Category: BeerAdvocate Mag

The Curious Case of Blue Moon…

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Forty years ago, people described Coors’s flagship Banquet Beer as having a ‘mystique’ to it. Loyal fans would prod, coax, and bribe their westward traveling friends to lug cases of the beer back to the East Coast. The ‘Coors mystique’ may seem long out-of-date now but the Colorado brewery is slowly building a new mysterious brand.

The buzz in the beer industry is all about the explosive growth of craft beer. In the last three years, the category has boomed with 31-percent growth. While the news is a well-deserved reward for craft brewers, the accolades have obscured some of the more significant repercussions of their accomplishments. In response to the American palate’s sweeping shift away from lifeless beers, most corporate breweries have buried their heads in Olympic-size fermentation tanks or released their own ill-conceived, faux-craft brands. The approaches have seen little success, save for one.

The worst kept secret among hardened beer geeks is that Blue Moon Belgian White is brewed by the Coors Brewing Company (now Molson Coors), but word has not yet leaked out to the general drinking public. What people may not know is that the wildly popular Blue Moon is probably America’s best-selling craft beer brand. You may ask, ‘but what about Sam Adams Boston Lager, the quintessential craft beer?’ Despite Boston Beer’s recent successes, I’d wager that more orange-accented pints of Colorado’s sleeper wheat beer pour from American taps then do glasses of the American patriot’s namesake lager. (Both breweries declined to release actual production numbers).

Like a flush hipster who toils to keep his conservative parental benefactors a secret, Blue Moon is in no rush to take you home to meet momma and poppa Coors. Blue MoonCoors employees created the brand in 1995 at the company’s own brewpub, the SandLot Brewery at Coors Field. Now produced under the Blue Moon Brewing Company label and brewed in three locations, Coors has enjoyed steady growth with the brand, fueled in part by its intentional disassociation from the brand. And the Coors people willingly admit this. “It’s not that we hide the fact that it’s brewed by Coors,” says Blue Moon’s Brand Director, Ken Hehir. “We’re just not openly advertising that fact.”

And here starts the craft beer lover’s political problem. Should it matter that Blue Moon is brewed by America’s third largest brewery, one that produces more than 23-million barrels of beer per year? Countless dedicated craft beer drinkers have seen a Blue Moon tap handle, ordered and enjoyed the brand, only to later discover the Coors connection. While they certainly have an understandable objection about truth in labeling (a complaint they can also lodge with many contract-brewed craft brands), it doesn’t change the fact they probably liked the beer when they tasted it blind to beer politics. In the end, shouldn’t the question always be, is the beer any good?

While popularity is certainly no indication of quality, an honest review of Blue Moon shows it to be an entirely respectable wheat beer. Brewed with malted white wheat, oats, coriander, and orange peel, the unfiltered beer is a pleasant mix of floral, citrus, light wheat and yeast flavors that are well suited for summertime enjoyment.

In dismissing Blue Moon as another big brewery poseur brand, contrarian beer lovers miss two larger points. First, in reporting the achievements of American craft brewers, the Brewers Association doesn’t include Blue Moon and its double-digit growth volume. While Blue Moon may not qualify for membership in the ‘craft beer’ club, it’s certainly a charter member of the ‘better beer’ segment. When added to the tally sheet, the Blue Moon brand’s explosive growth is perhaps the best evidence of a sea change in the American palate.

The second point is perhaps the least appreciated. In contrast to the sometimes-juvenile efforts of America’s two largest breweries, Coors has long treated the Blue Moon brand in a remarkably innovative manner: with respect. Blue Moon’s artistic point-of-sale materials, refusal to run television ads, and its dedication to the ritual of serving the luminous wheat beer in proper, shapely glassware speaks to the gentle, considered treatment of this brand. In comparison, one need only look at the absurd tap handles for Anheuser-Busch’s own line of seasonal draft beers to get the sneaking suspicion the brewing giant is trying to make craft beer look like a bunch of clowns.

In the new era of craft beer, the Coors mystique has clearly returned with good reason. Only this time, beer lovers don’t have to get their traveling friends to make beer runs for them.

Article appeared in the July 2007 issue of BeerAdvocate Magazine.

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Here’s To (Respecting) Beer!

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For beer advocates who engage in daily public relations campaigns in the name of better beer, the issue of respect is paramount. These dedicated enthusiasts spread the good news about their love of beer to others one pint at a time. They sidle up to strangers in pubs to influence what they’re drinking, listen stealthily when orders are considered, and at just the right time they offer praise for their favorite local brewery or beer.

