What is your take on Oncemade Beer Project?

According to twitter these are selling like girl scout cookies at a weight watchers meeting.

And welcome to BA MarkNathanson! You just a longtime lurker or do you have a hand in this project?

 

I think you're being very myopic here.

This is bad for craft beer. We want good beer, not mediocre beer with Budweiser-like marketing tactics. This is one of the major things craft has been fighting against for a very long time now. Shelf space is limited, people's wallets are limited, tap handles are limited... not every brewery is going to succeed. Somebody spending $45 on this nonsense is $45 that doesn't go to another brewery. You can't act like it doesn't matter at all if somebody buys this. It matters a lot to a brewery keeping their head down and pumping out fantastic beer. It matters a lot to the long line of mediocre clones with well-funded deep pockets that will arise if this type of nonsense takes off.

Which is where we come in.

Everybody has their own definition of beer advocacy, but for me, a large part of that is helping people make informed decisions. I care what other people buy, for numerous reasons, and I don't think this gimmick is something people should support. If the beer ends up tasting great, then sure - go buy it. But buying it sight unseen, from unproven breweries, doing something exponentially more difficult than what they are used to, all wrapped in a shameless BMC-esque marketing package? That's not $45 well spent IMO.

Another large part of beer advocacy, to me, is providing feedback to breweries. I, and others, are publicly saying that we do not like this. That should tell them something, but to be clear, let's look at it this way - by doing this, they have already dug a hole for themselves that will only be filled if the beer comes out tasting very good. Anything short of that, and it's going to reflect poorly on their brands.

 

The quality of those opinions will vary greatly. It's like listening to a Baseball Prospectus podcast vs. afternoon drive time sports radio. The former has enhanced my knowledge and appreciation of the game and the latter is bogged down with angry rabble.

 

What are you gonna do with it if the beer doesn't suck? :shrug:

 

No, what turns "average dudes" away from craft beer are $20 bottles of beer that suck.

 

How about we all agree that the only way to settle this is to try the beer. Anyone order one? I'll own up to it and say that I did. Again, I enjoy both of these breweries, and have talked off and on with Helder the owner of Backlash. I respect what he does, and where he came from. I primarily ordered it because of them, and would likely hesitate to purchase again unless another brewery that I enjoy is involved.

 

I think the core of it is that many wish new upstarts would focus on refining their regular beers and work on availability than putting focus on projects that only a handful of people will perhaps participate in. The collaborating breweries could have done this project on their own with out all of the bells and whistles and at a more reasonable price. The would have been better off doing pick up at the brewery on a specific day rather than delivery or drop off points ... more exposure for them, why should someone else get it. (Disclaimer - this consulting is free )

As consumers we have a right to "trash" an idea as long as we can keep it constructive, no need to keep quiet while we listen to a purple dinosaur sing to us. I think complaining about people complaining is not much help.

 

In this thread you've accused them of a "cash grab," suggested people would be "suckers" to purchase it, and speculated that it might "suck." If you really think that's helpful to the community, I'd suggest you poll a handful of brewers and see how helpful they find that "feedback." You're overvaluing the quality of your opinion. As I said in the last thread we went down this road, not every snarky statement that falls out of someone's mouth should be deemed of worth.

 

No desire to buy it. I respect both breweries but again ... they should and could have done it on their own. I'd prefer to support them by buying their core beers.

 

I disagree completely. Their businesses, their business plan. If they want to go high risk and toss up a Hail Mary, they have a lot more at stake and have likely considered every obvious point brought up in this thread. In my opinion, dissuading people from purchasing a beer they might be interested in by calling them suckers is doing far more of a disservice to the community. If there is a glut of overpriced and/or subpar beers, the market will take care of that far more efficiently than a mass of egos.

 

My thoughts exactly

 

You obviously have your mind set for some reason that this is all sunshine and roses, so I don't know what else to say to you. I disagree with what they are doing here and I think it's bad for craft beer. It's two new and unproven breweries releasing their first barrel aged beers (something almost everybody gets wrong on their early attempts) under a cloud of marketing hoopla. I don't think that's very wise, but only time will tell. Sorry if I'm skeptical, but I'm honestly not sure why you are not.

Now, if, by some chance, this beer is awesome, then I will happily run down to the store and buy it, or trade for it if need be. But until proven otherwise, I'm not going to sit around and pretend like they should be doing anything but work on making better beer instead of playing with silly marketing gimmicks.

 

So if your favorite baseball team decides to rebuild this week and trade away every piece of expensive talent are you cool with it? I mean it is their business, their business plan, right?

 

I highly doubt internet name calling will dissuade people from buying beer.

 

Why does it matter if you believe the beer will be good?

If it's good then it will sell out quickly anyway. If it's bad then people really were suckers for buying it sight unseen.

Not sure I understand where the disservice is being done.

 

What the Cubs and Astros are doing? Yes, absolutely. For a variety of reasons.

 

I'm not going to switch the topic to baseball, but if you were a Yankee fan or an Angels or Rangers fan you wouldn't feel the same way.

I agree with cbeer88 that this move is bad for the beer industry, and I will continue to voice my opinion on this public internet forum as such.

 

Come on man. How can you equate that to two breweries making limited edition brews and selling them through another start up? Brewing is a business and community, and these guys are simply trying something new. It can't always be sunshine and rainbow farts - this is real money for these guys, and they are taking a risk on something unique.

This is the same problem I have with people saying bands "sell out" when they get popular. Sometimes they do, but sometimes they just need to take their music in a new direction.

 

You're probably absolutely right about that. It's the intent and tone of that sort of post that I'm taking issue with. We really are talking in circles at this point. In my view, I haven't seen a credible argument that can explain how this is bad for craft beer. I can absolutely see where this approach can be bad for an individual brewer, but that's their risk to take. I like people taking chances. I like having a wide variety of options. I have never had a hard time filling my fridge. If a bunch of brewers make missteps, I won't miss them. But I'm certainly not going to bash their strategy or root for their failure.

 

You missed my point completely and only referenced baseball because pjl44 referenced baseball prospectus.