Monday morning musing: Is mainstream beer back?

Coors BanquetA few beer related thoughts to help you shake free of any turkey-infused haze remaining after a long weekend:

– The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel examines if a surprising surge in sales of Coors Banquet means full-calorie, mainstream, premium-priced beers can end their 21st century slide (Budweiser sales, for instance, fell 21% from 2002 to 2006).

There’s also the chance that Coors’ modest gains aren’t a barometer of anything. “I guess it shows you that a brand can get so small that it can finally find its base,” said Eric Shepherd, editor of Beer Marketer’s Insights.

– As the story about the effects of higher prices for beer ingredients continues to gain momentum (here and here) the Cascade hop has turned out to be a poster child for the sudden change.

As recently as July the industry was still working through years of oversupply and you could buy a pound of Cascade for $3. Now we’re hearing about prices 1000% higher. That’s the spot market and not what the average brewer will pay in 2008, but it make you realize . . .

Once again, Stone Brewing is a step ahead. The brewer of Arrogant Bastard Ale and other hop-infused beers has been Cascade free since opening in 1996. OK, that doesn’t mean its hops cost any less, but it makes a good story.

– Bill Brand begins a story about “extreme beers” with a discussion of price, in this case asking ” Would you pay $30 for a bottle of beer?”

John Alderete is betting that some of us will. Having persuaded a group of investors to back him, he is now fermenting an experimental trio of beers in wine barrels at Devil’s Canyon Brewing in Belmont, pending licensing for his own Mayfield Brewing Co. in Palo Alto.

Mr. Alderete may make terrific beer, and $30 for a 750ml bottle might turn out to be a great price, but one reason that high prices for a few special releases seem reasonable is that the breweries selling them have established a history of excellence.

If we start paying $30 for beer just because of the price tag looks impressive then Alan has a right to complain.

Eyewitness Beer: Michael Jackson’s last book

Beer (Eyewitness Companions)In the introduction of Beer (Eyewitness Companions) we are reminded why there will never be another beer writer like Michael Jackson:

“When one thirsts for a glass of wine or a pint of beer, the brain gradually registers the order as a half-heard whisper. The volume is slowly turned up, creating a gentle, purring, reverberation throughout the nervous system. It seems a pleasurable massage at first, then becoming tenacious. You are in the hands of a higher authority that brooks no argument. It is desire, and the streetcar cannot leave its lines. Your destination is a rendezvous with a drink.”

Are you still here? Or are you on your way to a bookstore, as thirsty for the rest of this book as you would be for a beer?

Because I contributed to Beer Companions it doesn’t seem appropriate to offer a “review,” but I can tell you a little about it. Shortly before the book shipped Amazon linked used copies of “Great Beer Guide” to this one. Both were published by Dorling Kindersley, which might have created some of the confusion, but they are quite different books.

Probably because the “Great Beer Guide” was itself a repackaged version of “Ultimate Beer” and because Beer Companions was published shortly after Michael’s death some beer discussion boards contributors hypothesized that this would be another one with “re-purposed” content. That is not the case.

Michael explained in the acknowledgments that rather than researching and writing the whole book himself he recruited correspondents to provide up-to-date information from the world’s great brewing nations. He acted as editor-in-chief as well as writing the front matter. Some parts — such as the introduction to beer’s ingredients, how it’s brewed, and how to enjoy it — will be familiar to those who own his other books. But much it totally new.

This book is part of another “Eyewitness” series from DK. You’ve likely seen the Eyewitness Travel books (we must own a dozen). The Companions series focuses instead on subjects such as beer, wine, cheese, olive oil and golf.

Going into the project Michael noted, “The readers as inherited from the Eyewitness Guides will tend to be well-travelled, interested in food-and-wine, well educated, earning a reasonable income, open-minded.”

He greets them with with an introduction and treatise on styles that are essential reading.

