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Two recent events, both involving movie releases, revealed some cross-currents in craft brewing’s world of camaraderie. The first was the one-night showing in April — at 440 movie theaters across the country — of Beer Wars, a sort of David and Goliath take on the brewing industry.
It largely followed to small brewing entrepreneurs — Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head and Rhonda Kallman of Moonshot — going up against giant Anheuser-Busch in the land of brewing and beer distribution. (For movie review see page 20-A).
The second was a 4-minute collage of craft brewers presented by Greg Koch of Stone Brewing Co. as the intro to his keynote speech at the Craft Brewers Conference in Boston. It also featured a fair amount of Bud bashing, or ranting against “fizzy yellow beer.” (see review, page 20-A).
The two brewers mentioned here have made their living pushing the envelope of beer. One has become synonymous with Extreme Beer – he even wrote a book with that title. The other with their flagship Arrogant Bastard Ale.
There has been a certain amount of backlash in some industry forums as to why some craft brewers still have to trash “fizzy, yellow beer.” As noted, breweries who like to trash “fizzy, yellow beer,” are generally are the same ones who are making in your face beers, “arrogant” or “extreme.” Other brewers take a more mellow approach. As David Walker of Firestone-Walker said during one CBC workshop, “We’re incapable of making angry beer.”
The discussion about big or imperial beer versus mellow or session beer is one that has had a lot of play – maybe too much play — in our pages recently. In this issue Stephen Beaumont attempts to put the issue to bed with a humorous take on the topic.
Meanwhile Lew Bryson, who opened this can of worms in the first place by suggesting, God forbid, that “imperial beers may have jumped the shark,” argues in this issue that if craft brewing is to seriously grow, then it needs to focus on more accommodating styles.
Which brings up an issue that was much in evidence in Boston — the question of growth. Is it good? And how is growth compatible with the artisanality of craft beer. Craft brewers have consistently stated that, yes, growth is good as long as we don’t compromise quality. And so far that seems to have worked. Still, compromises have to be made on some levels.
For example, in Boston Dogfish Head’s Sam Calagione rented a boat to take his distributors and friends on an evening cruise. He wanted to re-enact the Boston Tea Party by asking his craft brewing buddies to dump “industrial” beer into the bay (just half a can, we don’t want to upset the EPA). But someone must have pointed out to Sam that many Bud and Miller distributors were on board. The cans wer duct-taped to obscure brand identity and relabeled “corn” and “rice”. (I saw a couple of the brewers chug down the remainders of their cans — which just shows how openminded these guys really are.)
But, as far as growing market share, the fact is most people don’t care about the flavor of the beer they drink. And nearly half of all beer drinkers drink Light beer because they’re worried about health or gaining weight. (No matter what they eat, of course. It always cracks me up to see obese folk drinking Light beer).
Another fact, though, is that more and more people do care about the taste – and origins – of what they eat and drink. And that’s what’s been driving the craft brewing industry, and other “gourmet” products. But if all you are worried about is the beer you brew, the product you make, then should you be worried about growth.? Craft breweries will say they ar only following the market. Thus far, breweries like Dogfish Head and Stone have been hardpressed to meet demand for their beers.
And then there is the economic crunch. It would seem that things would have slow down – and they are – the question is how much? And will it affect higher priced beers? It seems that the higher end beers are attracting plenty of attention from wine and spirits drinkers. And at the other end of craft, it does seem to be also holding true, that for beer drinkers who have truely made the switch to full-flavored beer, there is no going back.
Kim Jordan of New Belgium said ultimately her brewery voted on expansion ultimately because of their 300+ employees – to make their lives better, to keep them interested.
As for Bud bashing, you wonder if they really care any more. The faceless monster has become even more faceless since St. Louis capitulated to InBev last year.
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