Choice in Beer is Not Bad

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Transcript

welcome back to the Augustine of brewing podcast where we talk about opening a brewpub and running a brewpub as well as any

Source: Bill Selak; https://www.flickr.com/photos/billselak/3809399033

other topic under the sun related to beer coffee and food and so I want to welcome welcome you all on back today and today on our episode we are talking about choice in beer and that it really isn’t bad beer choice is a wonderful thing and there was a fairly high profile individual in the macro brewing industry I will not share his name although you probably know who it is that that said that Americans really don’t want choice in their beer and I I feel that really is missing a lot of what’s really going on to the craft beer industry I think it’s reflective of just how myopic the mindset is of the macro breweries to this day who will one moment make fun of craft beer drinkers and craft breweries and then the next minute by them all out and try to make money off of those very same places that they were just making fun of all in the attempt to control shelf space and control their product flow which of course is the cheap fizzy yellow beers but the truth is Americans love choice even if ironically having choice sets the it makes it more difficult creates anxiety every time I go to the liquor store were to a new brewery I’m looking across the menu and sometimes I have a lot of trouble figuring out which beer that I want to purchase does that mean that that’s a bad thing know I think that’s a great thing and I think it speaks highly of the beer industry that we want that choice we want that banks of trying to figure out what beer we want this time or if we just one have all the beers that options there as well but at the core of it all Americans love choice that’s by choice in beer in my opinion is not bad it certainly not in America maybe in some 3Z Chinese Russian whatever countries maybe you don’t want choice maybe it is just have beer a are beer be but here that’s really, antithesis of who we are and other reason why choice and beer is not bad is because well not know to palates are quite the same as the reason why with beer competitions such as the ones that that though we sent beers into an of one you don’t have just one person tastes the beer you have a team of two may be two and sometimes three or more individuals who are tasting and judging is a specific beers together because what could be wonderful and full of life to one judge could be not experienced quite the same way to another different people have five different sensitivities to different flavors and so having more beers and more styles makes sense to appeal to a wider audience which is perfect for a craft brewery in a brewpub because you’re not going have all the same exact people coming in your doors you you want to be known for, an area of beers that you brew but at the end of the day you also want to be able to appeal across the board to many different types of drinkers and because no two palates are quite the same by having several selections you get to that point and the we love our our craft beer in our craft food in our craft coffee and so we don’t apologize for having choice we like choice and we will want to have enough choices that we can remain profitable without having so many choices that we can’t or that makes it difficult in terms of our a restaurant logistics suite of restaurants one of the things it has been that I’ve heard from a number of people as we’ve gone through our process of getting our doors open is that your souls food and food cells beer in and that’s a real true thing in our opinion it’s the reason why just having a tap room well logistically do make things a little simpler as opposed to trying to run a full restaurant but at the same time you are losing out on some of those opportunities to pair your beer with food more and more people these days are our foodies their beer beer nerd state they love to have those pairings and with the rise of the food truck movement and pairing off with the breweries you’re losing a whole lot of that opportunity to sell your beer by pairing it with food and so by having a nice diverse menu of beers that you make you wind up having a situation where becomes much easier to make ideal beer food pairings for your customers and so never shy away from having as many different beers as possible understanding that you still have to make sure that you have the capacity to handle all of those different types of beers but never be afraid of choice and giving choice to your customers because you want to sell the those food items and there’s a lot to be said for just putting a little note about what that food pairs with beer wise it’s a wonderful thing to see when I see a restaurant I don’t see it nearly enough but it’s certainly something that were not offered Augustine brewing next thing is when I walk into a brewery for the first time I am always and many others are the same way I’m always asking for their flight for their beer flight in some places will give you flight of all the core beer some places have such a long list they say in a pick five are you what have you but part of the fun of going to a new brewery is simply the fact that I get to try several different beers samples of several different beers and and get a life is so short all the beers that we will have before we’re up pushing up daisies is going to be a fraction of what’s out there and so I want to have the opportunity to try as many beers under the sun is a can possibly try and enjoy and appreciate them by serving a wide variety of beers at your a brewpub you’re going to be able to have that opportunity for someone someone like me to come in and see everything from it you a light Blondel or Pilsner all the way to Russian Imperial Stout style beer and so somebody like me who has different sent as sensory experiences across my palate I love going across that flight and experiencing different things with each one of the the beers I’m sampling at a brewpub so lastly and I think this might even on the on the commercial side of brewing is perhaps the most important aspect of all of this is that a lack of choice which is effectively what America had for the better half of 100 years the lack of choice does not drive innovation if you only push one type of beer people will drill in and get all nice and scientific about making that one beer type but the creativity starts being lost when when you go down that path and instead of talking about the beer you wind up talking about everything else it’s not beer around your brand and that’s exactly what still happens this day at the macro breweries and how they market themselves there to marketing their beer is much as their marketing pretty women and heavy drinking and hanging out at at bars irresponsibly and for a lot of people that get old after about the age of 25 so that’s all I’ve got today choose to drink lots of beer and choose to drink lots of different beers because that’s part of our a life experience as craft beer lovers in America thanks a lot for listening and will catch you next time