For a long time, America’s biggest brewers didn’t seem particularly interested in helping this rag-tag band of beer missionaries spread the gospel of respecting beer. The big guys had their own agenda and it often involved promoting beer through flatulent horses, talking frogs, and bikini-clad twins. And for a long time, the T&A advertising strategy worked well with the beer pong and bong crowd. But then something happened: consumers started to care what beverages other people saw them drinking. Beer’s sales and overall market share stalled and then contracted. Newspaper and magazine stories heralded the death of beer.

The big brewers freaked at the news. After years of following the same crass marketing playbook, beer suddenly had a bad image and a black eye. In a remarkable confession to the Wall Street Journal, Miller’s marketing chief Tom Long took responsibility for the problem. “People will tell you that beer is not sophisticated enough, or stylish enough, to compete with wine and spirits,â€? he told the journal. “Why do they think that? Well, I believe it’s because we told them to.â€?

America’s largest brewer was nearly scared straight by beer’s alarming decline. With 50-percent market share, Anheuser-Busch had good reason to be concerned and its executives decided against simply changing a few ads. Instead, the company launched a highly publicized effort designed to elevate public opinion and appreciation of beer.

HTBThe ‘Here’s To Beer’ campaign debuted in February 2006 with a high-profile Super Bowl ad showing beer drinkers clinking glasses and offering toasts in a multitude of locations and languages. A-B approached other brewers to seek their input and support for the campaign but with little success. Miller and Coors declined the invitation to participate and larger craft brewers remained skeptical about A-B’s dedication and ability to promote respect for beer. A few print ads followed the television spot, but soon thereafter the campaign went dormant.

Nearly a year later, and with many media types wondering aloud about the future of the campaign, A-B released the second phase of Here’s To Beer. In March, the HTB website was overhauled, with web video added as well as a useful interactive educational component called ‘The Beer Connoisseur.’ The campaign also released American Brew, an admirable and historically balanced documentary on the history of American brewing by filmmaker Roger Sherman that premiered on the History Channel in April.

While A-B’s efforts have made some significant contributions to public appreciation for beer, the HTB campaign has occasionally lost focus on its focal point: respecting beer. Of all efforts associated with the recent relaunch of HTB, one of the most advertised was a video series featuring a comedian playing several historical characters. With its rich traditions and history, the features could be mined for both laughs and respectful moments about beer.

The initial spots fail tragically on all counts. In one video, visitors are invited to enjoy a beer with, of all people, Genghis Khan. The Mongolian conqueror begins by complaining about his undeserved “bad rap.� He whines that just because “you plunder a few villages and sodomize the inhabitants� that everybody thinks you’re a bad guy. He continues his tirade by talking about buggery and invites the visitor to assault the bar “wench� when she comes by. While a beer sits next to him on the table, he never references it. The Ben Franklin spot, in which the founding father talks about go-go dancers at Studio 54 and his desire to “impregnate the barmaid tonight,� fares no better. At least Franklin actually drinks the beer in between telling you that “Poor Richard was almost called Big Richard if you know what I’m talking about.�

Now if I was watching an ad for Bud Light, I might not give a second thought to the crassness of the history spots. Even if you find Genghis’s rant hilarious, if your sole purpose is to elevate public appreciation of beer, associating it with anal rape and bar maid assaults hardly seems the best way to generate respect.

While the HTB campaign isn’t perfect, the failure of Miller or Coors to make this an industry-wide initiative is disappointing to say the least. Smaller craft brewers, including the Boston Beer Company, can only do so much to promote public appreciation of beer. In the face of gains made by spirits and wine producers, the bigger brewers need to recognize this is a time for industry unity. Beer advocates can’t achieve true public respect for their favorite beverage if the biggest players continue to publicly disrespect beer.

–A version of this article appeared in the June 2007 issue of BeerAdvocate Magazine.

—PostScript: After I conducted a lengthy interview with Tom Shipley, director of Global Industry Development at Anheuser Busch, the Genghis Khan spot I discuss here disappeared from the Here’s To Beer website. It was replaced with a spot that does not contain much of the content I criticized in the column.

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Judging Beer: What Is A Medal Really Worth?

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In the shadow of George Ferris’s massive wheel at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, one of the earliest beer judging disputes brewed. More than twenty brewers vied for the top prize, with Anheuser-Busch’s Budweiser and an offering from the Pabst Brewing Company splitting several awards. The competition ended in controversy, with the Pabst beer narrowly besting Budweiser. Fast-forward a century, Pabst Blue Ribbon is still milking that slender victory.

While beer competitions have long been controversial, medals and awards seem as plentiful as caps on bottles. With countless accolades slapped on the side of six-packs, consumers are wise to learn about a competition’s methods before they plunk down their money on an “award-winning� beer.

Beer, by its very nature, is an inherently subjective commodity and quality can’t be determined by simply hooking up a pint to a machine. To bring order to the chaotic world of judging beer, there are two main approaches: let everyone pick their favorite or establish some ground rules. Because the fickle results of popularity contests change frequently and provide drinkers with little concrete information, the structured competitions tend to be the more respected.

