Is craft beer bucking a trend?

By on August 22, 2006 in Musing

Two news stories from yesterday:

- The Wall Street Journal reported reported that the trend toward “trading up” is slowing for many consumer products.

- The Brewers Association reported craft beer sales roared ahead at an 11% clip in the first half of 2006.

Craft beer

If the former trend continues through the coming months how long can the latter trend go on?

Any answer is a guess. For instance, Information Resources Inc. (IRI), which takes most of its data from grocery stores and supercenters, reported craft sales grew 12-13% in the first half of the year and dollar sales were up 15-16%. Those numbers don’t include beers from many smaller brewers, and certainly not from brewpubs, but they indicate the inroads craft breweries have made.

Also, the WSJ story notes that because they are less likely to “trade up” that “middle-income families visiting more mass merchants and grocery stores than specialty outlets.” Since they are more likely to find great beer in those stores than before they may consider that beer more necessity than “affordable luxury.”

Plenty of reasons remain to be cautious. The Journal reports that Starbucks, Whole Foods and specialty-sandwich chain Panera Bread Co. all recently reported disappointing sales and pointed to higher gas price. Restaurants catering to middle-income consumers are seeing a sales slump too.

WSJ concludes by consulting Michael Silverstein, who co-authored the book Trading Up. He said middle-income shoppers are still trading up for high-end items, but are “‘making much more deliberate choices and being much more tough-minded about what they want. . . . The investment thesis has to be: Are you generating heat? The companies that aren’t are in trouble.”

For now at least, craft brewers have plenty of heat.

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Man Laws vs. Here’s To Beer

By on August 16, 2006 in Musing

It’s fair to say that Anheuser-Busch’s “Here’s To Beer” campaign has not exactly been embraced by the craft beer community, and certainly not blogs (like this one) that have commented on it.

But compare it to Miller’s “Man Laws” commercials and website. Which is about beer?

First, in defense of both “Man Laws” and the “Here’s To Beer” spots like the one with Mike Imperioli and Bogey, these commercials remind us that when you drink a beer it’s not always just about the beer. For instance, I have an uncle who considers Beck’s Dark about as good as it gets – and by golly it happens to taste pretty good to me when I have a beer with him. My father, rest his soul, didn’t ask me to drink Miller Lite with him. That might have been the real test.

But when I watched the “Man Laws” commercials or visited the website (with the most obnoxious age verification ever seen) I see no mention of flavor [although it appears that Miller with be attacking A-B on that front using another set of commercials.]

At least the “Here’s To Beer” site is about beer. On the last visit – speaking of age verification, how come the site can’t rememeber me and I have to log in every time? – I saw a suggestion to serve an imperial stout with a chocolate stout. Last time I looked A-B didn’t brew an imperial stout, to they weren’t just pimping their own beer.

Now here’s why I’m writing about this. The Milwaukee Journal Sentintel (yes, Miller’s hometown newspaper) had a story about the success of “Man Laws” that’s appeared in several newspapers.

It reports that since being activated in May, www.manlaws.com has recorded nearly 14 million visits, including more than 542,000 unique visits.

Meanwhile, a press release from A-B in late July stated that since February www.herestobeer.com received “more than 300,000 hits.”

Looks line “Man Laws” is a pretty clear winner. Can’t see why I would think that is good.

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What’s good for Sam . . .

By on August 8, 2006 in Beers of conviction

Speaking of the “big picture,” news today from Boston Beer bodes well for the craft beer segment.

The brewer of Samuel Adams beers reported core shipment volume increased 22.8% in the second quarter. It also indicated distributor sales of the Boston Beer brands to retail (depletions) increased approximately 17% from the second quarter 2005.

In a company press release, founder Jim Koch said: “We are once again pleased with our quarterly depletions growth. The continued growth of the craft beer category, in which Samuel Adams is the leading brand, demonstrates the consumer trend of trading up to more full-flavored, richer-tasting beers.”

