Reality check -part 1
We are being inundated with information about beer and brewing industry. ‘Craft’ beers are growing in leaps and bounds. New brewers are opening up at a pace we’ve never seen before. Consumers are getting tired of the same old brands. Cask beers are all the rage etc, etc, etc.
The issue that I have with all of this is simple. The information is coming from all directions and there is not one single place we can trust. Yesterday, I was given a sample of a ‘cask’ beer that was supposed to be a British Pale Ale style. The beer was cloudy, relatively flat and reeked of American hops. The poor bartender was only telling me what he was told and I’m sorry….it was wrong. Cask beers need to sit for a couple of days before being tapped in order to allow the beer to become clear. Secondly, the natural fermentation and carbonation should create some life to the beer (not flat) and thirdly, if you are making a British Pale Ale, it needs to be very gentle on the presence of hops, have a significant malt presence but still have some nice bitterness to it.
The problem with misinformation is that it does nothing to strengthen beer’s position in the alcohol beverage market. In the wine world, a Pino Grigio is simply that and nothing can be mistaken about it.
Secondly, growth rates of brewers are by and large difficult to assess. Most of the statistical information is coming from the Brewers Association of Canada and the volume they show is recorded volume. The only issue with this measurement is that there is a substantial amount of beer that is not being recorded, which makes it difficult at best to be accurate. Secondly, what is being measured is import versus domestic – not macro versus micro and for the same reasons.
Check out tomorrow’s Reality Check Part 2 for a look at the market itself and some of the upcoming issues.
Cheers
