The Challenges Facing Craft Beer

Discussion in 'Beer News' started by Todd, Apr 11, 2013.

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  1. JackHorzempa

    JackHorzempa Grand Pooh-Bah (3,181) Dec 15, 2005 Pennsylvania
    Pooh-Bah Society

    “But you checked the Julian date so you know when it was bottled.” I checked it after the fact since I had jesskidden holding my hand on a beer forum. I consider myself a bit beyond average as a craft beer person and I didn’t even know:

    · Check the black ink on a brown bottle code (which I had great difficulty reading)
    · Know the code (I don’t own a secret decoder ring that works for every brewery)

    Even the ‘dreaded’ Anheuser-Busch places brewed on dates for their beers. They give it a stupid name of “born on date” but I appreciate their willingness to be transparent on this topic.

    Cheers!
     
  2. Starkbier

    Starkbier Initiate (0) Sep 19, 2002 Maryland

    I see the market developing in some interesting and exciting ways, not the least being the development of multi-taps with good craft beers in Mid scale/affordable/casual dining establishments. When your Bennigans and TGIFs start putting Headwaters on tap its a nice development. I also see stratification into tiers in the industry, at least in the shipping micros. You will have top tier brands doing very well due to lower costs via increased capital utilization and top quality products- Deschutes, Bells, Sierra, Stone, etc. Another item to watch is brand diversification - recall back when Sierra was pretty much just Pale Ale, now they have branched out into Torpedo and other varieties. My own view is there is a lot of room for lower ABV and some lower hopped beers, not that IPA and DIPA are going away anytime soon. The consumer wants diversity, so its gonna be met by someone somewhere. Totally agree with the article's comments in general and the significance of sales support to match brand quality. The hardest part will be the small startups with limited capital and sales support - if I was in that boat Id stick to being a brewpub and if your beers are good enough then step up to a 25BBL or 50BBL system like Devils Backbone has done.

    For those of us old enough to have come of drinking age in the '80s, its a very exciting time to be a beer lover in America!

    Cheers,

    Jim
     
  3. JackHorzempa

    JackHorzempa Grand Pooh-Bah (3,181) Dec 15, 2005 Pennsylvania
    Pooh-Bah Society

    “For those of us old enough to have come of drinking age in the '80s, it’s a very exciting time to be a beer lover in America!” Amen to that!

    Now if I could only get a real Classic American Pilsner at the Phillies ballpark!?!:slight_smile:

    Cheers!
     
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  4. jageraholic

    jageraholic Maven (1,378) Sep 16, 2009 Massachusetts
    Trader

    Sounds like there will be some downsizing on the number of IPAs on the market since they fade the fastest and won't able to stay on the shelves as long as some other styles.
     
  5. UCLABrewN84

    UCLABrewN84 Initiate (0) Mar 18, 2010 California

    Don't leave out the 7 oz. bottle format.
     
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  6. Longstaff

    Longstaff Initiate (0) May 23, 2002 Massachusetts

    Well, it is beer writing. Not many (any?) beer writers are known for their critical analysis.
     
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  7. Longstaff

    Longstaff Initiate (0) May 23, 2002 Massachusetts

    Not likely since IPA's are the fastest growing style in craft beer. Sale of stale beer has been the cornerstone of craft beer for years - yet it still grows.
     
  8. LCB_Hostage

    LCB_Hostage Zealot (635) Jan 30, 2013 Pennsylvania

    As someone living in the Philadelphia market who can't stand the Eagles, I heartily applaud your choice of example. And, I also serve to prove your point. The D-bags Eagles fans I'm surrounded by have generated my hate for the Eagles, but that hasn't dimmed my love of professional football in the least.

    As far as how this affects the future growth of craft brewing, I don't think blowhards pontificating on sites like these have any impact on craft beer sales or popularity. Release those same blowhards into the general population to annoy friends, family and strangers at gatherings or in bars and now you could have a problem. Just look at the longstanding image of the effete, snobby wine drinker that still exists in the minds of many people who resist drinking wine (or at least good wine) as a result. Some people are intimidated, others just don't want to become "that guy."

    People who use their knowledge of a subject as a bludgeon to make others feel dumb, inferior or unworthy are, in my opinion, purposefully trying to drive "the unwashed masses" away so that they can keep their little sandbox all to themselves. And that's the attitude that could serve to limit the growth of the audience for good beer.
     
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  9. Bruso413

    Bruso413 Initiate (0) Jan 17, 2013 Massachusetts

    As a single store owner in this tough economy managing to have a product on your shelves that is projected to be on the increase is almost non existent except for two things, food service and craft beer. Arguably we are in the golden age for craft beer in an economy that makes it very tough for anything to succeed. Like many things in life, especially in the beverage and food industry, products that spike very fast level off or eventually crash. Are we going to see a time where the market has been flooded by so many craft brewers that the demand will eventually drop off and see the market crash. Will breweries suffocate each other out with product and be left with only the strong?
     
  10. sandiego67

    sandiego67 Initiate (0) Feb 25, 2008 California

    Crash? No.

    Suffocate? Yes
     
  11. OMsweetOM

    OMsweetOM Initiate (0) Feb 1, 2011 California

    Unmentioned but important (if not critical) is brew dispersal and how it can lead way to the "Bad Beer" situation.
    While not necessarily a challenge for the individual brewer (since they should be smart enough to pour their brews at proper temp and gas ratio), their quality brews may emerge into the market (prior to production line distribution) via tap offerings and then be entirely dependent on how it's poured elsewhere. Hopefully, the emerging brewers are partnering with the right outlets that know how to pour beer and don't spit out brews per the big 3 standard.
    It'd be a shame if quality brew (trying to gain reputation) is underwhelmed and thus not properly received, leading the consumer to mistakenly think it's sub par and not worth a 2nd shot. This scenario would sadly be a shot in the foot at the attempted expansion by the brewer - in which they may have been better off keeping their cards close to their chest but then less capable of judging the market potential and becoming less likely to reach my taste buds.

