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RBPMail 2.04, April 1996
Real Beer Page Mail (RBPMail) began as a modest update to craft-brew events on the WWW. It evolved into a news digest and sometimes editorial forum. We present its contents here much as they were emailed to subscribers. Often, links you will see are out of date, and businesses referred to may also be long gone.
In this issue:
Are There Two Beer Industries?
This industry analysis comes from a Washington Post Business writer:
"There are changes brewing in the beer industry, where companies are
positioning themselves to hold on during the next few years, when sales are
expected to be as flat as a day-old beer. The same demographic slump that
hit colleges and universities during the 1980s is hitting brewers now. The
number of people entering their twenties, the peak beer-drinking years, is
shrinking and won't recover for another year or two. Then the children of
the baby boomers will start celebrating their 21st birthdays in large
numbers, providing some relief. In the meantime, although the number of
small brewers continues to increase, at the other end of the scale there is
some consolidation.(Source: Martha Hamlin, The Washington Post, March
12, Tuesday, Financial, Pg. C01). When analysts speak of flat beer markets
in the face of microbrewing growth, be aware of whom they represent.
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Massachusetts Proposes Alcoholic Beverage Deregulation
Regulations that keep distributor prices safe are under attack by a bill being
introduced by Governor William Weld. The Weld administration estimates a
six-pack of beer costs consumers at least 75 cents more -- 10-15% of the
price -- than it would with deregulation. Current laws have a direct cost in
higher prices and business diverted to local states without regulations.
(Source: Boston Herald, March 8, 1996, Friday, Editorial, Pg. 024)
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Molson Opposes LCBO Sell-Off
Molson is concerned with losing its monopoly, so the Harris government at
Queen's Park shouldn't rush into the privatization liquor sales. John
Barnett, president of Molson Breweries of Canada, says speculation about a
sell-off of Liquor Control Board Ontario stores makes beer companies
uneasy because there are several similarities between the LCBO system
and the Brewers Retail system controlled by Molson and Labatt. Both are
monopoly sellers which help government meet three objectives -limiting the
sale of alcohol to persons under 19, collecting taxes efficiently, and offering
consumers an extensive choice of drink. If the liquor store monopoly is
broken, says Barnett, there will be immediate pressure to open up the retail
distribution of beer through grocery and convenience stores. Government
will want to keep its large tax revenues intact and the cost of the extra layer
of retail service "will make prices to the consumer go up or brewers'
margins go down." ... Barnett argues Queen's Park would do better to tax
home brewing kits and u-brew shops, which now account for about 7% of
all beer consumed, on the same basis as commercial beer. (Source: John
Deverell, Toronto Star, March 8, Friday, Business, Pg. C3)
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Beer Camp Attracts Big Crowds
200 campers from 36 states celebrated Beer Camp last month at
Oldenberg's famous Brewery and Beer Museum. The camp combines
education of topics ranging from history to off-flavors, beer dinners, pub
crawls, recreation and, of course, beer sampling from a selection of nearly
400 beers flown in fresh for the event from all areas of the globe. Beer camp
takes place twice a year, in the Spring and Fall. (Source: Tina King, The
Cincinnati Enquirer, March 24, Sunday, Metro, Pg. B1B) To learn more
about the event, see http://realbeer.com/oldenberg/
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Bud Buys Texas Parks And Wildlife Honors
It costs $150,00 to have a brand name associated with the highest-profile
Texas Parks and Wildlife fisheries program. That's what A-B paid to have
the name of Operation Share A Lunker changed to Bud ShareLunker. While
in a dealing mood, TP&W threw in the Angler Recognition Awards
program, which will hence be called Bud's Best of Texas. The top Bud
ShareLunker of the season will be dubbed the Bud Big One. Anglers under
21 will receive the standard old Angler Recognition Award. Perhaps hinting
at the agency's attitude towards branding wildlife, Executive Director Andy
Sansom tells a story about his former boss at the Nature Conservancy who
once was asked how it felt to accept tainted money. "'Taint enough," was
his response. (Source: Ray Sasser, Dallas Morning News, March 24,
Sunday, Sports/Outdoors, Pg. 23B)
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Airport Breweries Taking Off
Airports see opportunity in an increase of economy flights that combine no-
frills snacks instead of meals and multiple stop-overs. Turning the captive
audience into retail sales won't be an easy undertaking. Food cooked and
sold at airports has gotten a bad rap over the years, most often being
described by consumers as stale, tasteless and way too expensive. But
companies that operate airport food and retail concessions are trying to
change that attitude by bringing in well-recognized brand name restaurants
and microbreweries. For example, at Los Angeles International Airport, the
restaurant mix includes an eatery operated by celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck
and a contract-brewery concession complete with 8-foot rhino horns in the
doorway to Rhino Chasers. (Source: Tracy Kolody, Ft. Lauderdale Sun-
Sentinel, March 24, Sunday, Business, Pg. 1F).