Sam Adams commands about 19% of the craft segment (Sierra Nevada is second with about 8.7%) and its sales were up 8% in 2005 while craft sales grew 9%.

You shouldn’t be surprised if more small breweries report similar results.

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Beer is back in the news

By on August 7, 2006 in Musing

Gee, I’m not sure the article was that bad.

Both Jay Brooks and Beercraft Blog take a piece in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette to task for an article headlined “Beer sales falling flat as wine, other beverages grow in popularity.”

Granted, the story had its problems, but having just returned from a couple of weeks of grabbing newspapers and magazines I don’t often read I was impressed by the amount of positive attention craft beer is getting. I didn’t see anything comparable for wine or spirits.

In Champaign (Illinois) a local newspaper story offered kudos to the Blind Pig, an old/new bar who owner has shifted his emphasis from music to beer.

In St. Louis, Sauce Magazine’s Readers’ Choice 2006 poll featured the results of Favorite Local Brewery (Saint Louis Brewery/Schlafly beers) and Favorite Beer Selection (Growlers Pub) on the same page with Favorite Butcher and Favorite Coffee Roaster.

In Chicago, Where Magazine – stocked in hotel rooms throughout the metropolitan area – reported on “Beer, Glorious Beer.” It included four breweries and four brewpubs.

The Chicago Reader, a leading alternative newspaper, supplemented a feature on ice cream floats with a piece about beer floats.

In Milwaukee, Travelhost Magazine, another hotel supplement, reviewed several beer friendly restaurants.

That’s a lot of positive coverage.

And it’s not on the business pages. Business writers have long grouped big beer and little beer together when it comes to spotting trends or comparing beer sales to sales of spirits. That’s not going to stop.

Business stories report on what has (or is) happening. These other stories help influence what (is or) will be occuring.

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Drinking notes: Brother Thelonious

By on July 17, 2006 in Beers of conviction

Brother TheloniousLet’s cut right to the chase. Forget, at least for a moment, how Brother Thelonious pours, the various aromas that rise from the glass, the flavors, the finish. Instead go directly to the pairing: vinyl. Yep, serve this one with vintage jazz LPs (or even 78s).

North Coast Brewing in California wrote the recipe before giving this beer its name, so it wasn’t crafted with the idea it would be served in jazz clubs or that consumers at home might listen to Thelonious Monk or Monk compositions or jazz in general will sipping this strong dark Belgian-inspired ale.

But now it has the name, the fabulous label with piano keys circling Monk’s head, and the context in which you might drink this beer has changed.

It was more than 10 years ago that Stephen Beaumont wrote a story for All About Beer magazine about matching musical styles to beer styles. In revisiting the idea in A Taste for Beer he admitted that this was at time “a bit of a stretch” before deciding “sometimes a particular tune cries out for a specific beer.”

That connection begins in the head of the drinker. For instance, Beaumont wrote “I paired the deeply spiritual sounds of Bob Marley’s Uprising Album with the equally pious and reflective flavor of Chimay Grande Reserve.” Instead I might point first to the multi-level layers that Marley and the Wailers create and that Chimay Blue somehow finds similar depth (or did in 1995).

But what if we think about beer as music?

Consider another recently released beer: Avant Garde, the first offering in the new Lost Abbey line from Port Brewing. After all, Monk was a trailblazer for the jazz avant-garde. Though inspired by biere de gardes first brewed in French farmhouse breweries, Avant Garde also blazes a bit of its own trail.

It delivers the toasty/bready aromas and flavors we expect in a biere de garde – including a haunting earthy element – in playful harmony. It also provides surprising spicy notes that grab your attention without raising the volume. Perhaps not as riveting as the back and forth between Monk and John Coltrane in a composition such as “Sweet and Lovely,” but drawing upon the same sort of tension.

