You know, we should start a joint blog on wine for craft beer lovers. It would be fun to write on wine without the snobbery.

Good stuff, but then you notice the bottom end is twice what you are paying for south of the equator . . .

OK, back to beer.

Back to the wine. My understanding is that there a good American examples fermented with the grapes you mention. Problem is they are too darn expensive. Granted wine real estate in Chile and Argentina is cheaper, but given the condition of the dollar is seems crazy that it’s far easier to find enjoyable French wines in our price range than American.

There’s a back story that’s broken.

Good points…but to whom? To us, certainly. But while a story doesn’t make a drink “authentic,” a bullshit, made-up story, a good one, does sell booze. I’ve seen it happen too many times to doubt it. And as much as we talk about “beer education,” trying to educate people to see through horseshit seems to be a hopeless task. It’s how con men make their living. It’s why you keep getting e-mails for p3ni$ enlarg3meNt!!! and millions from Nigeria (although I’ve noticed more of those from Ivory Coast lately). At times, I despair.

But it’s also the reason that when I do find a good story, I love to tell it. I’m a big proponent of all the reason to buy a beer or a whiskey being contained in your mouth…but I also encourage Pennsylvanians to choose Yuengling over BMC because it’s local, to choose Iron City over Coors Light because it’s Pittsburgh’s heritage, to choose Old Forester because it’s…because it’s been around a long time and doesn’t get any respect even though it’s good. I will choose one beer over another because I want to support a particular brewery.

What the hell does all that have to do with taste? Nothing. Yet I submit that all of us have done it, and probably continue to do it. There are many reasons for purchase decisions. Taste is only one, and even it’s subjective, and affected by the other.

I could end there, but I wanted to talk about “authentic.” Actually, you know what? I think I’m going to do that on my own blog…you know, where I can edit, and make it more authentic and hand-crafted in my traditional one-man blogging shop, located deep in the hallowed blogging regions of Pennsylvania, home of the ancient bloggers. (Ed: He has, and here’s the link.)

Unique seems to be out of place with those other descriptors, doesn’t it? Maybe I’m looking at it wrong…but I think of what Lew describes when I see the word ‘unique’ applied to beer…just some concoction that is different. For unique, it doesn’t matter where it comes from or how it is produced.

So that begs the question (in my mind), how important is production (place, process, brewmaster) on the final flavor of the beer? If unique matters, do the other things matter as much?

You see beers get labeled ‘farmhouse’ for various reasons. How important is it that they are produced on a farm? At what point does a beer cease to be ‘handcrafted’? Authentic? Maybe this is something that is just intuitive and not objective…Does a story make something authentic? Seems not.

Cheers
matt

All that the last line says to me is that trends in the vast ocean of the American market move relatively slowly. It would pay to remember that wine sales plummeted in the mid-80s (the kind of drop that would have been trumpeted on the front page if it had been beer), and we’ve seen a steady rise from there, just about the same time we saw the phenomenal rise of imported beer from 1.5% to almost 15%.

Trends among the trendy move quickly: malternatives, fruit beers, low-carb beers, dry beers, all flashes in the pan. The only thing that keeps malternatives alive is constantly changing flavors (Acai berry anyone? That pomegranate slush you’re drinking is so 2007). But the trendy and young are the ones who drink the most.

It’s a killer circle for marketers: leave them to it. There is a growing market for solid beers: IPA, hefe, witbier, yes, even pilsner. Maybe that’s another danger of the extreme beer movement (he says, just to yank chains): constantly promising and delivering more more more just leads to customers that want more more more different stuff. That’s fun, but…it isn’t a formula for long-term growth. The growth in the craft segment continues to come from flagship beers.

That said, stodgily, I know we’re drinking more imported wines at home. I want to like American sauvignon blanc and cabernet, but I find myself gravitating to New Zealand, South Africa, Spain, Argentina, and Australia. Just like ‘em better. Maybe I’m not so stodgy. Although I’d just as soon not have some silly back-story. Just let me taste the wine.

The generation that has been over-marketed is tired of being marketed to. They read blogs instead of newspapers. What they’re looking for is that which isn’t marketed, but is available.

The best part is, they’re fickle. They’re the generation that buys stocks for the short quick ride. They’ll love it and leave it just as quickly. The best way that you can grab their interest is to give them a new flavor every week until they trust your name for that.

based on my own experience (mostly at brew-pubs serving the freshest, most diverse beers available), I think we could replace “knowledge” in that sentence with “enthusiasm” or “interest.”

“What do you mean you don’t have Miller Lite? I thought this was a bar!”