Style guidelines distinguish meaningful competitions from your local county fair by removing a large degree of the subjectivity from the evaluation of beer. Two of the highest regarded competitions are the Great American Beer Festival and the World Beer Cup, both run by the Brewers Association. GABFMedal These events deserve respect for the sheer number of entries (2400 for the GABF, 2200 for WBC) and the use of strict style guidelines by professional judges in a blind process. The Brewers Association’s 2007 guidelines recognize a mind-blowing 125 different styles, with painstaking descriptions of each category of beer. The downside for non-conformist brewers in these competitions is that style selection is critical. Enter your beer in the wrong category and an otherwise flawless beer may come home empty-handed.

But even when judges follow style guidelines, consumers can’t blindly rely on the results. For example, The Great International Beer Festival, held annually in Rhode Island oddly promotes itself as America’s largest international beer festival, although it judged a whopping fourteen imported entries from six countries last year. While the competition might otherwise be strong, it’s hardly a cage match between the world’s greatest beers.

Consumers also need to be discerning about contests sponsored by private organizations. Of these events, perhaps the best known is the World Beer Championships run by the Beverage Testing Institute in Chicago. BTI’s medal-based competition is run a bit differently from other events, with less weight placed on style adherence and more on a brewer’s creativity within a certain category. In a laudable twist, the institute’s respectable panel of judges tastes products throughout the year instead of packing all beer judging into less than a week of sessions.

BTIThe way an organization awards medals can also be a telling aspect of how consumers should value the honor when choosing a beer. The BTI contest employs the familiar 100-point scale to score beers and awards platinum (96-100), gold (90-95), silver (86-89), and bronze medals (80-84). Beers that fall below 80 points receive a ‘not recommended’ finding. Of the 1650 beers in BTI’s database, only 53 have been rated below 80 points and would fail to snag at least a bronze medal. The BTI event reminds me of a little of a correspondence school where you mail a check for fifty bucks and they send you back a medical degree.

No competition is perfect though, and even the Brewers Association’s events have areas of concern. In past years, both the GABF and the WBC have given out medals in categories with as few as three or five entries, in contrast to the vast majority of categories which have more than twenty competitors. In such cases, winning a bronze medal in a contest of only three brands is not as impressive as the title may imply.

So if even the best competitions have flaws, should we ever care about medals and awards? Winning medals doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll like the beer, and many great beers never win anything. But with a little exploration, you may discover that some medal winners you’ve never tried surely deserve the accolades. So when faced with a beer boasting its accomplishments, remember to first check the age and whereabouts of the win. Was it a county fair in 1989 or the WBC in 2006? Has the beer won GABF medals twice in recent years? Repeat GABF winners in craft beer styles are usually sure-fire good choices. While things have come a long way from the sordid days of the blue ribbon controversy, consumers can do their part to keep breweries from boasting about 100-year-old victories.

–A version of this article appeared in the May issue of BeerAdvocate Magazine.
–For BTI’s tongue-in-cheek response to my article, view my award.

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Six ways bars can better respect beer…

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Respecting beer doesn’t mean your restaurant or bar has to jettison its popular wine-by-the-glass program.  We’re not alcohol segregationists here at BeerAdvocate Magazine.  But you should stop and spend a little time thinking about the role beer plays in your establishment.  Do you spend more time contemplating dishwasher clogs?  That’s not entirely surprising.  Bar owners are busy people and many simply pick the six or eight most popular draft brands and call it a day.  In the spirit of promoting beer and your sales, here is a six-pack of ideas on how you can improve your beer program.

Number 1: Provide Beer Menus

It’s the first question beer lovers have upon entering any bar or restaurant: what’s on tap?  For all of the regularity, it’s surprising how difficult the question is to answer.  Customers shouldn’t have to make a breeze-by of the tap handles just to hunt down their selections.  So create a beer menu, it doesn’t have to be fancy.  Good beer guides include an updated list of available beers, a concise description of each beer or style, and the price.  The best beer guides describe the brewing process and how to taste and enjoy beer.  At Sheffield’s in Chicago, the handy beer guide offers straightforward descriptions and also provides a glossary of technical terms associated with brewing and enjoying beer.  At Monk’s Cafe in Philadelphia, the faded beer guides avoid beer descriptions, opting instead for style notes and notices for upcoming events.

Number 2: Use Proper Glassware

Bar owners have slowly come to realize that beer’s inherent beauty is something they can both appreciate and sell.  Where simple Shaker pint glasses once ruled the bar, a bevy of oddly shaped glassware now matches the great range of beers available.  The value of putting on a show when presenting beer cannot be understated.  Big, shapely hefe-weizen glasses and rolling strong ale snifters make instant impressions on nearby customers.  Beer is a multi-sensory experience and the process of promoting beer doesn’t end when the customer orders.

