Subject: Digest for the period 5/8/2005 - 5/9/2005 Date: Mon, 09 May 2005 01:03:01 -0400 Table of contents ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Re: Stupidity and the American consumer... (Annie Johnson) 2. Lawnmower Beer (Bev Blackwood II) 3. RE: Mega Brewers (JPRea`at`aol.com) 4. Re: Mega-Breweries (Jeff Renner) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Annie Johnson Date: Sat, 7 May 2005 09:46:28 -0700 (PDT) Subject: Re: Stupidity and the American consumer... Bev Blackwood II wrote: "As Homebrewers, we're the ones who are playing "Monster Garage" and turning out exotics on a Chevy budget!" This has to be bronzed or put it on a bumper-sticker! I love its truth. CLASSIC! Cheers Annie Johnson East Sacramento Brewers - E.S.B. --------------------------------- Yahoo! Mail Stay connected, organized, and protected. Take the tour ********************************************************************** * JudgeNet - the beer judge digest * * Send plain text only, no HTML, MIME, encoded text or attachments * * Manage your subscription online: http://synchro.com/judge * * Send subscription requests & changes to judge-request`at`synchro.com * ********************************************************************** ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Bev Blackwood II Date: Sun, 8 May 2005 08:13:36 -0500 Subject: Lawnmower Beer > That being said, I have a specific use for their products (Stop > laughing!): > a.. Imagine it's 115*F in the shade; wicked hot Summer and Satan > laughing! > b.. My Dad, calm as a cucumber, snorking down a Coors Original > Draft. I'm > abstaining cus that's wot he's got in his fridge (and nuthin' else). > c.. Who's the fool? (ahem) Alan hails us from someplace where heat is a memory, rather than a fact of life with this little ditty... (and the rest of a very good post, BTW) But down here in Satan...er... God's country, Texas, Saint Arnold Brewery has actually used this fact of life to their advantage with the appropriately named "Fancy Lawnmower Beer" which is, stylistically, a kolsch. It's a one of their best selling beers. Now speculate for a moment and consider how many Blondes, Wheats and their ilk fail to describe exactly what they're best at, being refreshing (but not overly inebriating) on a hot summer's day. Had Saint Arnold named the beer for what it is, all they'd be getting is puzzled looks from the average consumer. (Trust me, I've described a Kolsch so often for Saint Arnold visitors that I can almost say it in my sleep!) Sometimes marketing has its place. The beer: http://www.saintarnold.com/products/profiles/lawnmower.html -BDB2 Bev D. Blackwood II Brewsletter Editor The Foam Rangers http://www.foamrangers.com P.S. My all-time favorite beer name (to date): AK-47 Malt Liquor from Elysian in Seattle. ********************************************************************** * JudgeNet - the beer judge digest * * Send plain text only, no HTML, MIME, encoded text or attachments * * Manage your subscription online: http://synchro.com/judge * * Send subscription requests & changes to judge-request`at`synchro.com * ********************************************************************** ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: JPRea`at`aol.com Date: Sun, 8 May 2005 12:23:04 EDT Subject: RE: Mega Brewers I feel like I'm in a somewhat unique position to comment on this topic. In addition to having been a homebrewer for over 20 years and a recent BJCP exam taker, I spent part of my career at the mega brewers having managed Miller's Lite beer brand and served as the company's Director of New Products for a couple of years in the 1990's. (no comments on career choice, ok? This is a dangerous group to let that fact known to) When I first got to Miller, I thought my mission would be to spread the gospel of great beer and help mass market Amercan's develop a set of real tastebuds. Reality, though, is very different from the world that we home and professional brewer's see through our amber colored bottle bottoms. Far from what we all want to believe, most of mass market America actually likes these beers. I know its painful (someone ought to develop a 12-step program on dealing with this), but they like these beers. Revelation! As brewers, judges and self-professed connosiuers, we work hard to rationalize this leaning toward barley-pop's. A few of my favorites from over the years, which have been rehashed in the past few days here: 1. "It's all advertising and marketing." The big brewer's have convinced people that this is what beer is supposed to taste like and they've followed like sheep. (I wish marketing were that easy and that sales were just a function of dollars spent, but there's a thing called "product acceptance" and "customer satisfaction" that are pretty important to generating repeat business, and the mega brewer's do have droves of repeat customers). Our implied role: To serve as shepherd and lead the poor sheep to greener pastures filled with real, tasty beer! 2. "Its all about low prices." The big brewer's use their scale to keep their costs and prices very low and since most of America is cash conscious, they buy it. Oh, if only a "real" beer could get enough scale to compete on price it would be a different world! Certainly, there is a segment out there to whom price is the most critical element; to them, though, even Bud can see expensive, which opened up a whole segment occupied by Busch, Milwaukee's Beast, and Keystone. 