musing

Might one of the side effects of higher beer prices turn out to be counterfeit bottles?

It’s hard to imagine problems similar to those plaguing wine, as outlined at Slate, in the a very long story in The New Yorker, and at Wine Spectator. Even Sammy Hagar is worried about it.

But consider this lengthy conversation about fake barrel-aged bottles of AleSmith beers last week at Rate Beer. In this case we are talking about beer that changed hands in a trade and within a passionate community that has ways to police itself.

But what about when bottles of Stone Epic Vertical come up on eBay? This current auction is offering one bottle each from the first seven releases with a starting bid of $999.99.

Or when somebody buys a bottle of Firestone 10 (Firestone’s anniversary beer released last year for $9.99) for $300?

It might not even be vintage beer. How about bottles from the Trappist monastery Saint Sixtus (Westvleteren)?

As Stephen Beaumont observes in the link above some of the people paying silly-ass prices for these beers don’t even know what they are supposed to taste like.

Although attention in wine has focused on really expensive and collectible bottles, a newly minted website called WineAuthentication.com points out the problem includes more reasonably (this is a relative term) priced wines.

Even though by wine standards all beer is reasonably priced that doesn’t make it immune to the problem.

Can beer be a luxury and a blue collar product?

The rather lengthy discussion — and you thought I wasn’t capable of understatement — Alan provoked by arguing craft beer prices are not too low goes to one of the reasons this blog exists. That’s explained in the mission statement, one of the regularly appearing categories here is “What should you pay?” and there’s a link on the right to a story asking the same question.

The article was written in 2005 for All About Beer magazine, a consumer publication. It drew from a story written a year earlier for New Brewer, the trade publication for Brewers Association members. Although Alan began the discussion from the viewpoint of a consumer plenty of business related chatter quickly followed — including contributions from brewers Eric Wallace and Tomme Arthur — so indulge me as I offer something written basically for the trade. I hope it is relevant to the ongoing discussion.

These are excerpts, and may abruptly jump from one point to another, but it beats slogging through the whole article.

The concept of “trading up” received much attention this year, from Fast Company to BusinessWeek after publication of Trading Up: The New American Luxury by Michael Silverstein and Neil Fiske.

Trading Up is based on the contributions of many members of The Boston Consulting Group, where Silverstein is vice president. The book includes the findings of both quantitative and qualitative research, and offers analysis of 23 categories, including autos, home goods, food, wine and spirits, sports equipment, pet food, and lingerie; interviews with New Luxury leaders; a consumer survey and dozens of one-on-one interviews; and a literature review of more than 800 books, articles, and other materials.

Among the companies profiled is Boston Beer.

Reviews of the book are often paired it with Living It Up: Our Love Affair with Luxury by James B. Twichell. Twichell writes, “. . . one can make the argument that until all necessities are had by all members of a community, no one should have luxury. More complex still is that, since the 1980s, the bulk consumers of luxury have not been the wealthy but the middle class, your next-door neighbors and their kids.”

. . . one of the premises of Trading Up is that consumer spending is polarizing. In order to trade up in a category she really cares about, an avid cyclists might save money by trading down in some that don’t matter to her – like her brand of toothpaste or beer.

Trading up isn’t about simply moving from beer that costs $2.99 a six-pack to $7.99 craft beer.

“The competition . . . includes all mood elevators,” Silverstein said. “Quality vodka substitutes for better beer more than it does for Bud. The beer companies need to deliver innovation on taste, nutrition, health, energy, and celebration.”

In 1985, Philadelelphia Inquirer food editor Gerry Etter wrote, “Today, beer is invited everywhere. It hobnobs with vintage wines and attends formal parties, it slides effervescently into crystal glasses held by long-gowned hostesses.”

This caused another writer for the Inquirer to counter, “I’ve never hobnobbed in my life (and if I did, it was only once and with a consulting adult), and I don’t intend to start now. One doesn’t hobnob while drinking beer, one shoots the bull.”

. . . according to the authors of Trading Up, there “are no typical New Luxury spenders.”

The book introduces the concept of “rocketing.” BCG research found that almost everyone (96 percent) will pay more for at least one type of product that is of importance to them and almost 70 percent identified as many as 10 categories in which they will “rocket” – that is spend a disproportionate amount of their income.

Charging more doesn’t make a product a New Luxury. They write that to be New Luxury, a product must connect with consumers on three levels:

– There must be technical differences in design, technology or both.

– Those technical differences must contribute to superior functional performance. It really has to be better.

– Technical and functional benefits must engage the consumer emotionally.

Interuption for comment.

You may not be comfortable with seeing “technical” and “technology” used so often, so just focus on this: It really has to be better.

Resume excerpts.

“It was a reminder that the product has to be truly superior and good on its own,” (Boston Beer founder Jim) Koch said, later adding, “We’re not trying to make a pet rock of beer, but new styles that are cherished 100 years from now.”

