Zombie Beer Brands

“Point 1: Good beer is good beer, no matter who makes it.

Point 2: Even if ABI owned breweries make good beer, he won't drink it.”

As a practical matter those two points seem to be contradictory as in how would somebody know/recognize that non-independent brewery is produced good beer if they refuse to drink it?

Also, BA pat61 stated: “When ordering a beer for personal enjoyment I order a craft beer as defined by the Brewer's Association.”

This is not just an ABI issue, pat61 would refuse to drink beers brewed by Lagunitas, Ballast Point, Founders,…

Cheers!

 

But he, very well, could have consumed said beers before they were purchased.

 

I suppose we could guess anything here until we hear further.

P.S. There were beer brands that have come out solely after breweries were declared to be non-independent (e.g., Lagunitas 12th of Never Ale).

 

Easy, when I am evaluating a beer, I am generally by myself in a location free of distractions. I evaluate it and post it here and also elsewhere. I will evaluate anything anyone puts in front of me and anything I can find. I have evaluated many beers that I would not drink for pleasure.

When I am drinking beer for pleasure, I am not evaluating it in the same way. If i am buying beer for pleasure I make a point of buying craft beer for many of the same reasons that Jason and Todd mentioned in their editorial.

 

Yes, thanks. I was imprecise (a face-saving way of saying "wrong") in that what I wrote is not exactly what I was trying to convey. They did not have the "dominant" market share they enjoy today for "much" of the post prohibition era.

 

You are absolutely right. And they also did and still do a lot of stuff - like delivering a fresh quality product to marker, and ensuring that the product arrives fresh to the consumer - that craft beer better figure out if it wants to remain viable.

I never said that they were dumbing down beer. I said that they were making beer all alike and we might infer from that they they were brewing to the lowest common denominator. During the post war period we also saw Wonder Bread, Velveta Cheese, TV dinners, and other atrocious concoctions. Advertising spent a good deal of effort trying to make both the products and the market as uniform as possible. There are definite connections between craft beer, craft cheese, craft bread etc. and it is a rejection of that uniformity.

 

You are kind of the encyclopedia of beer knowledge that pops up whenever needed. You also appear to remember everything anyone posts and keep us honest. Thank you!

 

There are indeed the connections you suggest, and many folks don't recognize that they are there. And I'd say you're spot on that it is a rejection of uniformity.

All those changes have been driven by changes in popular tastes in consumers. Advertising didn't cause such things to happen, since it only serves to inform people of alternatives and attempts to make one of them more desirable. There's actually a reasonable generalization about advertising. "The greater the frequency of advertising for competing products the less differentiation that actually exists among those products being advertised."

Artisanal bread bakers didn't advertise more than the makers of "wallpaper paste" bread. Artisanal cheese makers didn't advertise more than the makers of Cheese Whiz. Flavorful beer brewers have not advertised more than Big Beer brands. Yet all three have grown, and that growth of all three has taken place despite advertising/marketing on the part of the big kids.

 

I think we are both on the edge of something important, that might benefit our children if we could explain it better. Instead, i think I will have a beer but I think you have made an important comment.

 

I'll be joining you on that beer in about 20 min or so.

 

Yeah, and that's also the irony of the constant boasting about "5000+ breweries" today - AB has about twice the market share today than it did when there were only ~50 US brewing companies left at the dawn of "Craft" era...

 

As we said during the 60's - "If not now, when?"

 

As someone who has spent the better part of the last 35 years or so going out of my way to get the beer, food, movies, music, books, etc. , that I prefer, it never dawned on me to blame major corporations for keeping it from me; rather, I always thought "why is everyone else so stupid."

 

I know it's just an example, but I think I would prefer the taste of a Blue Moon over an Oberon.

That probably is sacrilege coming from a poster with a Michigan location tag, but in fairness, I am an adopted Michigander, being from Kansas originally...

Of course, they are different styles (witbier vs. American wheat) in spite of being within the same "wheat beer" order, so personal stylistic preference certainly comes into play.

Spot on.

The more unique your product, the more it "sells itself", as it were. Advertising is but a small subdivision of marketing and is generally used for increasing consumer awareness about the existence of your product, and communicating what makes it more worthy of purchase than other, competing products.

Craft Beer is a perfect example of how a product class can grow in market share without the traditional, expensive forms of advertising (TV, radio) because it presents something so different than the established product options.

 

Perhaps it never occurred to you because you recognized that businesses won't grow if they ignore their customers?

 

I'll tell you how, I can actually buy it now.

 

I just got my magazine, read this article, and was prepared to rant about the full-page Goose Island ads that appear every month on the pages of the mag (and Blue Moon, Lagunitas, and other beerglomerate brands), but I see there are none this month. I hope BA puts its money where its mouth is and only sells ad space to independent breweries.

 

The BA recently banned conglomerates from buying endcap space at GABF. Looks like Beer Advocate is following suit. Lines are being drawn friends.

 

IMO, it's about time for this type of congruence. I don't necessarily agree with it, but if you're going to make a stand against something, you probably shouldn't take money from them any more.