Bradford on Beer
Beer Wars Live Redux
Posted April 17, 2009 16 Comments | Post a Comment
Beer Wars Live has come and gone, with extremely mixed reviews. I have to say it wasn’t a bad way to spend an evening, but it was rife with issues.
A half full theatre with raucous, interactive beer lovers, who cheered, applauded and laughed throughout the two hours. And the film and panel certainly captivated all, bringing out some interesting questions and ideas. All in all, Anat Baron did a nice piece of work that will, at least, inspire the conversation that she talked about in the press.
The difficulty for this movie, or any movie, about the beer industry lies in the ease in which anyone can skirt over the complexity of the issues in favor of looming, and very sexy, points of view, such as David vs. Goliath. Most of what was covered in the movie, access to market, is a 20 to 40 year old story, fought every single day by all the breweries in the industry, and is far more complex then simply a legion of heroic entrepreneurs stymied by the world’s biggest, baddest, brewery.
Anat’s portrayal skirted over too many critical issues. Three-tier system is set up as the impediment for entry? A lot of today’s defense of the three-tier system is against the onslaught of mega-retail. Were Wall-Mart to dictate the terms of beer distribution, a majority of today’s wholesalers would be gone and much of the present access to market for craft brewers would wither. It’s a complicated issue.
The mere success of both craft brewers on the panel, Stone Brewing and Dogfish Head Brewery, pointed to improved access to market. The consumer spokesperson. Todd Alstrom of Beer Advocate, and the industry spokesperson, Charlie Papazian of the Brewers Association, both revealed the secret of craft brewer’s success. They are making great beer that more and more people like to drink. And the distribution industry has come around to recognizing that. Those supermarket sets from the movie are far from representative now. More frequently there is a wall of light lagers and another wall of craftbrewers.
The telling difference between the near total demise of the pre1970 American beer industry and today’s revolution could lie in the beers themselves. It’s a pity Anat can’t drink alcohol, because that might have been the pivot point of her whole narrative. Both she, and noted beer historian Maureen Ogle, might have curbed their dour predications of the fate of the small guys if they were more “immersed” in the flavor profiles and the consumers’ passion for these beers.
That certainly is the case for the speakers. Both Stone and Dogfish Head make uncompromising, off-centered beers for a unique, but expanding, market. The breweries of yesterday, made light lagers, which could only compete on branding because the flavors weren’t that distinctive. (Perhaps this is the problem with the struggling New Century Brewing, and not funding or restricted access to market.)
Today’s craft brewers make beers of intense personality and make them with love and passion. As Greg and Sam both said, they could never become an Anheuser-Busch. Their culture is too far from that.
This also brings up Anat’s portrayal of the political clout of the beer industry, which works on so many more levels than just defense of the three tier. Alcohol is the stock villain in any public policy debate with armies dedicated to the destruction of the supply of alcohol. Taxation, regulation, and public access are a few of the weapons of the detractors. Presenting them as well meaning people unfairly labeled as “neoprohibitionist,” skirts over their zero-tolerance agenda which unites in opposition all members of the beer industry.
Furthermore, the rise of craft brewers has lead to their own version of political clout. In fact, Charlie’s trade association’s budget may actually eclipse that of each of other two leading industry associations. State craft brewing guilds are now valued allies with other industry associations on certain issues and can effectively counter pressure on their interests.
I am not so naïve as to think we’re all one big happy family. After all this is a capitalist economy and we are talking about business. But craft brewers kept repeating the same mantra. They are about beer, unusual and exciting beers, not about maximizing shareholder value. This gives them an edge, which as Greg pointed out, they can effectively exploit through direct contact with consumers. The present Big vs. Little crisis of faux craft beers coming out of big brewers is deflated by using the Internet to correct potentially misleading breweries of origin.
This is an industry in continued evolution. There is no end game. There is no steady state. There is only change. Beer Wars Live freezes all of that, which is an injustice to the accomplishments of yesterday and today and the challenges of tomorrow. It is a snapshot, a point of reference, and a possibly beginning point of a discussion. After all, isn’t it time our consumers were fully apprised of our industry. And Anat has made a good beginning.
hey dad , im still in washington, at pike breweriry, and i thought of your blog, so were here in the pike brewery back ofice reading it, im realy proud of what you have done and glad your my dad, i’m realy starting to miss you up here, so see you tomorow? at the airport, or not thats ok too, see you soon then. (=^.^=) i love you.
i realy like the blog too
I was going to leave a comment saying this is a great post, but hard to top the one from the kid.
And I’m not about to tell you I love you in such a public forum.
Ditto to what Stan said. I’ll add to that; may our daughters always remian in the “glory years.” ( a term you taught me).
Let me also add; I thought your blog post was right on, word for word. I could not have said it better.
See you in Boston; diiner Tuesday and our annaul Starbucks meeting too I hope!
Thanks, Stan for the props and for not telling everyone you love me.
What a wonderful thing to say and thanks for reading my blog. Washington is a wonderful place especially Pike Brewery. Charles and Rose Ann have done a fantastic job with that place. They are the original beer and foodie’s. See you tomorrow and I love you too, Honey. Dad
Thanks for the comments, Tom. Dinner Tuesday. Coffee Friday? Coming home Saturday for peculiar reasons.
Nice review. I found this film entertaining, but also a bit one sided and focused. It had some neat statistics, but did belabor some points and, I believe, focused too much on certain personalities in the film. The Moonshot gal, for example, took up far too long in the film. Especially given that she seemed out of place when compared to unique brewers like Dogfish and Stone.
Thanks, Paul. It was interesting and the consensus is Rhonda’s in a different line of work that Greg or Sam. She has her own challenges. What would have made the movie even more interesting would have been a discussion of why those two guys have succeeded, given the access to market challenges outlined in the film, and what are their challenges coming up given the Bigs. vs. Littles thesis of the movie. Maybe that’s the next film!
Excellent points. I couldn’t agree more with your views of this film and discussion. I too felt that too much time was spent on Moonshot. I see the value of the startup business, where Stone and Dogfish have already arrived. Additionally, there is interest in a beer star from Boston Beer finding trouble breaking-in. However, it would have been more insync with the craft industry to have a real craft brewer start-up as the focus. The A-B points in the film are not surprising. A-B is in competition just like any other business in America. The only key to sucess is inovation. If A-B want to follow, it just proves we’re doing something right.
Thanks, Craig. The conversation continues. I appreciate you following this discussion.
My “dour” predictions have nothing to do with the BEER — they are based on my reading of history and the nature of capitalism. All the good beer in the world ain’t gonna change the way capitalism works.
Capitalism isn’t a static entity and winners change from epoch to epoch. What if in ten years Sam or Greg are sitting on top of the 6th and 7th largest breweries in the United States, running them the same way and making the same beer, and the world’s largest brewery has yielded market share because diminishing returns suggests they are substantially more profitable at 40% than at 50%. Capitalism isn’t a steady state entity, but punctuated equilibrium. Isn’t predicting the future a lot of fun, Maureen!
I would have enjoyed hearing the perspective of someone like Ken at Sierra Nevada or Kurt or Rob at Widmer. They have been around a bit longer than Stone or Dogfish and besides Anchor and a handful of others, they really entered the market at time of complete big 3 domination.
Thanks for your thoughts Daniel.
Good point. A few battle scared veterans would have added another element to the picture, especially someone like Nick Matt who has been in the trenches for quite awhile. It’s very complex and not easily grasped in one film. Thanks for reading, and for writing, Miles.