Next time your in one of these airports, stop in for a craft brewed beer:
Seattle-Tacoma: CJ Borg's
Los Angeles: Rhino Chasers
Los Angeles: Gordon-Biersch (opening this month)
Boston: Sam Adams Brewhouse
Portland International Jetport (Portland, ME): Shipyard Brewport
Baltimore (BWI): Wild Goose
Shipyard Brewing Company (http://www.shipyard.com/shipyard) plans to
open the first true airport brewery operation in Orlando this year.
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Contract Boost For Cincinnati Brewer
Hudepohl-Schoenling Brewing Company of Cincinnati, Ohio, one of the
oldest surviving breweries in America, is signing a long term contract
production agreement with The Boston Beer Company (Sam Adams).
Hudepohl Brewing Company was founded in 1885 and Schoenling
Brewing Company in 1933. The relationship began last year when
Hudepohl brewed Boston Beer's holiday beer, Old Fezziwig. This contract
brewing relationship marks the fourth brewing alliance for Hudepohl-
Schoenling, including: Coors-Blue Moon contract-brewed beers; Brown
Forman for its Jack Daniels contract beers; and Calgary-based Big Rock
Brewery Ltd., which brews Buzzard Breath Ale and Warthog Ale in
Canada. An American Pale Ale, a Black Lager and a Hazelnut Brown Ale
are the first beers that Hudepohl will contract-brew for Boston Beer. Each
are homebrew recipes that won the World Homebrew Contest, and
are scheduled for a Spring roll-out under the Longshot brand.
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WEB WATCH
Some hot new Real Beer sites have come to the Web. We think the
breweries here compose a list of some of the best breweries in North
America. Travel around the following URLs to take a tour of the diversity
and strength of North America's craft-brew scene. Make sure you check out
and bookmark the following:
American Specialty http://www.amcraftbeer.com Milwaukee, WI
Celis Brewing http://www.Celis.com Austin, TX
Clipper City http://www.ClipperCity.com Baltimore, MD
Hart Brewing http://www.HartBrew.com Seattle, WA
Leinenkugel's http://www.Leinie.com Chippewa Falls, WI
McAuslan Brewing http://www.McAuslan.com Montreal, Canada
Moylans Brewpub http://realbeer.com/moylans/ Novato, CA
McAuslan Brewing, founded by Peter McAuslan in 1989, is Quebec's
foremost microbrewery and distributes widely in the US through All Saints
Brands of Minneapolis. McAuslan's St-Ambroise Oatmeal Stout was one of
only nine beers worldwide to win a platinum medal at the first annual World
Beer Championships held in Chicago in 1994. To find out more about the
brewery, its products, merchandise, distribution and about brewing in
general visit the McAuslan brewpage at http://www.mcauslan.com.
We are also pleased to present the Yankee Brew News online! Yankee
Brew News is New England's premier brewspaper and now beer news web
site. Take a look around and track features on beer happenings, restaurant
/tavern reviews, new product /book features, brewers' profiles and their own
Dr. Connard Brasseur. It's amber journalism of the highest order. Check
them out at:
Please join us in welcoming Malt of the Earth (http://www.maltbev.com) to
The Real Beer Page. Malt of the Earth is a beer of the month club that has
come up with an innovative way to poll consumers as to their beer liking;
The Brew Harvest Consumer Report. This on-line beer poll allows users to
rate the beers of microbreweries around the country and Malt of the Earth
will compile the results and use this data to choose their monthly selections.
Each brewery listing in The Brew Harvest Consumer Report provides the
current averaged consumer ratings in categories such as atmosphere, food,
service, and beers. They have just recently come on-line so not all
breweries have ratings yet. We encourage you to visit them and put in your
"two cents worth".