3. "The world needs a good lawnmower beer for hot weather." It must be occassion driven! I can assure you from my professional experience that while the business does have a pronounced seasonality, there's still plenty of Miller Lite and Budweiser sold in Minnesota in January and I don't consider either snowmobiling or sled dog racing the same as mowing that lawn. The bottom line, much as I was sorry to come to its realization, is that there is a market for all of these beers because there's a market there. A lot of people prefer them. They do serve a place. They are less expensive. It's the beer to have when you're having more that 1 (or six). I used to marvel when we'd find guys in focus groups who would say things like, "I come home from work and suck down a 12-pack, and my beer is (insert megabrew here). I don't drink anything else." Much to our dismay, these guys don't necessarily find their beer "lacking", "tasteless" or any of the other perjoritive adjectives we "connosieurs" like to toss around. My brother is one of them (perhaps not on the 12-pack a night issue, but his beer of choice is Budweiser). I've tempted him with Mirror Pond Obsidian Stout, I've plied him with Hale's Drawbrige Blonde, I've tried to lure him with Pyramid Hefeweizen. Just yesterday, I served him up a homemade double chocolate stout I made (darn tasty beer, if I say so myself). His reaction? "Hey, that's really good. Thanks for letting me try it. Can you pass me my Bud?" On a hot day, that may even be followed by, horror of horrors, "Got any Clamato I can pour in the can?" Bottom line, I believe that consumers like my brother (and all the Ernies and Bob's that I met while at Miller) have found their place and that's why the craft industry, much loved and cherished, remains just a small part of the beer world. Certainly, over time, education will help and I'd love to see a day when everyone "traded up" to a nice craft beer. But let's all remember that for many people -- people who drive BILLIONS (!) of dollars in sales every year -- their needs are met well by the mega-offerings and they probably don't see this so much as "trading up" but as "Well, that was interesting." "And that's all I have to say about that." - F. Gump Regards, Jeff Rea Bellevue, WA ********************************************************************** * JudgeNet - the beer judge digest * * Send plain text only, no HTML, MIME, encoded text or attachments * * Manage your subscription online: http://synchro.com/judge * * Send subscription requests & changes to judge-request`at`synchro.com * ********************************************************************** ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Jeff Renner Date: Sun, 8 May 2005 16:13:36 -0400 Subject: Re: Mega-Breweries Self-described "Simply Alan, National near Seattle" wrote a long, "novello" which I won't reply to in general, but two glaring factual mistakes stand out: >Prohibition took everyone by surprise: Read your history! Sorry to be blunt, but I have read my history, a lot, and prohibition took no one by surprise. It grew out of the temperance movement of the mid 19th century, which was a part of a widespread American phenomenon which also included abolition of slavery, women's suffrage, universal suffrage, prison reform, naval reform, and religious revivalism (the "Great Awakening"). Maine went dry in 1851, and in the next four years, 12 more states went dry. By the turn of the 20th century, half of the states and many other local jurisdictions were dry. By the time the Eighteenth Amendment was ratified in 1919, most of the states were already dry. No one was taken by surprise. Some good online histories of prohibition are at http://college.hmco.com/history/readerscomp/rcah/html/ah_071600_prohibitiona.htm http://prohibition.osu.edu/ http://www.mcwilliams.com/books/aint/402.htm American prohibition was a fascinating, and frightening social phenomenon. It was largely made up of rural, anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic, conservative WASPs, but many others were swept along in their fervor. >after 1932 when FDR was elected President, he asked Congress to amend the >Volstead Act to raise the limit of beer to 3.2% which effectively killed >Prohibition. But the World was at War The world was not at war for another 6-1/2 years. Roosevelt was elected in November 1932 and inaugurated on March 4, 1933; the Volstead Act was amended on March 22, 1933; and on December 5, 1933, the Twenty-first Amendment was ratified, ending national prohibition. World War II began in Europe with the German invasion of Poland in September, 1939, and the US entered the war in December, 1941. Jeff -- Jeff Renner in Ann Arbor, Michigan USA, JeffRenner`at`comcast.net "One never knows, do one?" Fats Waller, American Musician, 1904-1943 ********************************************************************** * JudgeNet - the beer judge digest * * Send plain text only, no HTML, MIME, encoded text or attachments * * Manage your subscription online: http://synchro.com/judge * * Send subscription requests & changes to judge-request`at`synchro.com * **********************************************************************