Silverstein returns often to the topic of quality. “The beer category is crowded with a lot of wannabe’s. Both big and small. It is an industry filled with bravado and claims,” he said. “Most are not very well developed and researched. The best example is low carb beer.”

Koch cites the book when he says, “It can’t just be a marketing gimmick. It has to be rooted in product difference. Typically, it’s not just better, but uniquely so.”

. . . “At the end of the day, we all have to add something, variety or quality, to give people a reason to buy our beer,” he said. “For instance, Sam (Calagione, founder of Dogfish Head Brewery). He wasn’t among the first (microbrewers) but he’s added stuff, a whole new set of products.”

And one last excerpt that goes to the passion reflected in A Good Beer Blog.

New Luxury products are not aimed at an “average” consumer or “general” anything. They are meant for a well-defined group of core consumers with strong needs and interests.

In targeting customers, brewers must remember that. “Rocketers care about the product. They are knowledgeable,” Silverstein said. “They have been in the category for some time. They have an interest in learning. They drink on premises and want to tell their friends. They are sharers by nature.”

For your reading pleasure today:

– Alan at a Good Beer Blog takes some of us to task to for suggesting that some small-batch beer should sell for more. Or put another way: Are Craft Beer Prices Too Low? No, They Are Not Too Low.

Skip my comments (I obviously was just waking up and might have been hung over), be fair and consider Alan’s arguments, but be impressed by the rebuttals from Stephen Beaumont and Lew Bryson.

Also spare yourself a little pain and pass on trying to envision the three of us joining in Kumbaya. Lew can flat out sing, but my voice has been known to shatter glasses (with beer still inside).

– And for those who want to spend less for beer and call it “craft” the Wall Street Journal offers To Trump Small Brewers, Beer Makers Get Crafty.

If you hang out here you should already know that Molson Coors brews Blue Moon White, that Miller owns Henry Weinhard’s Private Reserve and Leinekugel’s, that Anheuser-Busch makes Wild Hop Lager, etc. But one of the points of the story is that you wouldn’t learn this reading the beer labels, and that’s a big deal because . . .

Sales of craft beers affiliated with the big three brewers in grocery, drug, convenience and major-market liquor stores surged 45% to $177 million through Aug. 25 against year-earlier levels, excluding sales at Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Nielsen found. (Wal-Mart doesn’t supply sales data to Nielsen or any other data-tracking firm.) Sales of independent craft brands rose 16% to $531 million.

The good news seems to be that people are buying beer other than mainstream lagers brewed with adjuncts. The concern is that part of the attraction could be the idea they are crafted by small, independent brewers . . . and they’re not.

“Any brand put into the marketplace with an intentional lack of affiliation with the brewery brewing it, I consider that a faux craft,” says Tom McCormick, executive director of the California Small Brewers Association (and editor at ProBrewer). “It’s intentional deception.”

Does that sound fair to you?

Thought for the day from Mark Matheson, who brews beer at Turtle Mountain Brewing in Rio Rancho, recently started his own winery (Matheson Wines), and also directs the winemaking at Santa Fe Vineyards.

He graduated with a degree in fermentation science from UC-Davis, studying both oenology and brewing, and certainly appreciates the the value of technical knowledge. So he’s not blowing smoke when he says:

“If I had two guys, one a microbiologist and one not a microbiologist and the second one had a really good palate, then I would hire the dude with the palate. At the end of the day, what matter is does it make the beer better? What does it taste like? That’s the part you have to be good at.”

Stuff you should be reading:

I Told You Those Lying Bastards Were Making It Up
From Martyn Cornell: “It was fantastically satisfying to see the front page splash in The Times declare what I’ve been saying for years – that the government’s ‘safe drinking guidelines’ of 21 units of alcohol for men and 14 for women a week have no basis in fact, and were literally made up on the spot with no evidence to support them 20 years ago, solely because the ‘experts’ thought they ought to be saying some rather than nothing.”

Fresh hops in Oregon

There’s so much going on that in Oregon that Jon Abernathy at The Brew Site declared it “Fresh Hops Week.” He’s got got the Tastival, fresh hops beers in bottles, reviews and more.

Jeff Alworth at Beervana also has several posts, with a bunch o’ reviews here including his opinion about which are the best.

The British Beer Renaissance
Back to the Times (UK, not NY) and from wine critic Jane MacQuitty: “Largely in response to this demand, the wealth of British beers available now from all over the country, judging from the four dozen or so I tasted blind for this article, is extraordinary. The sheer variety of superb hoppy, floral, fruity yet bitter flavours present in my line-up was a delight.”

High-rise blues
This is among my favorite posts of the year. Lauren Clark tackles an unpleasant subject and writes about women who refuse to sit while urinating in public toilets, instead hovering above the toilet and leaving it sprinkled with pee. There’s also an educational takeaway for those of us who don’t use the women’s room. “Microbiologists have found four hundred times more illness-causing bacteria on the typical office desktop, with its germ-filled computer keyboard, mouse and phone receiver, than on most toilet seats.”

Like I said, must reading.