Then you are extremely myopic or you are just playing devil’s advocate or you are fooling yourself. There is nothing wrong with a brand designating itself as independent. Just like “InBev” has designated them self as “High End” If the beer is better, then drink it! But the the consumer has the right to know what they are drinking. They have the right to know if the beer is brewed locally and they absolutely have the right to know if fair practices are involved with the distribution of the beer. I mean, come on bro. You seem a lot smarter than this.
I’ll go ahead and put it out there that Wicked Weed is a fine beer. But their marketing and hype have always been better than the actual beer.
a.) I’m not “lacking imagination, foresight or intellectual insight” (myopic) (Wheaton’s Law?)
b.) I’ve said about 3 times in this thread that I’m playing devils advocate
c.) I don’t think I’m fooling myself.
d.) I never said there is anything wrong with a brewery designating itself prominently as independent, I just stated that it doesn’t matter to me and that stuff doesn’t “resonate” with me like the BA says it does with 81% of craft beer drinkers. Of course that’s only 81% of the people who took the survey…
e.) I’m certainly smarter than you are giving me credit for. I would hope so at least.
f.) As I stated in my last paragraph above, I appreciate this is a much bigger issue for some, especially those with breweries or who work for breweries.
I was disappointed in Achel when it first came out. I was living in Germany at the time. It got better. So I stand by my statement. The rules say nothing about quality of the beer. The Monks take care of that. There are also good Abby beers, but not all of them are good.
Oh, I was disappointed in the first Spencer beers I had. They got better.
I will appreciate when the new logo is rolled out and widely used. The macros are buying so many breweries it is hard to remember who is independent.
Why do I care? Because the macros have unfair business practices and I prefer to take my money elsewhere.
Regarding what mark consumers can use as a signal of quality versus non-quality; that’s the brewery’s name and logo. As a consumer you learn who has beer (or any other product) you do and don’t like.
I had a lengthy conversation with a Chicago guy I know at HBC, and he is a well known Cask expert. We were setting in Brits Pub in Minneapolis. The Fullers was very nice, but not cask, from kegs through fake handpumps. His new venture is being a Cask Marque inspector in the US, and he handed me his card. US British pubs are not his target, but brewpubs and breweries that do cask beers. That is where he can improve quality of the Ales being served. Thought it was pretty cool.
Like a locally owned and operated restaurant (and especially farm to table), If given the choice where quality and taste were equal, I’d choose the beer with the BA independent mark over the big beer offering. I go to local hardware and lumber stores over Walmart, Lowes, and Home Depot for the same reason. My favorite pizza is a local joint for the same reason (it just happens to be next to a local brewery). Etc. etc. I want my dollars to support the independents. This mark helps me make an informed choice.
I haven’t seen anyone make the point that is to me the main point: the big players who are buying these craft breweries are actively disguising the fact that these are no longer independently owned breweries. Since the BA can’t force inbev etc to be truthful they can take this action. It’s a smart way to fight back against predatory behavior.
On another note I’m a little sick of bashing millennials. I am not one by my son and step son and nieces and nephews are. They have it harder in all the ways that matter than any post WW2 generation. Unless you come from wealth you have practically no chance of getting a degree without a bunch of debt and the market for good jobs is tight. Add to that the fact that if you don’t have a very good job that pays 100% for health insurance your health insurance is about to be replaced with declaring bankruptcy if you get in a car accident or sick. If you want to talk about a generation that had it easy try the baby boomers: cheap to free education, plentiful good jobs, even with a high school diploma or less, affordable housing, ordinary factory jobs paying good pensions, robust labor unions, and an effective safety net. Now they are sucking up social services, have good public health insurance, and getting social security all paid for by millennials.
A friend who did video production in his previous career commented on how much they spent on this. 2 HD Cameras, boom mics, professional lighting, and so on. All of the Brewers were in the same place, one would think. Editing still has to be done, and there was not much time between the BA announcement and the video release, more dollars. His take on this was it was something that ABInBev felt they had to spend the big dollars on to do this.
There should be no expectation of quality just because a label is designated as “independent”. In my state we have a “Made in Alabama” logo that is obviously just there to inform people. It doesn’t give any expectation of quality. But it does inform the consumer that is was locally made and, heck, I might spend an extra buck or two on a product I know was made in my state.
It is so obvious that this label will be very effective considering “High Ends” response. I just love it! I am so tickled to see their response video getting ridiculed across the internet. It’s absolutely lovely.
I agree, but people will. Same as is done with organic or free trade as mentioned earlier. The mark is going to mean this to some, can’t stop that unless the BA changes it to read “independently owned, but could certainly be crap”
True. Organic doesn’t necessarily mean better. But it still gives the consumer a little extra nugget of knowledge that may be useful to them. And if it gives the impression a beer is better, well, that’s just marketing after all. Like I said, I think Wicked Weed’s beers are fine. But it is their marketing that is really the impressive factor.
I used to stick up for the people who sold out but after watching that ridiculous video I have really changed my tune. Don’t get me wrong, I’d still take the money. But I hope I wouldn’t also compromise my integrity by making a winey-ass cry baby video the moment something doesn’t go my way.
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