Quench Your Thirst

On June 19th, I will be partnering with Barmetrix during a workshop on how to prevent issues that affect draught profitability like the one pictured above.

The workshop runs from 12-4 and is being hosted by Brazen Head Pub in Liberty Village.  Tickets are $125 each and can be purchased at natascha.wellsteing@barmetrix.com or you can call Natascha at 416-367-2263.

The Barmetrix series of workshops have been very well received and this one will definitely help to increase draught quality awareness and profitability.

Hope to see you there. 

Cheers

Summer is just around the corner and the beer events are starting to happen.  On Saturday, June 8th, each of the Duke Pubs will be hosting a celebration of beer and each pub will actually feature a different brewery/beer.

I am proud to be hosting a session at the Duke of Devon in the financial district.  So come and join me at 2:30pm.

Cheers

We are very proud to be collaborating with award winning Grand River Brewing to host two summer Prud’homme Beer Certification sessions.  Prud’homme Beer Sommelier, Doug Appeldoorn will be the facilitator for the June 9th and 23rd sessions.

Come and check out this very cool little brewery before it gears up for expansion in the near future.  There are still 6 seats left.

Go to http://www.beercertificate.ca/level-1.html to register now!

I had the pleasure of visiting New York City earlier this week because I was launching Prud’homme Beer Certification to a NYC beer distributor.  They started a learning and development process last year and wanted to continue the program and settled into Prud’homme as the driver of their beer knowledge.

Along the way, I was given an great initial and brief education into the world of beer distribution in America and I can honestly tell you that this business is both very profitable and extremely complex, to a point where my head was spinning.

I also realized that in Canada, we did not even come close to understanding the devastation of Hurrican Sandy on our American cousins.  The personal tragedy was bad enough with people’s homes being totally destroyed and swept away by Mother Nature but the impact on business was equally as horrible.  This particular distributor lost millions of cases of product when the four foot water surged into their warehouse.

A lot of beer sales people in Canada struggle to develop a portfolio strategy where we can absorb the intracacies of a wide and varied product line.  I understand this issue - it can be tough - when I started in the business, we had a beautiful selection of 18 different draughts and over 20 different bottled beers and I thought that was complex.  How narrow minded I was back then.

The distribution system in the U.S is highly regulated and varies from state to state.  Taxation rates are also different based on city and state needs.  This C.O.D business can also be problematic for the retailer and hospitality provider because non payment can result in an immediate suspension of their liquor license.

Just to give you an idea of how one distributor goes to business, I’ve listed some of their key statistics

• they have 16 different beer suppliers and over 60 different brands and over 5000 different SKU’s
• this one distributor has over 6000 retail accounts and over 5000 hospThe itality accounts and that is only in a very small radius of NYC
• they ship out 100,000 cases of beer a day

One last thing I want to add and it blew my mind.  The whole beer snobbery thing is rapant in America as well as here.  It turns out that even brewers like Anchor and Brooklyn are now being discarded as non-craft because they are getting too big for those ‘craft’ afficianados.

Here’s my commentary - first of all, while the variety of styles being offered by many newcomers to the industry are driving interest, they are not driving the overall success of the industry.  Yes, Virginia, most beer drinkers are still looking for sessionable beers that are well made and consistent in flavour and quality.

Furthermore, when did success suddenly exclude you from being considered a quality, craft brewer?  We should applaud success not dismiss it.

Cheers 

It’s amazing what a week’s vacation can do for the body, mind and soul.

It’s great to be back and at it again, so here are some of my thoughts / comments.

• Congratulations to my friends at Great Lakes Brewery for winning Brewery of the Year at the Canadian Brewing Awards
• Corona is not one of the beers I would normally drink but it was amazing on the beach in Mexico - big surprise, no limes in the beer down there
• If you are a member of LinkedIn (Facebook for business) and you are endorsing people for certain skills, are you expecting a return endorsement?  If so, don’t hold your breath for me - it’s not that I don’t believe in what you do, it’s just that I really don’t spend much time in that forum
• if all goes to plan this year, we should be able to add an additional 500-1000 graduates to Prud’homme Beer Certification Level 1
• Level 1 classes are now available at Grand River Brewing in Cambridge and Flying Monkeys Brewery in Barrie - tell your friends!

