The craft beer industry: beer quality problems

I rather like most everything you say here, but do differ from both of you on the perceived value of the upside down bottle label. At about the time that seal was introduced there was a good bit marketing research data that showed there is a large demographic out there in the market place who include "independent" being important to the choices they make.

https://www.brewersassociation.org/...of-millennial-beer-drinkers-you-need-to-know/

 

If someone can't get online and look something up, that's their problem and they will reap what they sow. That said, how do you get someone interested in QC? If you don't think this badge or CE thing will work, what do you think will?

Actually, neither of these things happen, especially the second bit.

 

Well, i never said nothing should be done, and agree there is no perfect solution. Any step is better than none - maybe. Would it be a better focus than the indie thing - probably. All I am saying is that it is a significant undertaking that might bear little fruit.

The number to sign up for a program would certainly not be every brewery. The overwhelming majority probably would not sign up upon discovering how much work is involved. If it just sign up, take some courses, then it is just buying the sticker. Despite all the regulation, certifications, and checks and balances in other industries there are still problems. If the BA developed a program that could be consistently applied and then consistently monitored for compliance, it would be a step in the right direction.

 

So which of these lab test do you think should be carried out for the hypothetical quality seal? Should they be done for one beer style in a breweries line up, or all of the styles? How many batches for each style to show consistency?

A large brewery will do most all of this in house. Smaller breweries might send some beers out for analysis. Start ups may not do anything beyond sensory evaluation.

It is always a good excersize to cost out an idea as part of a feasibility study.

https://www.whitelabs.com/other-products/analytical-lab-services

 

If breweries want to get some sort of quality control certification, it should be up to the brewery owners to determine if they want that or not.

Would be great if brewers could have easy access and opportunities to free and/or paid quality control training if they feel they need more education to improve their product and keep demand high or increase.

Only item I think could fix the distributor/retail issue with freshnessn (because this seems to be a broken process/monopoly by distributors and big business corruption/influence) is to regulate beer labels requiring all packaged beer sold to public to have EASY TO READ bottled on AND best by date. Brewers association could determine what is a reasonably fair best by duration based on beer style guide and generally brewery owner input. Brewers could still have the flexibility if they feel that best by date is too long for the optimal freshness of their product to put a less lenghty best by date on the label, but the maximum duration would be an industry standard. That would clean things up very quickly in the retail market. Trying to improve consumer education on freshness, would no longer be a tough task/challenge as novice consumers could just read the easy to understan label and make a choice.

 

Can you give examples of how "big business corruption/influence" is responsible for "craft" brewers' beers being OoC on store shelves?

There are, according to the NBWA, over 3000 licensed beer distributors in the US - granted, many under the same ownership, but that does not in any way make it a "monopoly". An exclusive contract to distribute a particular brewer's brands in a specific region (standard in the beer industry as well as many others) is not a "monopoly".

How? All the current outdated beers on the retailers' shelves that people complain about are all date-coded now - how else would people know they're out of code? Date coding allows the consumer, as well as the retailer and distributor, to know how old the beer is but date codes alone don't "clean things up" as far as the latter two groups go.

 

Very concise synopsis, your business is beer, I find it strange that any novice would challenge the expertise. My self included here concerning dating the beers, but my lack of knowledge can be compensated for if I know the beer is two days old, 10 days old or 10 weeks. It's another tool that's helpful is what it really is, and with third party distribution I find it invaluable.

 

I think there’s enough clearly dated out of code beer sitting on shelves to let us infer that this is not the one solution that will solve the problem. Not sure what you are getting at when you refer to corruption and monopolies either. Breweries have plenty of choice as to which distributor they would like to sign with, and can detail the stipulations of their contract. The BA also cannot and should not be responsible for designating rigid freshness windows per beer style or at all. This will vary wildly depending on a brewery’s packaging equipment and QC standards. Many times I’d rather take my chances with a four month old Sierra Nevada Torpedo than a two month old ipa can from a small, local upstart, because I know that Sierra Nevada has great QC and packaging equipment and is able to maximize the shelf life of their beer more effectively, assuming that it has been handled properly.

 

I forgot to check the date on some beer recenty. Therefore it's shroedinger beer. It is both my fault and not my fault.

 

Until you actually drink that beer rather than just think about it.

 

We all do, and sometimes it's disappointing. It's one reason why I generally stay away from the beer superstores. But it still doesn't negate the effect of that beer sitting on a palate in a distributors warehouse. Really the prime reason I disagree with honkey about dating. If you self distribute you have control, 3D party you sign that away for money.

 

I would guess only 10% or less of beer consumers know about styles and freshness ranges. Mostly us small percent who frequent this website. Putting clearly labeled / easy to read brewed on and best before dates, provides the information clearly to the consumer. You'd see a really big drop off in retail stores carrying old product because there would be far less people unknowingly buying out of date beer. That is the what retail shops currently bank on (just keep it on the shelf at full price and some fool will eventually buy it). Would be great for imports to require this as well if sold to the US. Probably result in alot less imports coming in, but at least we'd be able to tell that it is relatively fresh. Plus I think you'd see alot more discount racks for old beer than you currently do. At least until retail inventory quantities get right-sized to move majority of product within the beer's date range.

 

Regarding the audits, development of the standards against which to audit, the paying for the audits, and why would a brewer do this...

Using ISO 9001 as a model... (these comments are greatly simplified; there are variations, exceptions, nuances, etc...)

ISO is a standards organization. They defined the standards against which the audits are conducted. In this model, the BA is like ISO.

The audits themselves, if they are for certification, are conducted by a third party, whose business is (among other things, typically) conducting such audits. Internal self-audits are also done by the manufacturer as a means of internal QC, and these third party companies will also train your internal auditors.

The third party audits are paid for by the manufacturer, not by ISO. The third party company gets paid, not the ISO.

Why would a manufacturer do this? Because it is demanded by their customers.

If the BA wants to go down this direction, they will need to (obviously) develop the standards. Again, using the ISO as a model, these will be developed by a team of "volunteers" from the member companies. So, in other words, the member companies are themselves developing the standards, not the BA in some elitist Ivory Tower.

That, though is just the start. As I mentioned above, there will have to be customer demand for something like this as well, so there will have to be a marketing campaign, probably using member brewers who believe in the program to serve as examples (i.e. be those initially certified). Ideally, this would include representative companies covering large & widely distributed to small & local. Something like Sierra Nevada on one end and Hill Farmstead on the other.

It is a huge undertaking, but it would start small... with a meeting of member companies interested in this and believing that it is necessary. They would form the core.