Category: Opinion

my humble and correct opinion

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3 Chief Countdown

If you get an article about your business in the L.A. Times it requires a certain level of hype. (Hype being both good and bad usually at the same time.) But that hype does eventually lead to a familiar path.

Three Chiefs is under the radar now but this ARTICLE will more than likely lead to more demand for an already under supplied product. This will more than likely lead to producing more at the same high price. Then, once the customer starts to get sticker shock which comes harder and faster when the bottles can actually be bought, the demand will fall.

Maybe not a lot but the price will be lowered to regain the sales traction or more will be produced at a lower price to gain a wider sales swath.

Nostradamus, I am not but I have seen this happen a few times already.

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Show Pride

It is easy to get dragged down into the muck and start Twittering to and about breweries when they name a beer something offensive (light or full on, doesn’t matter), but I thought instead of just thumbs up emoji-ing the above image, that I wanted to say how cool this is. How many tourists are going to get their photo in front of the most iconic brewery gate? Plus it ties in with sports which has its own issues to work on when it comes to inclusivity and masculinity so it works on two levels.

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The Firkin for May 2019

It is not going to be hard for me. I am boycotting beer from Alabama, Georgia and Missouri and any other state where old white dudes legislate women’s bodies.

It is not going to be hard for me to not write about beers from those states. And I am certainly striking those states off the list to visit until the laws are reset.

It is not going to be hard for me to donate a little to groups that are fighting to let people make their own GD health choices. It will not be going to beer purchases from those backward states. Sorry Boulevard.

It is not going to be hard for me at all because I am a straight white man. I can skate through life without dealing with this shit. But I would gladly change that to give some of these sexist assholes a taste of the pain that they cause.

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A.B. 860

I do not envy the people at the CCBA who have to read through the muck of legislative bills and even in California there are those who seem willing to slide bills in that benefit the big corporations over our plucky little band of independent brewers.

Head over to this PAGE to see what is afoot in regards to the brewer and retailer relationship. If you are the kind that calls their local politicians, then you might want to raise your voice here.

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New Model – Customers

Cast your mind back to when you were 21.  How many breweries were there when you hit that newly minted beer drinking age?  For me, it was a whopping 312.  My range of choice was also probably much, much smaller than that so I probably drank more of the same beers or more from the same breweries just due to lack of options.  I don’t remember and no Untappd back then to lean on for historical reference.

My oldest nephew turns 21 in 2021.  By then, there may well be over 10,000 breweries with much, much wider distribution.  How will he make a decision when faced with a bazillion tap and packaged options?  How many bars with over 20 taps were around when you started your beer journey compared to now. 

That is the new model of entry level consumer education that needs to be understood.  Flagships, as lovely as they are, simply cannot hold the same level of attention.  We have trained bars to rotate beers and rotate them hard and often.  We have trained breweries to focus on special releases and multi variants.  How does a new beer drinker navigate that?  

Then factor in the cost.  Will my nephew be able to plunk down $25 for 4 cans?  I am priced out of a lot of stuff right now.  I have to pick and choose and try to find single cans and bottles to keep up a variety and I am in no way close to keeping up with the beer Joneses.

Breweries are going to have to go after some of these youngsters and give them a reason to pick up a beer.  Whether that is through better signage at their taproom to point newcomers to start with a certain beer or to use simple flavor descriptors in the manner of Modern Times with their 3 adjective branding on their cans or some other novel concept to quickly message what the beer will be like.

You can’t expect customers to be of the same mindset and you can’t say that millennials are not drinking beer and just shrug your shoulders as if being a different generation is the only answer.  We all need to put ourselves in other peoples shoes.

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Fancy Design

Can design has come both a long way and in some instances devolved into IP copycats. And writer Joshua Bernstein has quantified a list of his personal best designs. To his credit, Brouwerij West is on the list for their Falling Water IPA.

Now, I will take the this list and pick my best, worst and almost there…(from left to right in the graphic below)

The Alvarado Street design mixes the font, design and name to great effect. It is also of a style that makes you lean in and look at it. The middle design is just flat out lazy to me. The font is as close to generic as possible and it just screams done in a few minutes. The final “close” one is a good idea but the art just doesn’t do it for me. This could be a fun series with different people in each box, heck even employees of the brewery might be fun choices too.

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SamDog

Just when you thought it was over, the shuffling begins anew.  This time biggest of the craft beer guys (since the Brewers Association keeps raising the cap), Samuel Adams is merging with Dogfish Head.

You can read about the dollar amounts and the shares owned by whom on other sites and you can head to Twitter for the semi-comedic hot takes but I want to focus on questions I have for the combined brewing group in the future.

First, the aforementioned cap raising will need to be raised once again, maybe not this year but even with the smaller amount that Dogfish produces they will more than likely be pushing up to the line sooner rather than later.  If the Brewers Association was loathe to kick Boston Beer out of the club, they sure as heck ain’t gonna kick out Boston Beer and beloved icon Sam Calagione in one fell swoop.  Each time Boston Beer is snuck in it seems to raise more consternation amongst the members about what and who the Brewers Association stands for, expect it to be a thorny issue again.  It probably won’t lead to a rival band of brewers in their own group but you might see an internal split with larger members on one side and smaller in their own group.

The next agenda item is what the mixing of the companies will be.  Operated separately just under the same umbrella?  Sharing some resources but brewing kept separate?  Boston Beer is tilted to the non-beer side just a skosh in recent years with ciders and seltzers and hard this and hard that.  How does that affect the brewing philosophy in Rehoboth Beach?  The slightest deviations are going to be analyzed by beer fandom.

How does this affect the future of Jim Koch and the Calagiones and how will that affect the street cred of both?  More interestingly, what happens when both retire off to a remote island, what do the two brands stand for then?  It is not bad to have a CEO from another beverage company in charge but who is the totem for fans to latch onto when the names on the back of jersey change?

I am sure that this merger will be a topic of conversation and re-evaluation for years to come.

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Ariana & Moutere

From time to time, I try to keep the beer loving public up to date with new up to date regarding new hops that you might be seeing in beers in the future. Two more have come to my attention….

  1. Ariana – according to Crosby Hop Farms, ” One of the latest unique aroma varieties to come from the Hop Research Center in Hüll, Germany, this high-yield cultivar is a cross between Herkules and a wild male, and ranges in flavor from blackcurrant and grapefruit to geranium and vanilla. “
  2. Moutere – according to New Zealand Hops, “developed at New Zealands Plant and Food Research and released in 2015. The essential oil profile displays characteristics of intense fruit, citrus and resinous pine. Delivers intense fruity oils with top notes of baking spice and sweet hay.”
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TTB and Weed

No, that is not a new cop buddy movie. Though I will sell the title if wanted. It is re: a recent memo from the TTB, aka the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau.

The TTB looks to be warning those who are pushing the leading edge of beer and cannabis. Maybe in part to recent business acquisitions of and by marijuana companies. Maybe due to the fact that labels are showing up that cause red flags to raise up. Either way, my guess is that limited runs of these beers and probably not in to-go packaging is in the future.