Commercial brewers and open/closed mindedness

Sounds just like homebrewers with maybe a tad commercial arrogance thrown in.

 

In my experience, pro brewers get irritated by know-it-all homebrewers more than anything else. Other than that, the ones I know are pretty nice guys, willing to help and supportive of the homebrew community. I would describe them as confident, but not arrogant.

 

My guess would be that they sound confident that their way is the best way because their way is the best way for them. We as homebrewers have an advantage, kind of a reverse economy of scale. We can try this way and that way on a whim just to see what works best, because if we lose a batch, we're out, what, $30? The small commercial brewer has found what works well enough for them to survive, and they cannot afford to play around a lose a batch when their margins are typically razor thin, even if they wanted to.

So yeah, I'd be willing to bet, at least in many cases, that the "our way is the best way" attitude you feel you're detecting is precisely because that's exactly how they have to feel about it.

 

Reminds me of a story my son told me about a homebrewer at Port Brewing giving them "the business" about their pseudo IPA...they turned it around and named their next IPA "Pseudo IPA".

 

It's the arrogance of owning any business. They're in competition with others, so of course they're doing it the "right way."

 

Well wouldn't it change your (by "your" I mean general public not an experienced home brewer) opinion of a brewery if the brewer was describing how they had to half ass their process and cut corners? Not that they were doing that, but by an ignorant citizen it would sound that way.

I guess what I'm saying is, they are still salesmen. Always Be Closing!

 

This is not my impression at all. I've been pleasantly surprised by how down to earth the pros are when meeting with a) the know-nothing public or b) know-it-all homebrewers.

Anyway, what should we expect them to say? "Man, we have no idea what we're doing here. If only some awesome homebrewer would come in and explain this damned mash temperature stuff to us!"

I would expect any self-respecting brewer to be making beer the best way he or she knows how. Unless you're touring at Budweiser or someplace like that (and why would you?), you're bound to encounter a certain amount of pride. That's the way it should be.

 

I guess I gotta say I'm a little surprised to hear it. One of the old adages I hear all the time on tours is "there are many ways to skin a cat." Sure, some have their preferences, but I've never gotten the impression that brewers commonly have a "my way or the highway" mentality.

 

Experimenting with recipes is one thing. Experimenting with processes on a multi-barrel production run is another. I would hope they'd experiment with recipes, rather than just willy-nilly throwing together a 30 barrel batch and hoping it turns out. Heck, Sam at Dogfish still uses his 15 gallon Sabco for test batches, I believe. Even Odells uses a (relatively) small 5-barrel system to test recipes. But changing how you run your entire production line on a whim? That could be fiscally ruinous.

 

Touring Budweiser would actually be extremely interesting. I don't drink their beer, but to brew a light lager in the quantities they do with such consistent quality is actually pretty amazing (by quality, I mean no serious flaws, infections etc, not necessarily beer that tastes good to me).

 

I don't even do tours anymore unless its a system I haven't seen. 90% of breweries are really close in terms of hardware, just different scales. Barrel houses are different, but if there's a tour, I'd rather sit at the bar as the tour filters out and enjoy some fine beer.

 

I wouldnt assume the majority going on tours are brewers or even know much (if anything) about making beer. I think a lot of people would get lost if they started going off on all they wanted to do. Caleb over at upland is a good example of this. He doesn't give the tour most of the time, it's usually other staff that just run through the basics. But the tour he gives for the AHA rally/Upcup is way different. He goes into a lot of detail and has some really interesting things to say.

 

Never do they say, "Well we'd prefer to have 8 legs but have to get by with 7 for now because of money/time/space etc."

 

Yeah, I know. But those guys aren't going to tell you they're brewing the best beer they know how and the way they do things produces the best possible beer. At least not with a straight face.

 

I have had this experience, and also as previously mentioned, this falls in line with some homebrewers I have talked to. I have been identified as a pedantic know-it-all more than once, sometimes my head just swells a bit. Over time, I've learned that interacting in a fashion that seems inquisitive versus accusatory is a hard line to ride with something as intimately involved as brewing for most small breweries. These folks have their livelihoods on the line most times and I would be a bit defensive as well, particularly if I had to hear the same smart assess telling me that my squeaky sparge system is impairing my efficiency for the umpteenth time.

 

I get this and the thought also crossed my mind. I still go on them though. Though the equipment may all be the same, the brewery setup and structure itself can be vastly different. I toured Ommegang, really cool structure, and followed it up with a little building down a dirt driveway called Cooperstown Brewery.

Than there is the tour guide element. A guide at Victory was very good with the crowd. Over at Stoudt's, Ed Stoudt himself gave a comical, albeit scattered, tour - speaking to the brewery history and how he got into brewing.

And than of course you have the big commercial ones - Guinness is more like a museum and AB in Williamsburg you sorta just walk through a look down over the brewery (I don't recall a guide - I was actually i high school at the time at Busch Gardens).

 

I can't imagine not wanting to tour a new brewery. Anyone who thinks 90% or breweries is the same, doesn't really know what they are looking at. Most breweries are actually pretty unique.