Month: December 2011

Heineken big in ‘friend me’ land, but craft kicking imports’ butts

Two tidbits from today’s Shanken News Daily:

* Heineken has announced a global marketing partnership with Facebook to create digital campaigns for the company’s brands around the world. The agreement will help Heineken reach over 800 million Facebook users. Heineken says its Facebook fan page is the largest for any beer brand, with over 4.6 million adult users.

* The U.S. beer market continues to struggle, according to the latest numbers from Nielsen. Off-premise volumes declined 1.9% in the most recent 52-week period (ending November 12) to 1.38 billion cases. The outlook appeared brighter on a value basis, as dollar sales inched up 0.6% to $28.6 billion during the same time period. The average price of beer in the off-premise increased 2.4% to $19.82 a case.

Craft and specialty brews continue to be the most vibrant segment in the beer category, surging 16.6% by volume in the 52-week period, with even stronger value growth (+17.8%) on an average price of $31.80 a case. The craft/microbrew segment is priced higher, on average, than imported brands ($27.59), yet imports fell 0.6% by volume during the same time span. Mexico continues to be the largest-selling origin for imported brews off-premise, at 78.7 million cases (+0.4%), but the fastest-growing source was Belgium (+28.9%).

Beer has not jumped the shark

The headline above is simply an answer to a question asked at Rate Beer that made its way into my Twitter feed.

Confession. The question actually reads “When did craft beer jump the shark?” I think making the conversation simply about [no modifier needed] beer will do.

(It seems that the discussion at Rate Beer, which was three posts old when I first visited, has evolved into something else. Like how people interact with beer. That’s OK, but I’m more interested in the simpler question.)

In 1322, brewers in Dordrecht in the Netherlands made a hopped beer called hoppenbier and an unhopped fermented beverage called ael. Hoppenbier was likely a shocker. Perhaps even more so because Dutch brewers were trying to catch up with those damned imported hopped beers from Hamburg that tasted like nothing the locals had ever had. They may even have overshot their mark since they were still learning about hops. After all, the year before it was against the law for them to use hops in beer.

New things happen. Brewers may put coffee into beer, pumpkins, bog myrtle, acorns, and maybe even ground up shark’s teeth.

But Max will still be able to find a new světlý ležák to praise.

Monday musing, local, & links

Start with this premise: “It seems that in today’s uncertain and flagging America, one sign of community prosperity and revitalization is a microbrewery or brewpub in town.”

The Ecocentric blog examines in some detail the role of small breweries in towns where they operate. The history gets a little iffy now and then, but ultimately Kai Olson-Sawyer makes a point that “just like with food, conscientious consumers are willing to pay a little more for better quality and for the local connection.”

The leap of faith here is that local equals better quality. It’s one thing for a brewer to say, “I can order the best quality malt in the world, the best hops, source yeast that provides whatever flavor you want and replicate water from any brewing region of the world.” Another to say, “Fresh hops from the farmer up the road are just as good as from the Czech Republic or the Yakima Valley.”

To my way of thinking the first beer qualifies as local. But not everybody would agree.

This is tricky territory. I loved my grandfather’s farm. I’m all for the idea of urban farming, for finding fresh produce (in season) within the city limits. I wish all the luck in the world to those farmers from Vermont to Southern California who are giving hops a whirl. I’ve had beers I’d buy again that were dry hopped with stuff from homebrewers yards (and donated to a brewery). But I know full well how hard it is to properly grow, pick and process quality hops. Which means most of the breweries around the world are going to buy most of their hops from some place not so close.

In all fairness, the point at Ecocentric blog was not to make localness exclusive, but there are those who would. And that’s not any better for local beer than trying to come up with arbitrary definitions for “craft” beer.

More stuff to read:

– Boak and Bailey offer The six degrees of beer appreciation. “There’s a fine line between enthusing about better beer and being a snob.”

– 1 Wine Dude (Joe Roberts) calls “this the single most important piece of wine news in years” and the implications for beer should be obvious. Australian Wine Research Institute researchers have sequenced the Brettanomyces genome.

– The New York Cork Report gives us “Your Ultimate Guide to Pairing Beer and Cheese.” Hard to argue with pairing a fresh Catapano goat cheese and Southampton Cuvee des Fleurs.

Session #58: What would Scrooge drink?

The SessionThis is my contribution to The Session #58, hosted by Phil Hardy at Beersay: A Christmas Carol. Visit his site for more posts.

If you were going to buy Scrooge a beer for the holidays, realizing full well he wouldn’t be getting the next round, which one would you choose?

This is easier to think about when you can put a face to Scrooge, or the face of one of the many actors who have played him on film. Plenty of contrasting choices — for instance George C. Scott (Patton) or Bill Murray (Stripes)? Jim Carrey, Kelsey Grammer, Tim Curry (well, his voice), Reginald Owen, the list goes on.

EbeneezerI’m partial to Alistair Sim from the 1951 film Scrooge (and later in the voice in an animated TV version of A Christmas Carol). Who wouldn’t want to buy a beer for a “sad-faced actor, with the voice of a fastidious ghoul?”

And what beer?

Ebeneezer from BridgePort Brewing in Portland, of course. Pour it in a snifter and put another log on the fire.

Which Scrooge would you pick? And which beer?

Because you’re so smart . . .

Because the topic of beer marketing pops up here from time to time, and because my obviously too subtle effort to provoke comment on Miller’s World Beer Cup commercial fell flat I’ll quietly pass along information about a contest Port Brewing/The Lost Abbey is holding. Basically, they plan to film a commercial, are inviting suggestions, and are giving away a trip for two to San Diego.

Here are the details (exclamation points and all):

“In early 2012 we’ll be filming our first broadcast-ready commercial, and we’re looking to our Faithful Followers to tell us how they’d introduce our brewery and its products to those who’ve yet to be enlightened. To help stimulate everyone’s creativity we’re holding a competition all December long for the best commercial concept! Judged by our in-house Conclave, three winners will receive Port Brewing and The Lost Abbey merchandise and wearbles. And our Grand Prize winner will becoming to San Diego!”

Chances are that even though San Diego hosts the World Beer Cup in 2012 the crew at Port/Lost Abbey isn’t looking for something like this: