craft beer: the bubble is about to pop

Any thread with the word "beer" in it gets massive response, same on the Net.

Am I? According to the interweb and Rick Blankenmeier I'm spot on.

Consistency is the best measure of quality beer. A brewery's ability to replicate their flagship beer is a measure of their quality control. "Consistency is more indicative of quality than anything else," said Rick Blankenmeier, quality assurance supervisor at Stone Brewing Co. May 15, 2014

And as to the OP, there is no bubble. Not all craft brewers will succeed but the micros and craft brewing industry isn't going away anytime soon.

luv2run wrote:

Mr. Obvious wrote:

That's a good way to think about it. I live in a state where you cannot have a straight bar---a certain percentage of your sales have to come from food. Except breweries (and vineyards as well) are exempt from those rules. Closest thing to a bar that we have, actually.

The food angle got me looking. From the state of CO

https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/enforcement/liquor-frequently-asked-questions

For brew pubs 15% of gross sales must come from on premises sales. Food trucks take care of that for a lot of places in COS anyway.

I'm sure every state is different on these regulations. In my state, brew pubs are prohibited from serving prepared foods (they can serve limited pre-packaged snack items). If they want to serve prepared food they have to be licensed/inspected as a restaurant. Some go that route, but it is a small minority.

Many breweries do have food trucks on a ad-hoc basis, but those would not count as food sales for the brewery and the food trucks are under their own different set of regulations.

Another interesting point I recently learned--breweries are not required to pay any wage to their workers at all in my state. Technically the servers are considered volunteers and work for tips (and usually beer as well). Not sure how they got that loophole approved but they don't even have to pay them the 2.15 or whatever the minimum is for waiters.

I said workers above, but that only applies to servers. They have to comply with normal wage laws for people who work brewing, bottling, loading, etc.

Qualityisjob1 wrote:

Am I? According to the interweb and Rick Blankenmeier I'm spot on.

Consistency is the best measure of quality beer. A brewery's ability to replicate their flagship beer is a measure of their quality control. "Consistency is more indicative of quality than anything else," said Rick Blankenmeier, quality assurance supervisor at Stone Brewing Co. May 15, 2014

And as to the OP, there is no bubble. Not all craft brewers will succeed but the micros and craft brewing industry isn't going away anytime soon.

Quality control is important in brewing and and really in just about all production businesses.

A good quality control system is not the same as a good quality beer. You can argue semantics all you want.

Never said it tasted the SAME. Just that a lager or pilsner from a microbrew tastes SIMILAR to a Coors or a Budweiser. Ergo, it's not worth the extra money for me to pay out for a microbrew of that style of beer when a big brewery lager tastes SIMILAR. Go to IPAs, porters, etc. and of course they are different.

Those New England prices are brutal. Usually only the specialty beers hit those prices around here.

There's a place in my town that stocks lots of one-off specialty beers that will go for ~$20+ for a 20oz bottle. I just personally do not see why people would shell out for that apart from being able to brag about how they have had it, which to me is snobby. To each their own.

Qualityisjob1 wrote:

heyyo wrote:

You're confusing standardization, operation efficiency and consistency with quality.

Am I? According to the interweb and Rick Blankenmeier I'm spot on.

Consistency is the best measure of quality beer. A brewery's ability to replicate their flagship beer is a measure of their quality control. "Consistency is more indicative of quality than anything else," said Rick Blankenmeier, quality assurance supervisor at Stone Brewing Co. May 15, 2014

And as to the OP, there is no bubble. Not all craft brewers will succeed but the micros and craft brewing industry isn't going away anytime soon.

How does the use of cheap corn syrup in millercoors and AB products fit into your narrative?

Just picked up some Dial Up The Seven Digits from Trillium/Monkish....$22.20 a 4 pack - I'm brainwashed for this liquid I guess.

http://www.trilliumbrewing.com/trillium-dial-up-the-seven-digits

Mr. Obvious wrote:

AeroNerd wrote:

I've noticed this trend too. Many of the new craft breweries I see popping up are never going to get huge, but they provide a modest income to the owners, and the patrons go there because it's essentially the new neighborhood bar.

I'm not sure if that trend will reverse itself, so it's hard for me to predict if the "bubble" is going to pop.

That's a good way to think about it. I live in a state where you cannot have a straight bar---a certain percentage of your sales have to come from food. Except breweries (and vineyards as well) are exempt from those rules. Closest thing to a bar that we have, actually.

A few of them in NY even encourage ordering food to be delivered. Like a pizza, or sushi or something. I got a bunch of tacos and walked across the street to a small brewery a week ago.

There has been a lot of laws passed to support small town breweries, wineries, cideries in NY. From what I can tell, Cuomo has pushed a lot to make it as friendly for them as possible.

The NYS govt even has webpages outlining how to go about opening breweries. Huh, must be a big deal.

heyyo wrote:

john utah wrote:

You are clueless on this one.

Heyyo: here are some reasons why mass produced beer isn't as high of quality as craft beer. A, B, C....

John Utah: Tastes good to me!

Some other guy: An interesting contradiction in current rural american values, reinforced by the corporate advertising machine, is advocating for protectionist policies such as closed borders, tarifs on imports, and subsidies (i.e. handouts) for dying industries, while simultaneously having an utter distaste for local craft products.

John Utah: Shut up lib!

Another another guy: What does politics have to do with beer?

John Utah: You are clueless on this one!

Go away...

You're trying to sound really smart but failing. First, taste is obviously subjective. With respect to quality, tell me what that means to you in beer production and tell me exactly how Coors Banquet production methods and raw materials are of an inferior quality.

Look, I'm a big beer fan. I love many craft beers, but I can also appreciate several of the mass-produced beers. If anyone is being narrow minded and ill-informed it's you.

heyyo wrote:

Qualityisjob1 wrote:

Am I? According to the interweb and Rick Blankenmeier I'm spot on.

Consistency is the best measure of quality beer. A brewery's ability to replicate their flagship beer is a measure of their quality control. "Consistency is more indicative of quality than anything else," said Rick Blankenmeier, quality assurance supervisor at Stone Brewing Co. May 15, 2014

And as to the OP, there is no bubble. Not all craft brewers will succeed but the micros and craft brewing industry isn't going away anytime soon.

How does the use of cheap corn syrup in millercoors and AB products fit into your narrative?

Corn syrup, dextrose, Belgian candi sugar, and other adjuncts are used by brewers large and small. So I guess it fits my "narrative" just fine. The use of adjuncts does not preclude the production of a quality beer. In fact, that craft brewed double IPA you swoon over was probably brewed with "cheap" dextrose powder to boost the gravity.

By the way, Coors Light took home the bronze medal for the American-Style Light Lager at the most recent Great American Beer Festival, something I wouldn't expect a poor quality beer to do. And PBR and Coors Banquet took home gold and silver for American-Style lager, beating out several craft brewed competitors. How does that fit into your narrative?

It's not semantics at all. Not liking the style (American-style lager) does not mean the beer is low quality. I don't care for Victory's Golden Monkey, but that doesn't mean it is low quality. It just means that I wish they'd replace it in their sampler case with Dirtwolf or Headwaters.