Beer Related Mailing Lists
In our constant efforts to try and bring quality craft beer news to you in as
simple a method as possible, we have created a page that will allow you to
subscribe to the best beer related email newsletters on the Internet all from
one place. Point your browser to http://realbeer.com/rbp/news/maillist.php
and see how easy we've made it.
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STOCK WATCH
Wit-Trade Resumes Stock-Trading On Web
The Securities and Exchange Commission is allowing The Spring Street
Brewing Company to resume the trading of its stock over the Internet. The
company was the first company to attempt to sell stocks through a World
Wide Web page, but was forced to suspend its activities, pending an SEC
review to decide whether the trading system should be registered as a
broker-dealer under the 1934 Securities Exchange Act. When Spring
Street Brewing's "Wit-Trade" activity recommences on the Internet, it will
comply with an SEC request that it place warnings on its Web page letting
investors know the stock might be difficult to sell because it can't be traded
on a regular stock exchange. (New York Times 26 Mar 96)
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Upper Canada Stock Sells Without Swells
The stock of the Toronto-based company edged up C12.5 cents (US 9
cents) to $8.125 (US$5.96) in brisk volume of 1.5 million shares in their
debut on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Upper Canada did not skyrocket like
recent U.S. craft beer offerings. "We now have the capital we need to grow,"
said Chairman Frank Heaps. Founded in 1984, Upper Canada brews 11
premium-priced ales and lagers, including Upper Canada Rebellion,
Colonial Stout, Publican's, and Dark Ale. The initial public offering of over
three million shares at C$8 (US$5.87) a share was heavily oversubscribed.
The nearly C$25 million (US$18 million) proceeds will be used to expand
the brewery's Toronto plant, pay off debt, and finance an acquisition,
possibly in the United States. (Source: Darren Schuettler, Reuter Business
Report, March 21, Thursday)
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ADVERTISING/MARKETING WATCH
Dogs, Frogs And Highly Organized Insects
An Advertising trade magazine applauded A-B's advertising strategy with
the headline: "Campaign Clout, Budweiser's New Menagerie Hops To The
Top Of The Ad Charts." The article continues: "After years of being
outsmarted by the humor of its Bud Light offspring-except at the peak of
'Bud Bowl'-Budweiser emerged as America's most outstanding TV
campaign for 1995. With able assists from other party animals (ants,
clydesdales, etc...), the original frogs established that you don't need a beer
drinker in beer ads... The final payoff was a long time coming. The brand
had set off to shirk its 'your father's beer' image. Throw in a challenge
from the latest fad of micro-breweries and the job becomes enormous.
Bringing in creatures to the rescue wasn't completely without precedent.
Alex the Dog made Stroh's a national brand; Spuds MacKenzie made Bud
Light the best-selling light beer; and Red Dog has captured more than a 1%
share of the market in just a year... And the results: Budweiser became the
beer of preference as the advertising awareness among the younger prime
group (21-27) tripled in less than a year, and the brand reduced the rate of
decline." (Source: Advertising Age, March 18, Monday, News, Pg. 40)
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Whip It Good In The U.K.
A commercial for Boddingtons beer shows wig-wearing Mike Flowers
performing the Sixties hit, "Release Me," in a kinky nightclub where
regulars are dressed in rubber and leather. As he sings on stage, a man at
the bar has his pint snatched away by a whip wielded by a sexy club-goer
dressed as Catwoman, who then downs the pint. The robbed drinker then
groans: "By 'eck, she's whipped me cream." Brewery executive Tracey
Mason said: "We think the phrase 'By 'eck she's whipped me cream' may
well achieve cult status." (Source: Daily Mirror, March 19, Tuesday, News,
Pg. 19)
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Plank Road Comes Out Of Closet
A new TV spot from BBDO in Toronto explains the origins of Miller
Brewing's Plank Road Brewery unit, for the first time formally acknowledging
in advertising its ownership of the marketer of the Icehouse and Red Dog
brands. The spot shows a group of young misfits being "shown the door" at
Miller Brewing Co. by the head brewmaster because of their "different
vision." Rather than being fired, they're given their own brewery, Plank
Road. (Source: Trevor Jensen, ADWEEK, Midwest Edition, March 11,
Monday) The spot rewards the Industrial brewer with the enlightened vision
to invest in new ideas, and invests a renegade spirit in the "brewers" at
Plank Road similar to that which gave birth to the craft-brewing movement.