For that reason you might not want to drink Avant Garde while listening to Monk. You could prefer a beer that asks for less attention. (Personally, given that Avant Garde makes an excellent pairing with a variety of dishes, deferring to other flavors when need be, I think it works well with something like “Monk’s Dream.”) Avant Garde speaks to you without raising its voice.

Back to Brother Thelonious. The label and name give the beer – it is being released in conjunction with the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz), and the brewery will make a contribution to the Institute for every case sold to support jazz education – a chance to speak to new customers. These are drinkers who may not usually order beer, and certainly some who wouldn’t consider a beer as bold, fruity (plums and raisins) and what many would call funky as a Belgian-inspired dark ale.

Brother T. is complex and challenging, though not nearly so much as a Monk composition. At 9% abv and packaged in a 750ml (wine-size) bottle, it’s a beer to sip and share – and probably one to stick in the cellar and see how it evolves.

As quickly as the dark fruits, some caramel and roasty flavors come upon you they are whisked away by a surprisingly dry finish. Sweetness and alcohol become a memory you can consider, or not – concentrating instead on the music (remember, that’s why we’re here).

This beer is a perfect example of why we shouldn’t assign numbers or try to rank beers. What’s inside the bottle is good enough, but there’s much more to Brother Thelonious.

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Beer: Simple or complex?

By on July 16, 2006 in Beer & Wine, Musing

French wine philosopher Pierre Boisset once said:

“Wine is at the same time simpler than people say and more complex than they think.”

Pretty easy to plug in the word beer for wine and make as much sense.

The quote comes from Hugh Johnson’s delightful memoir A Life Uncorked and he bring it up to make a point.

“Any fool can make a subject complex and any fool can say it is simple. But how much do you have to understand to grasp the essentials?” Johnson asks.

He goes on to write that most people try either too hard at wine or not hard enough, that it is an all-or-nothing passion.

“So what does the reasonable, perfectly balanced person need to know? That wine is not one thing, but many. To appreciate it you don’t have to swallow an encyclopaedia, but you do have to pay attention.”

Again, the analogy holds up well, just as it would for cheese, jazz or … pick your passion.

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Your own personal beer aromas

By on July 14, 2006 in Musing

A couple of months back I wrote about how our beer drinking experiences may improve as we develop a better vocabulary to discuss what we are tasting.

A paper delivered by a wine expert last month shows it is never that simple.

Decanter reports:

Clues to understanding why we all perceive wines differently were unveiled by an American scientist at the Masters of Wine Symposium in Napa.

Speaking at the June gathering of MWs, which takes place every four years, Dr Charles Wysocki, of the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, an organisation devoted to taste and smell, said wine is “tasted” principally by smell.

Humans have only a few hundred stimuli for taste, but can distinguish thousands of different smells. Wine aromas, however, are not the same for everyone and quite possibly as unique to each individual as a fingerprint.

No surprise that context turns out to be very important. For instance, you may forever react to a particular aroma based upon your experiences the first time you smelled it.

You may also form an opinion based on how it is presented.

Wysocki also demonstrated, using an audience of wine professionals from around the world, that putting the same aroma in differently labelled bottles produced radically different perceptions.

If a pungent, mouldy cheese-like aroma was labelled “food,” the audience tended to rate it as pleasant. If it was labelled “body,” it was considered unattractive.

But back to to aroma/taste and how it might fit in with previous experiences. Donavan Hall touched on this in writing about the character of Orval, which changes over time.

One of my friends described it as “wet saddle blanket,” but I have to say I have no idea what these people are talking about. I grew up on a working farm. I had a horse for a pet. I know what horse and leather smells like. I had my nose in my fair share of wet saddle blankets and Orval reminds me of none of the experiences.

Personally, Michael Jackson’s use of “hop sack” (he also included “fresh leather”) in describing Orval left the aroma of that beer and the term hop sack so closely connected in my mind that if you said “hop sack” I would imagine the aroma of Orval first. If you handed me wet burlap that once held a bail of hops and it smelled different I would think, “This is not what hop sack should smell like.”

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