He doesn’t pull punches, writing early on that “neither European brewers nor most drinkers on either side of the Atlantic have yet grasped that tomorrow’s most exciting styles of beers will be American in conception.”

Michael once said: “I think I was the first person ever to use the phrase, ‘beer style.’ The next thing was to try to define what they were, which lots of people have done since, but I think I was the first person.”

That was, of course, in his 1977 “World Guide to Beer.” Now we get his perspective from 2007, a last chance to see the world through his eyes. One certainly worth treasuring.

******

Although the headline above describes this as his last book, I hope that turns out to be false. I’d happily read a well chosen collection of his essays and columns from the many publications he wrote for. I suspect you would as well.

Beer, Thanksgiving and Black Friday

Beer Belongs at ThanksgivingWe’ve got turkey brining for tomorrow, using one of many recipes The Homebrew Chef Sean Paxton has generously posted at his web site.

If you’ve been procrastinating and are still looking for ideas about what to cook for Thanksgiving then you’ll find some different ones here &#151 although in some cases you needed to start preparations several days ago. You do have time to consider deep frying a turkey. Sean has instructions or here’s the recipe we use.

So Thanksgiving is looking beery. Now if the Brewers Association, which has done a fine job the last three years of getting newspapers and magazines to notice beer at the holiday table could turn its attention to Black Friday.

Why aren’t there flyers in my Thursday paper advertising a case of Sierra Celebration on sale at 6 a.m. for $6.99 for the first 50 customers? Shouldn’t somebody have a DOORBUSTER! featuring Samuel Adams Holiday Sampler ($2.99, at least 10 per store)? Hey, Borders, please e-mail some coupons for beer books.

For now I’d smile if I found a local event like Black Friday Fest in Durham, N.C. (Courtesy of The Beer Mapping Project.)

Bell’s Java Stout, Duck-Rabbit Baltic Porter . . . hmmm. They need to start before 3 p.m.

Or if you are one of The Lost Abbey Patron Saints you can pick up your allotment from the release of three seasonal beers that otherwise go on sale at 11 a.m. Saturday. (When then the brewery is going to look a little like Best Buy at 5 a.m. Friday.)

Or you could save your money for Saturday, when the auction for a 2004 bottle of Three Floyds Dark Lord Imperial Stout closes. Current bid is $127.50.

Would you brave the 4 a.m. Friday crowd at Wal-Mart to get a deal on Dark Lord? (I’m sorta making the time up; the closest Wal-Mart to us is open 24 hours.)

Tumbling UK pub sales not the whole story

Nag's Head handpumpsMelisa Cole offers a brilliant post today regarding the news that beer sales in UK pubs have slumped to their lowest level since the 1930s.

I’m a bit confused and bemused by this announcement and what it’s trying to achieve; because, to my mind, all this proclamation is going to generate is stories about beer not being popular any more, which – if we’re not careful – could surely just become a self-perpetuating prophesy.

As important, she points to a dichotomy that has a direct parallel in the United States. Independent and local brewers report growth of 7.5% per year at the same time larger breweries bemoan tumbling sales.

Much like in the U.S., where those who call themselves craft breweries enjoy double digit growth although overall beer sales remain flat. Here the smaller breweries have gone out of their way to point to these numbers whenever media business stories mention beer losing market share to wine and spirits.

In fact, the number of breweries in the UK is increasing and more pubs are selling cask-conditioned beer. Overall cask sales languish because the “big four” multinational brewers &#151 who control 56% of the ale market &#151 don’t support cask.

Cole writes:

The major problem I DO have is that, once again, the BBPA’s doom and gloom approach does nothing more than further damage beer’s image by painting it as a product that nobody wants.

What this report seems to say to me, when viewed in light of Pete Brown’s findings, is that, actually, fewer people want mass-produced products and that the big brewers are missing out by under-investing in their cask brands.

Sound familiar?

Further reading: Five reasons beer sales have slumped.