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The Genius Of Compromise: Market Driven Beer Styles
To devise a new beer, Ramon Campos gave a consumer "focus group" a
chance to rank different tastes. What the samplers wanted, said Campos,
was a brew that wasn't too dark, not too light. "I originally was going to do
a micro-brew that was dark and very hoppy," said Campos, president of
Florida Brewery Inc., a private Polk County company with between $6
million and $8 million in annual sales. "They liked it, but it wasn't
something that they said they wanted to drink two, three or four of at a
restaurant." So Campos and brewmaster Eric Schalk began brewing a new
lager beer that Campos says tastes somewhere between a Heineken and a
Michelob. Florida Brewery, which also sells Bay Side and Master's Choice
brands, as well as copacking for Pabst, is a regional company that churns
out about 250,000 barrels a year. (Source: Paul Power Jr., The Tampa
Tribune, March 13, Wednesday, Business & Finance, Pg. 1)
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What Are They Really Advertising - Editorial
This month's advertising stories got me thinking. As the advertising world
pats itself on the back for brilliant, effective campaigns we have to ask what
they accomplish, how and why. My previous life was in advertising, so bear
with me while I bare some of the untidy underbelly of that business. Then
share it with your friends so that they can be more informed, critical, and
perhaps resistant to the lowest corporate denominator.
Many Industrial beer brand advertisements have portrayed the beverage as
an elixir for power, sex and power. In doing so, they have alienated large
populations. If you've seen one "The World Is A Very Cool Place" ad you've
seen them all -- man struts in holding a phallus/bottle which upon opening
brings white snow and delivers one hot, sexually available woman. One
campaign for a major brand shows a pitiful lush crying out for Betty Ford's
Clinic attention as he attempts to offer love, flattery, and admiration for a
beer. Can it get much worse than having a few laughs at an alcoholic's
expense? Perhaps. Boddington's overtly sexual context in tee-up to the "By
'eck she's whipped me cream" line may be headed in that direction. After all
these years, perhaps the promise of sex and power are growing thin.
In come the anthropomorphized beings to the brand's rescue. The ultimate,
politically correct message vehicles. No gender, race, age, religion, sexual
orientation or human characteristics. Both frogs and ant campaigns show an
amusingly high level of organization and intelligence to the brand loyalty.
We wonder if the popularity of Dave Mathew's "Marching Ants" hit wasn't
inspired by these creatures all doing the same thing. Obediently. Perhaps
what you're watching in these commercials is the Advertising and Brand
manager's power wet-dreams: obedient consumers croaking out the brand
name endlessly to our delight. The problem is that these ads amuse us. It's
hard to resist when you're laughing -- resistance is about struggle. If you
view these ads as a cynical mirror of your assumed buying habits, the spots
don't seem so light.
In the "party animal" story we learn that Red Dog (not a microbrew) has
captured over 1% market share in one year. Considering that the craft-brew
business has the Industrial beers scrambling with a more modest .5%
growth in market share last year, we must conclude this accomplishment
means high stakes worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Rumors abound on
this brand regarding dollars spent on the Red Dog campaign, the recipe,
and even "subliminal" presence of Batman providing oral attention to
Catwoman in the logo's chin. So what does the brand represent? Perhaps
an effort to create confusion and message dilution about the nature of
microbrews. Maybe it was an experiment in backing a new brand. The logo,
graphics, font, platform of the brand tells us it attempts to reach into a
younger demographic from 21-27, described in an article above as
diminishing and therefore increasing in competition for share of mind and
market share. The promise the campaign brings to the microbrew business
is that for the first time in years the Industrials are backing new names
beyond their family and the hope may be that consumers and retailers open
to new experiences may seize the opportunity to try a real beer.
Advertising executives from agency and client alike will defend these
campaigns as highly effective. At face value they do not lie. All they do is
amuse at best. So what do these ads serve? They serve the fizz and the
bubbles of the beer. They infuse attitude, power, and sex into what amounts
to otherwise undifferentiated, uncharactered, bland, mass-produced
beverages. We hope craft and specialty brewers never go this path. For
now, craft brewers have been successful in advertising the quality and
unique character of their product. Craft brewers have a great story to tell, so
their advertising reflects the substance. For the sake of autonomy, critical
thinking, and political resistance to large advertising budgets, go out and
support your local brewers this month.
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