    Taps everywhere, I ask that if you're going to support the craft brew industry - do it justice, do it right. Please do not maintain your entire line (save for perhaps one/two) at the ridiculous (outdated) industry standard. Consider the benefits of a little investment in tap regulation/control - you'll serve each beer the way it's intended and decrease the potential that tenured kegs turn flat.
    Not that it's commercially available, the Flux Capacitor (by Gabe Gordon of Beachwood Brewing) is a great example of what should be taking place everywhere that beer is tapped. Read about it here: http://www.details.com/blogs/daily-...cene-one-perfectly-poured-beer-at-a-time.html

    To the perfect pour - cheers!
     
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  12. oneraindog

    oneraindog Crusader (440) Oct 6, 2003 Pennsylvania

    Schumacher is not the average beer writer.

    http://www.beernet.com/about_us.php

    His work is followed closely by the entire US brewing industry on a subscription basis. if he didn't offer serious critical (and high quality) analysis breweries, wholesalers and retailers would not pay a subscription fee.
     
    dan027 likes this.
  13. Norica

    Norica Zealot (636) Feb 2, 2006 Massachusetts
    Trader

    Bingo. Harry Schumacher knows more about the beer industry than 99.99% of people in the beer world...I think the other .01 is JessKidden.



     
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  14. russmann

    russmann Initiate (0) Oct 3, 2007 Idaho

    This is my constant challenge. We're developing new business methods to deal with this, the good distributors are getting on board and the evil ones are getting left in the dust.
     
  15. errantnight

    errantnight Initiate (0) Jul 7, 2005 District of Columbia
    Trader

    Harry is just all over the map with this one. There is no clear thesis or even opinion most of the time. Let alone a definition of what the issue at hand really is, as many of the listed issues aren't terribly relevant to the industry as a whole's long term viability or isn't terribly relevant to individual brewers. All of these things are potential issues for some people, but really it justs seems to be an observational piece that as the industry segment grows the challenges change along with it. Which... Yeah. Economics. Groovy. It's fine as a conversation starter, I guess.
     
  16. lionking

    lionking Initiate (0) Nov 25, 2006 Pennsylvania

    I m waitting for the crash from all the breweries follow every fad i craft beer. They sell a bunch of one offs across a wide geographic market.The better model is to have a product people buy every week in the local market.
     
  17. rlcoffey

    rlcoffey Initiate (0) Apr 20, 2004 Kentucky

    Anyone want to interpret this for me?

    Combo of too much beer and too much posting from a phone maybe?

    I cant usually work around typos but I have no clue on this sentence.
     
  18. yemenmocha

    yemenmocha Grand Pooh-Bah (4,092) Jun 18, 2002 Arizona
    Pooh-Bah Society

    Sense of Entitlement / Smugness
    Bad Beer

    Very interesting to see it acknowledged as existing among brewers. I've seen the combination of these two in some brewers and I'm half laughing to myself and half shaking my head at some of the attitudes of some rather mediocre brewers. Also I think it could be stressed that even if these new, younger brewers are well-funded that they still have to stand out with excellent beers if they're going to make it. It's just so competitive now and so many other great options on retail shelves. Exceptions exist, most notably underserved markets where a new, mediocre place could be successful because there's in essence a shortage of any quality local competition.


    Flagship Fatigue

    I've worried about this here in AZ but there's a variety of factors for why this could happen. Arguably, Bell's Two-Hearted is a good candidate for Bell's flagship here but it seems like it is moving off shelves slowly compared to a year or two ago. I'm finding it harder, much harder in fact, to find fresh sixpacks and I shop nearly everywhere. Maybe distributor ordered too many? Maybe buyers reach for another IPA once the current stock is too old for them and then it snowballs into having product be even older and older? I don't know.


    Bad Beer - Again

    This one I'm seeing everywhere and that's why it's almost impossible to not believe there will be some sort of consolidation coming in future years. Even though I'm aware of it, I'm still surprised at how much bad beer is on shelves, on tap at places, etc. when there's so many clearly superior options out there. Maybe the continued existence of bad beers has something to do with craft beer now having more mainstream & minimally knowledgeable consumers, rather than more enthusiastic & educated folks who can tell that there is a very big difference between Stone IPA and Amnesia IPA.
     
  19. DogTown

    DogTown Initiate (0) May 17, 2006 California

    Harry sees all.

    You can look to the late-late nineties for how a mess got sorted out... Thing to remember is that demand never did slow one bit. Supply just got ahead of demand. The music never stopped, there just wasn't enought music for everyone. Some brewers fell backward toward their breweries and became profitable pubs. Some just faded away with a sigh. Some sold to other small breweries as labels only and became the walking dead. Some retreated to true cottage-style business and are still around doing nice things. Some went away completely, but most morphed somehow. In the debate between fire and ice, ice seems more common.
     
  20. BeastLU

    BeastLU Initiate (0) Dec 20, 2012 Virginia

    Or 8oz cans,
    16oz aluminum bottles,
    16oz plastic bottles,
    40s,
    18 oz bottles,
    32oz bottles,
    Ect ect ect
     
    mschofield likes this.
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