Monday beer briefing: Seeing things as they are

02.25.19, BEER AND WINE LINKS

Selective Outrage: Does Inclusion Include Us?
I am reminded when we travel, as we did much of last week, that I subscribe to way too many RSS feeds. As a result, when I am playing catch up plenty of good reading gets deleted almost randomly. Likewise, what I see on Twitter is pretty arbitrary. But it was pretty easy to figure out this was the story of the week, at least within a specific bubble. Bubble because when I checked a few days ago I was surprised to see Toni Canada (@craft_curiosity) has only about 3,000 Twitter followers. Seems like the number should be much higher (and this will get confusing if she changes her handle). Meanwhile, this YouTube video in which Michael Tonsmeire discusses the differences between brewing on a homebrew system and a commercial one attracted more than 100,000 views and 140 comments by the time it was a week old. Is this an unfair comparison or does it tell us something?

As repeated often here, beer culture (or kulture) exists within our overall culture. Which is why I suggest reading Could BlacKkKlansman finally snag Spike Lee the Oscar he deserves? He didn’t last night, because Green Book did. If you don’t want to take the time to read the entire story, scroll to the end for a comparison of BlacKkKlansman and Green Book. Or consider this: “BlacKkKlansman is a film that shows how America actually is, Green Book shows what Academy voters often wish America would be.” We need more of the former.

THE BUSINESS OF (BIG) BEER

– Bud’s Super Bowl Ad Threatens to Derail Beer Alliance.
– Bud Light Says Trolling Competitors Increased Transparency and Interest in Beer Ingredients.
– Anheuser-Busch changes its tune — again — on purpose of new campaign.
– How Anheuser-Busch Is Elevating the Beer Category.
My apologies if this seems like overkill. The first link is to a Wall Street Journal story which I was able to read (and save part of) when I first saw it, but which was hiding behind a paywall when I went back to check links in this post. So I added a bit of detail. The second is from the MillerCoors blog, and can be considered the opposition party view. The third is from Adweek, and provides context. The fourth is a “Partnership” post, also known as native advertising, at an online publication for beer industry members. It adds to the impression this is a propaganda campaign.

The WSJ story reports that last year top executives from AB InBev, MillerCoors, Constellation and Heineken got together look for ways to jump-start sales growth. “Ideas to boost beer included helping drinkers find the right beer for them, positioning beer as a reward at the end of a tough job and efforts to convince consumers that beer is social and sophisticated,” the paper reported. And, “Over the past year, brewers, retailers and distributors have met repeatedly to discuss how to tackle the challenges facing beer, according to an attendee. Executives met in San Diego in September to hear pitches from five marketing agencies. They decided to hire one and were poised to confirm the decision at a meeting next month at Constellation’s offices in Chicago, according to a person familiar with the effort.”

Now, MillerCoors won’t participate, raising questions about if the project will get funded. A Heineken spokesman said it was too early to comment on the project’s future, while Constellation didn’t respond.

MORE BEER BUSINESS

Get Low — The Mich Ultrafication of Beer Takes Hold. Best read after at least a glance at the stories above. Time to slim down and suit up?

Surviving the Stress Test. Pardon me cutting straight to the chase. It is easy to agree with the first two of these three sentences, but I might be inclined to see how the third plays out. What connects the failures of breweries is not their individual circumstances, but vulnerabilities experienced as a result of this current stress test. Hundreds of breweries will fail that test in the coming couple years (more if the slow times persist). But the remaining breweries will be stronger and more stable when the next cycle of growth arrives.

Goose Island Ends Distribution of Honker’s Ale. This is one beer Flagship February couldn’t save.

WINE

In Its Quest For Millennials, Has Wine Industry Ignored Generation X? A story that could also be filed under “Business of Beer.”

Chilean Barrel Maker Trains Dogs to Prevent Tainted Wine. This would be do-able for diacetyl, right?

An entire California wine appellation is on the market for $3.3 million. It seems that house flipping has been replaced by appellation flipping.

Santa Carolina finds ‘lost’ variety. “A vine so rare just three other plants exist in the world.” The line starts here.

FROM TWITTER

Whoa. pic.twitter.com/ufXmZ58J4o

— Joe Stange (@Thirsty_Pilgrim) February 22, 2019

MORE LINKS

ReadBeer, every day.
Alan McLeod, most Thursdays.
Good Beer Hunting’s Read Look Drink, most Fridays.
Boak & Bailey, most Saturdays.