Comments on: Craft Beer: what image do we want?

By: Rick

Rick — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 19:51:04 +0000

The same sort of respect someone gives wine. While I don’t want to make craft beer as alienating and snobbish as wine is typically viewed; I also don’t people to chug Black Tuesday straight out of the bottle. I think this video had a tough job to walk the tightrope between wine-like snobbery and elevating craft beer and I thought they did an admirable job given the challenge. You also have to realize that this website is geared towards the beer beginner, so anything they produce will probably be wrought with cheese.

By: beersage

beersage — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 21:27:34 +0000

Rick, Treated with more respect than what?

By: Rick

Rick — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 18:51:27 +0000

I’m not exactly sure what part about the video is alienating to the 25-35 age group. Granted all of the brewers featured are older, but otherwise I don’t see anything that screams ‘active adult community’ out of this vid. Everyone owns wine glasses, so it’s not like they’re asking you to splurge on a custom set of specialty beer glasses. I think they did a good job about highlighting the fact that craft beer should be treated with more respect when you taste it and they threw in a few ideas on how to make a party out of a beer tasting.

I am a huge craft beer geek and love seeing Charlie, Vinnie, and Will talking about beer, so I’m definitely biased about the whole video. It’s a tad cheesy, but I still thought it was well done.

By: Lee Williams

Lee Williams — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 17:59:50 +0000

I could not agree with you more Adam!!!! One of the main reason that I started Hoptopia was because I felt there was way too much pretense and snobbery in the craft beer world – too many beards not enough pint glasses.

By: StCloudBeerGeek

StCloudBeerGeek — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 16:01:05 +0000

I see no problem with this video, it’s just that it’s targeting a different group than you’re used to. This isn’t looking at the BMC drinkers, this is looking at wine and spirits people, no doubt. And that’s legitimate. If you’re going to view the battle for market share as, well, a battle (and you should) you have to realize it’s not a one front battle, craft vs. industrial, it’s a three or four front battle for all alcohol consumption. Craft, Industrial, Wine, Spirits, everything. And I didn’t get any real snobbery out of that video. The clothing the people were wearing is what people wear when they go out to bars, even in my ho-dunk town. Everyone has at leas some wine glasses. I liked the video.

By: Spencer

Spencer — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 00:45:19 +0000

I guess my issue with this video, aside from the production value, is that it’s telling people that there is a standard for beer tastings. To be honest, being 22, my friends and I take a much less formal approach and still manage to enjoy, learn and appreciate. I hope people don’t see this and think there are some set of rules to having beer tastings. Enjoy beer the way you like to enjoy beer.

By: Jeff Alworth

Jeff Alworth — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 22:28:00 +0000

I almost didn’t watch this, because I assumed it was going to be as bad as that “I am a craft brewer” video. Maybe my expectations were just so low that this didn’t embarrass me as much.

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it per se–the wine glass business and even the silly “beer whispering” is forgivable. Rather, there’s a quality from the production values, the terrible music, the rah rah promotionalism, that makes you wince a bit. To me this isn’t so much an age thing as a production values thing. All promotional material is suspect, because it’s all trying to be persuasive through slightly disingenuous means. But even if this were cheesy in a way that 20-somethings didn’t mind, it would still be cheesy.

In general, I agree that there should be a focus on the 25-35 year-old demo. I’m just not so sure I think the faults with this are that it failed on that score.

By: beersage

beersage — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 21:16:04 +0000

Re: Bartzilla

Well put. You and I agree for the most part from what I can tell. “Whatever happened to drinking good beer with friends and enjoying it?” Exactly! Where we differ is that you don’t think it is worth the time to look at how the largest and important organization in our niche is putting our image out there. In some ways, you could be right. Similar to the Beer Wars movie, I’m not sure how many people outside of our niche get exposed to these messages. But the image they’re putting out there is anything but enjoying craft beer in a laid back kind of way.

Whether this gets people talking or not, probably not, but I’d like to be pleasantly surprised.

By: beersage

beersage — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 21:03:57 +0000

Ralphus, craft beer IS getting expensive. I can’t help but wonder if this type of video helps push those prices up. Maybe a stretch. Maybe my site is just as much at fault for spurring hype and demand. But if you ever go to beer events (other than Savor & expensive beer dinners), you will see jean, t-shirts, and sweatshirts. Not a lot of button-down shirts and that kind of thing. At least that has been my experience. I think there is a very small segment of the market that this appeals to but the large part of the market isn’t. They just want to have a beer like regular folks.

I don’t think we need any in-your-face extreme marketing either but rather marketing that the majority can relate to…

I could be completely wrong but think it is worth a discussion.

By: Bartzilla

Bartzilla — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 20:57:19 +0000

Craft beer doesn’t need an image. It doesn’t need appeal. It already does that on it’s own. If viewing someone’s video or being concerned about what said video does for the “image”, then you are doing it wrong.

Whatever happened to drinking good beer with friends and enjoying it? There’s no age, race, class or socio-economical standards to uphold. You drink a beer and enjoy it.

Apparently that shark was jumped a long time ago.

By: beersage

beersage — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 20:56:35 +0000

I understand where you are coming from, Will. I definitely go with the snifter once in a while, usually if I am pulling something from the cellar, but the pint glass is the classic drinking vessel and it is evident from its prominence in good beer bars across America. The BA has a goal of making craft beer 10% or 20% of the beer market at some point, yes? We have to be realistic about where that other 5-15% is coming from which is mostly going to be from the macro drinkers group. I think you and I both know we’re not going to convince Bud drinkers with this kind of marketing. I’m not saying we need to stoop for lowbrow humor but we need to meet in the middle somewhere, no?

By: Will Meyers

Will Meyers — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 19:11:19 +0000

Sorry Adam, but I have an issue with your comments above. I personally see no discrepency between beer being approachable and being served in non-pint glass stemware in order to heighten enjoyment. Visual appeal is important in my view, shape of glass does affect palate perception, and I fail to see how a wine stem creates beer snobbery. You may be a beer drinker who insists on all of his beers being served by-the-pint (tho I doubt it), but beer culture around the world will largely disagree with you. Beer can be fun AND look good in a proper glass. As for “beer whispering,” well, it’s supposed to be a bit of a light-hearted bit of fun. Class and fun are not mutually exclusive!
Cheers,
Will

By: Ralphus McChauncey

Ralphus McChauncey — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 18:21:35 +0000

Craft beer is getting expensive, so it needs to be targeted with folks who have money. Folks who have money want to enjoy the finer things in life, or at least feel they are in a higher class.

What if the video featured some Affliction T-Shirt wearing, tatted up guy shotgunning and Double Bastard?

Who SHOULD craft beer appeal to?