Cheers

to still see a group of people who don’t understand the greater scheme of things.  I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised by the small minded thinking of some people but I am always disappointed when someone boos or makes disparaging noises when a big brewer wins an award and this happened on Tuesday night when Labatt won a gold for Shocktop.

I always wondered what was going through some parents heads when inviting classmates to their child’s birthday party - if you are going to send a public invitation, it is just immoral and thoughtless to not include everyone.  

The same applies here.  These awards are called the Ontario Brewing Awards - and therefore are open to anyone who brews and sells beer in Ontario.  This is one case where size just doesn’t matter, nor should it.  No one owns the right to be a ‘craft’ brewer.  Craftsmanship is a mindset about creating artful and inspiring beers and I’ve seen this ability in large and small brewers.  Ownership, whether Canadian or foreign should also have nothing to do with this award ceremony.

People who live in glass houses should not throw stones!  Quite quaint to use this saying but I’ll explain.  Here’s something to consider:  it is not nationalistic or patriotic to use a concept to segregate your position.  For those of you who believe that foreign ownership should not be allowed in the brewing industry, you should stop and take a look around your house and take inventory of all of your possessions and note their origin.  I’m certain it’s not all made here.

To further drive my point home, where does this exclusionary policy stop… do we only allow brewers who are using Canadian ingredients…..do we only allow brewers whose equipment is made in Canada…..you can see by now, that this whole argument is not only ridiculous, it is also prejudicial.

I have spent my entire career in this industry trying to get everyone to play nicely in the same sandbox and quite frankly, I think events like the Ontario Brewing Awards make giant steps toward a brewing community that is inclusive, not exclusive.  We should celebrate the glory of beer in Ontario and Canada and that means that our events and competitions should be open to all members.

It`s time to put this petty bullshit aside and band together to work towards a unified position against other alcohol beverages.  Or, we can continue this childish nonsense and watch wine take our share.

Up to you!

Cheers

was that we built a community event.  It was great that we had 46 brewers who entered their beers for competition and even better that we had 12 new brewers come aboard.

I had a great opportunity to meet a bunch of them including Left Field, Bayside, Get Well and the list goes on. What I truly regret is that I did not have the chance or time to meet everyone.  I know that Kilannan Brewery drove an awful long way from Owen Sound and would have enjoyed the pleasure of a quick chat but time got away from me.

I also really enjoyed watching the smiles on the faces of Lon Ladell from Big Rig in Ottawa and also the gents from Clocktower.  Both of these Ottawa brewers garnered quite a few prizes and Lon, who originally brewed at Spinaker’s Brewpub in Victoria also won Newcomer of the Year for his Pilsner.

The Gladstone proved to be a wonderful host and venue and gave a great vibe to the night.

Thank you all for coming and for providing us with great beers!

Cheers

Last night was a wonderful gala evening for Ontario Brewers.  We celebrated at the Gladstone Hotel and handed out a ton of hardware to well deserving brewers.

For a snapshot of the winners, go to www.ontariobrewingawards.com

Cheers

Prud’homme Beer Certification Level 1 courses continue to sell out!  

Our latest offering for Summer starting on June 3 just sold out.  I continue to be amazed at the enthusiasm for beer education here in Canada.  We had a great class last night to finish up the latest classroom session and already folks were talking about signing up for Level 2.

The online version continues to be strong as we are engaging both breweries and hospitality providers across the country and now, south of the border.

Our next session of Prud’homme Level 1 will be held at Grand River Brewing on Sunday, June 9 and Sunday, June 23 from 11am until 5pm each day.  We have only 8 spots left for this, our first venture into Southern Ontario.

After that, we’ve got a session in August at Flying Monkeys in Barrie.

Cheers

One of my Prud’homme Beer Certification students is an owner of a new brewery in Greece.  They are situated on the beautiful island of Tinos and are interesting in creating a ‘Sabbatical’ type program for experienced guest brewers who are willing to commit to 4 months in paradise.

They are currently brewing a Czech style Pilsner and you can grab more information from their facebook page.

You can also contact Elina Dallas directly at eodallas@gmail.com or at 416-801-3073

Cheers