What She Said) in a recent blog post on the BrewBound site pertaining to laws and craft beer.’

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Tom McCormick, the executive director of the California Craft Brewers Association was asked a few questions about laws and possible laws being considered and where the CCBA stands on them.

First up is Assembly Bill 2004 which would allow brewers to sell their beer at local farmers’ markets if the bill passes. This is something that I have seen very sporadically but that I think might me a good fit if done right.  If nothing else, the opportunity should be allowed.  This could be a ripe opportunity for a brewery to connect with it’s community and collaborate with farmers who could provide future ingredients.  There are also many roadblocks that I foresee.  Police or extra security might be involved and the area might need to be roped off to keep the kids out but these could be creatively surmounted.

According to BrewBound, “The bill maintains some restrictions for beer makers, however. Breweries will only be able to sell at farmers markets in their own or adjacent counties. Nevertheless, said McCormick, it would level the playing field with wineries, which have been legally selling products at the markets for many years.”

Next on the docket is Assembly Bill 2010.  This tackles the duplicate permit issue.  This allows a beer company warehousing and retailing privileges minus beer making.  Right now, you can duplicate to your hearts content.  But this bill puts a cap of six on the practice.  I don’t know where 6 became the perfect number.  Why not 10 or 11 1/2?  I think that stymies growth to an extent so I disagree with the CCBA’s stance that it is OK.  Just because one or more breweries may be growing more quickly doesn’t mean that others won’t in the future or that one brewery will eventually own California.  I think we are way past that at this point.

For those few who follow this blog who are interested in the intersection of craft beer and the law, I would love to hear your thoughts.

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BrewAge

If you can’t get enough of beer videos on YouTube, then I have another channel for you to view….Brew Age

It is a unique set of videos covering California and Oregon and other topics like homebrewing and robots!  ROBOTS!  OK, that may be too excited but the videos are well done and most are short so you can watch a few without losing a whole afternoon.  The wet hop video with Social Kitchen is another good one to check out.

Thanks to K for tipping me off about this channel.

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BrewDog Fund

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The BrewDogs are at it again.  But this time it isn’t a beer made with the bacon and bike power.  Not.  It is EMpowering new breweries to succeed.  Here is the lowdown from the “lowdown” section of their website…..

“Our mission has always been to make other people as passionate about great craft beer as we are. Not just BrewDog beer, but all great craft beer. More people brewing, serving and drinking craft beer from a range of killer breweries can only be a good thing, and that is what we try to achieve across our entire business from our brewery to our bars and our bottle shops.

With this overarching ambition in mind, we are delighted to announce the new BrewDog Development Fund. This fund will see us allocate up to £100,000 of our profits each year as well as loads of our time to help other new craft breweries start up and get established. It was only seven years ago that Martin and myself (James) set up BrewDog with some second hand tanks, a small bank loan and a big mission, and now we want to encourage others to do the same.

As well as providing capital to our new BrewDog Development Fund partners, we will also help them grow by:

·       Showcasing their beers in our bars both domestically and internationally

·       Providing advice and ongoing support (we know a little bit about growing a brewery)

·       Helping with the sourcing of ingredients and brewing materials

·       Assisting with equipment purchases

·       Offering access to our state of the art laboratory for beer analysis

·       Helping them grow sales by introducing them to our international sales network

As part of this initiative we are insanely excited to announce that our first two official partners in the BrewDog Development Fund are the phenomenal Brew by Numbers brewery based in London and CAP,  based in Stockholm, Sweden.”

This is a logical extension of what craft breweries are already doing.   Whether it is giving free advice, helping out with supplies or letting people brew with their equipment and it is one of the reasons why I am still jazzed about this business after 5+ years of writing about it.

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MyBrewBarrel

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One of the American dreams is to make things as good, just faster.  FASTER! But this brewing product is not from here.  It’s from Germany.

BrewBarrel wants to be the “easiest and fastest way to brew beer at home.” According to the literature (e-mail lit), “you can create your own beer out of over 30,000 varieties and then brew your customized beer at home in only one week.”

They have just started their Kickstarter campaign in order to take Brewbarrel to the US.

Check out the video.  Do you think it would generate more interest in home brewing?  Would it be a good introductory product for home brew shops to market as the step before all-grain brewing?

I do love the orange in the graphic though.

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No Reason Not to be in Denver

Unless you are me, and think it is better to go Denver for the Great American Beer Festival every three to four years.  But for brewers, it can be invaluable which is why last year’s overflow situation sucked, to be perfectly frank.

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News from the excellent Brewbound site explains that this year will be different: “The Brewers Association (BA) has streamlined the registration process for this year’s Great American Beer Festival (GABF) in hopes of avoiding a repeat of a debacle that made securing a spot at the event difficult in 2013.

Last year, brewers flooded the BA’s servers in an attempt to register, which resulted in the festival selling out in half an hour. As such, not all beer companies were able to sign up. Additional “technical problem[s]” with Ticketmaster, which the BA contracts for general public and member ticket sales, “had a negative impact” on some members, as outlined in an apology issued by the BA at the time.

……to ensure that brewers aren’t excluded from participating, the organization said it plans to accept every applicant wishing to submit products for judging — unless more than 1,400 companies apply.

But while the amount of breweries able to participate in the medal competition has increased, the number of beers a company can enter for judging has not. That number will depend upon the total number of brewers competing, the BA said.”

It won’t make the medal ceremony any shorter but hopefully those who want to go will get the chance and those who don’t want to will also learn that it might be better to step aside.

 

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New(Port)

Port Brewing Co.  “will change up its original branding of a “port hole” and “pint glass”, to a recognizable icon seen on beaches worldwide, the flip-flop.”

And that branding change will encompass the label designs and the newly refurbished website with the Port motto, “Laid Back but Hop Forward™.”

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“We’ve been using the Flip-Flop tap handles to brand our draft beer for the past 7 years” said Tomme Arthur Director of Brewery Operations for Port Brewing. “Adding these icons to everything from our new website all the way down to our bottle caps makes perfect sense.”

Agreed.  I wasn’t a huge fan of the artwork on some of the bottles and I think a unified image will be better in the long run both artistically and commercially.

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Marketing the Craft

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I heard about Craft Marketing from a post on Beervana.  I am actually surprised that there aren’t more niche marketers out there in the craft beer field.

Now their website seems a bit vague and acronym’y.  With terms like Crowded Digital Landscape and ROI to digest.  And you wouldn’t know of the beer focus from most of the pages until you get to their blog which has some interesting posts about marketing beer on social media.

It is a fascinating section of the conversation between the breweries and their fans.  And one that I would like to learn more of.

 

 

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Ghost Breweries

Yes, I am a fan of brewery history. Even the 30+ year history of the current craft beer revolution is fascinating.

And this project talks history. Including Olympia that I just posted about. And it not only talks about the last but the future as well which is almost as important.

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What Day is It?

Every get a beer that just tastes old?  I have.  And it always makes me look for a born on date or a best buy date and then I kick myself for not looking before I bought it.

Well to help remedy this situation, there is a website called BeerDates.com.

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Now they only have a minor amount of California breweries but you can use that to extrapolate out and make a better guess on some of the more esoteric labels to get a better freshness handle.

Some breweries like Eagle Rock and Sierra Nevada have added better/clearer information but more need to do so.