musing

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.

This from a story that dated tomorrow (step into the future with me) in the New York Times:

Subtlety is the hallmark of the better Japanese microbrews, while most American craft beers embrace an onslaught of flavor with all the nuance of a sledgehammer.

That attention-getting line aside, Specialty Beers on the Rise in the Land of Sake is worth your time.

Many parallels with the United States. Microbreweries were legalized in 1994, peaked in 1999, fell off and more recently have figured out what they want to be as they grow up.

They are gaining traction with drinkers under 40, benefiting from growing interest in a wider range of cuisines, etc.

All with a bit of subtlety, of course.

Week 2 of the [Edited to reflect the point of order Stonch makes below: U.S. operations] merger between Molson Coors and SABMiller — both themselves the results of mergers and acquisitions — and you probably just want to know if this is going to make it harder or easier to buy your favorite beer.

Which, by the way, is no brewed by either.

Yes. Do a Google news search and you’ll find a thousand stories (really a few stories repeated hundreds of times), but they’ll explain the importance of this to wholesalers, stock holders and a variety of other interested parties. Some predictions will be right and others wrong.

But here’s something else from the press release:

Capturing Synergies and Improving Productivity
The combination of the businesses is expected to result in identified annual cost synergies of $500 million, to come from optimization of production over the existing brewery network, reduced shipping distances, economies of scale in brewery operations and the elimination of duplication in corporate and marketing services.

Does that sound to you like some Miller might be brewed in a Coors brewery and Coors’ products (Blue Moon even?) in Miller plants?

This is not a matter if they can do it well — Miller has brewed Samuel Adams products, for instance. It’s a matter of brewing a beer that comes from a particular place.

And that’s not a part of the the MillerCoors business plan.

Added later in the day: A great suggestion from Maureen Ogle.

Added 10.19.07: Garrett Oliver contributes to the New York Times Op-Ed page. “MillerCoors is not a threat to craft brewers but a warning: we should not walk the road of overexpansion or be tempted by the lowest common denominator of the mass market.”

Added 10.19.17: Boomberg.com reports the deal will lift sales of Miller Chill. I don’t know about you, but this gets me pretty excited.