Number 3: Train Your Staff

Smart breweries, wholesalers, and restaurateurs know that servers are the frontline soldiers in the war for better beer sales.  Owners expect the waitstaff to know the food menu, so why shouldn’t they be able to describe the available beers?  No need for a long soliloquy on the gentle interplay of malts and hops, just some straight facts.  First, know what is available.  I’m amazed at how often when I ask what’s available, the response comes back, “We have everything.�  Excellent, I’ll take the Thomas Hardy 1975 vintage.  Second, servers should never simply ask, “Light or dark?�  Servers should know the list, where the beers hail from, and be able to offer some quick descriptive thoughts.

Number 4: Offer Samples

This could just as easily fit under server training as it’s another way to interact with customers.  The best servers can sense when a customer wants to trade-up to a better beer.  Consumers who practice beer monogamy are not adventurous by nature so we need to strike when the chance presents itself.  Offering a sample to customers who pause over a beer list is good business.  Samples also give servers the chance to test out their beer knowledge and shine.

Number 5: Add A Local Draft Line

It’s as simple as it sounds.  If you’re like most bars, you offer a few macro standards on tap and round out the selection with Guinness, Bass, Harp, and maybe even Stella Artois.  Why send all your love to cash-flush European conglomerates when you can support your local brewery?  You know who I’m talking about.  Your local brewer is the guy who comes in every other week begging for a line.  Why not give him a shot?  Which brings us to…

Number 6: Hold Beer Events

Beer events were once the limited province of beer bars.  Now, every establishment can get a piece of the action.  Breweries and wholesalers know the value of direct sales and they now devote greater resources to promoting beer events in bars and restaurants, ranging from simple on-premise tastings to six-course beer dinners.  You don’t have to handle the details all yourself.  Contact your local brewery or wholesaler to gauge their interest.  Check out The Map Room’s Beer School or the Brickskeller’s popular education series for more ideas.

With a little time and effort, you can hopefully advocate for beer and raise your sales at the same time.  Beer lovers will be sure to tip accordingly.

–Article appeared in the April 2007 issue of BeerAdvocate Magazine.

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A Bronze Medal In Beer Writing…

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Combine my recent foray into regular online posting, a full-time job, and a recent two-week vacation to Japan and you end up with the first posts in over a month. I use this site primarily as a place for previously published articles and as a medium for shorter pieces that don’t make it into print. Along these lines, I hope to have a few articles published here on the beer-related Japan adventures, of which there were a very memorable few. Suffice it to say, Yo-Ho Brewing and the Baird Brewery pretty much sustained me while traveling.

While away I received an unusual critique of a recent article I wrote. Some readers may know that I write the monthly ‘Defending Beer’ column in Beer Advocate Magazine. I use the column as a way to offer critical thoughts on the industry that I believe we don’t see enough of in beer writing. The column has generated some positive and a lot of less-than-glowing responses. Of the price creep article, one retailer wondered whether I even lived in the real world.

I recently wrote an article on judging beer and how consumers can critically view the myriad awards brewers tout on their bottles and six-packs. Putting aside the content (pick up the May 2007 issue of Beer Advocate Magazine or see the article to be posted here in a month or two), I briefly focused on one particular private tasting group, excerpted here:

Consumers also need to be discerning about contests sponsored by private organizations. Of these events, perhaps the best known is the World Beer Championships run by the Beverage Testing Institute in Chicago. BTI’s medal-based competition is run a bit differently from other events, with less weight placed on style adherence and more on a brewer’s creativity within a certain category. In a laudable twist, the institute’s respectable panel of judges tastes products throughout the year instead of packing all beer judging into less than a week of sessions.

The way an organization awards medals can also be a telling aspect of how consumers should value the honor when choosing a beer. The BTI contest employs the familiar 100-point scale to score beers and awards platinum (96-100), gold (90-95), silver (86-89), and bronze medals (80-84). Beers that fall below 80 points receive a ‘not recommended’ finding. Of the 1650 beers in BTI’s database, only 53 have been rated below 80 points and would fail to snag at least a bronze medal. The BTI event reminds me of a little of a correspondence school where you mail a check for fifty bucks and they send you back a medical degree.

So upon my return from Japan, I received a package from BTI in the mail. The contents revealed a letter from Jerald O’Kennard, Director of BTI and the World Beer Championships. In the letter, O’Kennard congratulated me on my article and announced that BTI had awarded me a bronze medal for my “bronzy efforts in journalism.” I’ve attached a photo of my award. O’Kennard assured me “an invoice for $50 will be sent to you shortly.” Kudos to the folks at BTI for having a sense of humor in letting me know they hated my column.

BTI Bronze Medal

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