Creative vs Gimmicky

If it's trending outside of craft beer, then integrated into craft beer, it's a gimmick. Example: bacon everything - bacon beer

 

I think Stone's Enjoy by series is a gimmick. Also have to admit its a tremendous marketing strategy.

 

Creative - in general people on BA like the beer.
Gimmick - in general people on BA dislike the beer or find it underwhelming.

 

Having a gimmick isn't always a bad thing. Gimmicky things get on the local news, shared on social media, and get people talking about beer.

 

Creativity is defining the trend.

Gimmicky is chasing the trend.

 

If you're going to talk about gimmicks, there is a lot of breweries that are total gimmick "by definition" with their labeling, artwork, name of beer, etc. not that it means I don't like them. But, come on.

I'm a big Three Floyd's fanboy. I trade for it all the time and buy it the rare occasion I'm in Kentucky and see it on a shelf by chance. I repeat, I like them. But, they are the biggest user of gimmicks.




Tell me that label is not a gimmick. If that exact recipe of a Flanders Red was bottled and just said "Flanders Red" with a boring, European label, but still said Three Floyd's on the front would you buy it? I've thought about buying it just for the label.

 

If it's about the beer: creative.

If it's about what you add to the beer: gimmickry.

 

Generally, what some other people have said. Two sides of the same coin.

I mean I would agree with the definition that applies intent but how do you know that? It's not like you can just deduce from an action what the intent was.

 

Miller Lite and their packaging is a perfect example of using gimmicks to sell product.

 

Pretty much agree with this, and would argue one is a superset of the other instead of being a fine line. The question could be reworded which is the larger set? In my view, everything that is creative started out at a gimmick - "what if we aged our beer like whiskey!?!". Gimmick, but quite creative, perhaps.

I'd ask, for all that followed the originator's idea, is it a gimmick for them? They aren't "creating" anything new, so following hardly meets the definition in a larger sense, but if they are trying to perfect their recipe with the new technique, it doesn't quite meet the connotation of gimmick, to me. Just throwing a beer on some staves for a week so you can tout a Barrel-Aged beer does, though.

 

I don't think the two are necessarily mutually exclusive. A lot of gimmicky beers still involve some creativity, and plenty of creative beers still involve some sort of gimmick. Most of it seems to come down to personal preference based on what factors people feel most strongly about.
Just one example:
DFH Punkin - someone could appreciate how they use real pumpkin and a good blend of spices to craft a beer that really represents the season well, while another person could consider their use of pumpkin and a considerable amount of spice to be nothing but a gimmick.

 

It's worth remembering that "traditional" ingredients are the distillation of centuries of experimentation and usage of different materials.Nettles for example were widely used and brewers were largely restricted to what was locally available.Over time and having tried anything and everything in brewing the consensus over the entire brewing world boiled down to malt, hops and yeast.Apart from minor local variations of course.

 

Whether that makes them "best suited" is questionable, though. Back then they had to worry a lot more about availability of resources, contaminated ingredients, long shelf-live, how good certain harvests are gonna be etc etc.

There are probably myriads of reasons why we ended up at the most common ingredients.

 

It's remarkable that over the whole of Europe, soil and climate notwithstanding, different nations ,cultures and organisations , the end result was the same.

 

That's true. That's just what came to mind to me first. Before even tasting it though people can judge a beer...not by its taste but by the label, the style, the brewery, brewer, etc. Everyone comes at every new beer release unless they try it truly blind with some preconceived thoughts already that might affect their response to it

 

Yes and no. If it's advantageous to do it a certain way given a certain context the options will become limiting at a certain point where there won't be many options left - regardless of culture and the likes. Historical continuity and congruence pops up everywhere if investigated thoroughly.

Also, most of Europe - particularly the beer brewing nations aren't THAT much different in terms of climate, most of Europe is temperate zone weather. (and weather back then was more moderate in general)

 

I drink it because it's triple hops brewed.

 

Gimmicky: Beer served from a stuffed squirrel.

Creative: Beer served from a barrel-aged stuffed squirrel.

 

Isn't that EVERY release of EVERYTHING?