Originally posted by joet
In the meantime, RateBeeria is offering consumers a great way to sort the wheat from the chaffe. Just as we always have.
Ratebeeria, I’ll have to check that out |
Yeah, definitely some newbies feeling there way here also. Last couple I have tried have been fairly mediocre at best. Oh well, sale on brewing equipment in a year or two.... |
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The fact is there are only so many talented methodical brewers out there. Can that number grow? Of course. What Mitch and Paul are seeing is what most of us in the industry are seeing; a great deal of entrepreneurs trying to make a buck, and a great deal of unskilled brewers taking a great leap of faith in themselves.
And I understand the concern entirely. The first group is getting into this for the wrong reason. Sure craft brewing has its share of millionaires. All of them have a passion for great beer in common. The second group doesn’t know enough to know that they don’t know enough.
Can a homebrewer go straight from homebrewing to commercial brewing with no training in between? Yes. Is it the majority? Hell no, and I bet the majority that have made that leap regret not seeking some training. I personally know some of the finest homebrewers in this country and all of them could use a year or more in a commercial brewery before they make the transition.
Could an entrepreneur hire the right head brewer to make them that fortune they’re chasing after? Sure, they could. Are they going to? In the vast majority of situations, no. Chances are they’ll hire the first person with any experience or worse, no experience at all.
Mitch, Paul and so many others have worked their asses off. They’ve worked through the abysmal 90s when the majority of craft beer was suffering from quality issues. They’ve seen first hand what brewers can do for local and state economies. They’ve seen this industry through to a time when a great deal of Americans are no longer interested in fancy ad campaigns from the macro brewers.
What none of us want to see is a craft brewing industry with no clothes. Sure there will always be Sierra Nevada, Bells, Founders... I could go on. But will your local brewery producing 1,200 bbls a year that you all love going to be able to survive if they all of a sudden have 5 breweries open up around them, all able to produce 200-500 bbls a year of pretty worthless garbage? You could make the argument that the established micro will be fine because they make great beer...
Not necessarily so. There are plenty of people fine with drinking some terrible products and they’ll convince themselves it’s great as long as the people behind the product are their neighbors. Beyond that, none of us want our local markets soured (no pun intended) by really terrible beer.
La Cumbre is in a unique situation, as are many of the breweries of this country. We are literally a stones throw from very direct competition. Il Vicino is a fine brewery. They make very good beer and they have good food, and I could walk to them in about 3 minutes. But they don’t worry me. I’m not going to lose customers because of them. Someone goes in there and asks for "whatever’s lite", I did not just lose a customer and vise versa. So were friends in this.
The nano, 5 miles away that ferments in trash cans (no I am not kidding) and doesn’t have a single thing on tap that is less than 8% ABV, less than 80 IBUs, and isn’t SEVERELY flawed, that same person goes into that nano and thinks to themselves "Bud Lite is a lot better than this." And you know what? They’re right.
This scares the shit out of us. In my mind it is the single greatest threat to the industry that I love, that you all love. Does it seem mean spirited to call out the culprits? Maybe. But I’ll do it until the day I die. The world does not need another crappy brewery touting themselves as artisan or craft.
So with that, if you’re an entrepreneur that has just hired a great head brewer (met Joe and Wayne of CCB back in 2008 at the craft brewers conference and they certainly come to mind) and you want to take the craft brewing world by storm with not just incredibly unique beers, but also WORLD CLASS QUALITY, welcome! If you are an assistant brewer and realize that you have a gift for this and want to make the greatest German styles this side of the Atlantic and have the means to do it for yourself, welcome! If you happen to be one of those few homebrewers that can make the transition seamlessly, congratulations and welcome!
All others, for God’s sake "hire somebody who knows what the hell they’re doing!" |
Man that blog makes a lot of great points. Being in Europe last 5 years while a large growth has happened I have gotten the chance to see so much of this first hand as well. Loads of people with no experience thinking they should just start up a brewery. Hell I got my current job since someone told the owner "Hire someone who knows what the hell he is doing". |
erway, exactly. You read my mind and articulated everything much better than I could.
---Posted via Beer Buddy for iPhone |
I really want to check out this brewery that ferments in trash cans. |
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Originally posted by GumballDust
"LOL at the final paragraph that suggests Upslope as being a benchmark in CO...that’s one of the LAST breweries around here I would recommend getting brewing advice from, sheesh. I’d heard that the guy from BRU went to get advice from them too. It boggles the mind."
I felt the same way when they mentioned Sun King. They’re more about their brand than their beer. Not sure what the author was smoking but pretty sure SK isn’t making much of a name for themselves outside of the IN masses who don’t quite yet know what really good craft beer is...
So you can you tell us what "Really Good Craft Beer" is? "Good" beer relies on the palate of the drinker, not the nerdy craft beer lovers telling him what is good and what is crap.
Notice that quality and innovation were the main words they used w/ Sun King, because those are true, and I’ve heard several times about them pouring out batches that were off or undrinkable, why, because they care about the quality. I don’t know any other local breweries in IN who constantly check liquors stores to make sure that they are A) Storing their beer properly B)Checking on dates to make sure its fresh and C) Constantly bring sample around to everybody knows how their new products are.
I am not a huge fan on Sun King, in fact, have only bought a handful of 4 packs from them because their beer does not fit into my taste profile. But I would rather drink beers from down to earth brewers instead of money hungry jerks who wish they would rather be in Illinois but remain in Indiana due to taxes.
And lastly, SK has no intention of ever leaving the state, they would rather make sure they have enough production to take care of Indy, much like New Glarus and Hill Farmstead only stay in their state.
Try not bashing a brewery that you don’t really know anything about, and let me guess that 3 Floyds is your favorite brewery, because all their beers are "Real Craft Beers" right? |
Quality should always be the focus of new breweries, not somebody who homebrews for 2 years and decides, you know what, I can make money off of this. Even big boys have had infection problems in the past, and had to take drastic measures to fix it. One example is Upland, had a few bad batches out, and shut down their brewery for 3-4 weeks just to clean everything, and they essentially make no money from this.
Indiana had 12 breweries on their way to opening up after 2014 started, with 8 or so more slated after that. It will be curious to see how many of them will have to close their doors after a year.
I have a feeling that new breweries/brew pubs will be like restaurants. 70% of them will unfortunately fail their 1st year. Will this cause a bad trend in the Beer World, unlikely, because your first impression of them will cause you not to go back. Then when you do try them again a few months later, and you get the same experience, you will never try them again. The bad breweries and ones who make bad products will weed themselves out of the industry. |
Originally posted by t0rin0
I really want to check out this brewery that ferments in trash cans.
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