No hype, just the "Death of a Brewery Salesman."

"My friend once showed me how he explains the three tier system of alcohol to lay people. He picked up his glass and moved it from in front of his right hand to in front of his left hand and then stuck out his other hand and said 'That'll be 30%, please.' There is often a feeling among brewery people that distributor people would be just as happy delivering turkey basters."

I wasn't ever the primary sales rep at my (former) brewery, but even in an ancillary capacity, I experienced enough of it to feel this guy's pain.

Unfortunately, there probably isn't a solution. Let's hope the colleges and universities continue to produce cannon fodder; meanwhile, I intend to curl up with a growler from the brewery down the way.

Death of a Brewery Salesman, by Matthew J. "Heff" Heffernan (DCBeer)

 ... It's a strange dynamic that leads many people to believe that being a beer rep is quite possibly the best job on the planet. That's what the buying public generally sees us doing: drinking beer on an expense account. They don't see us awake until all hours of the night building presentations to show at wholesaler meetings (which are often at 7am the next day). So they think this job is great. They don't see the truly unfortunate amount of time you have to spend analyzing sales data to make any sort of headway at retail, or with your wholesaler partners (about all of whom, I don't think it's any secret to anyone who knows me, I've openly had some very negative things to say about in the past, but we'll get to that in a minute). The public definitely doesn't see the embarrassing and regrettable conversations that sometimes go on out in the market or during a sales call. The horse trading, the sucking up, the falseness, agreeing when you actually disagree, smiling when you actually want to judo chop the person in the neck. These are some things I'm pretty good at. None of them are sexy, but I guess they do separate me from your average homebrewer. Still though, it's the cool shirt that must make them want me there. Or maybe the hope they will receive a cool shirt of their own simply by hosting?

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More about the city of Louisville's craft beer business report.

WDRB has good video accompaniment to yesterday's mayoral press conference.

Louisville planning to grow its craft beer industry

... Now, the city is getting behind the industry boom, and hoping to help it grow. A new report released today contains recommendations for furthering the growth of the craft beer industry in Louisville. The report was composed by a group of local industry leaders appointed by Mayor Greg Fischer.

Diary: On finding your market, because that's what you have to do, or you die.

My diary entries are aimed at capturing moments of consciousness without my habit of editing, writing, and re-writing. These thoughts may later lead to a finished essay. Or not.

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Like many others, I tended in the past to look approvingly at statistics documenting craft beer growth, and always came away from it encouraged. During the past couple of years, I started to be more skeptical. It’s all good, but maybe not always.

It comes down to veering away from the simplistic habit of viewing growth as an all-in statistic. Yes, rising tides continue to lift all boats, although perhaps not as much as you’d assume, given that craft beer is sufficiently mature to be multi-faceted. Sierra Nevada’s $15 twelve-pack of Pale Ale at Target is one segment. The sours of Jolly Pumpkin are another. Brewpubs without packaging apart from growlers form yet another market-within-a-market.

In 2009, NABC went from being a brewpub to producing enough beer to distribute outside. We looked at the preferences of our in-house consumers, and at the market outside our walls, and borrowed enough money to produce certain beers at a certain level. Naturally, there were assumptions. Just as predictably, many proved to be inaccurate. We’ve done well with draft and bombers, although we could have done better, and perhaps as yet will.

There’s nothing unusual in any of this. I bring it up because it mentions in passing what has been the single most difficult part of it. The beer’s great. How do we sell more of it?

Owing to economies of scale, we cannot compete in big boxes and groceries on price point with $15 twelve-packs of Sierra Nevada.

Owing to their diffused interests and tendency to cater to market perceptions, wholesalers are less help than you might guess.

Owing to what I view as statistical anomalies inherent in the results gathered by ratings aggregators, we find it difficult to rely on “good” scores to dramatically increase demand and make us into the trader’s choice.

Owing to the constitutional inability of the majority of self-described beer geeks to simultaneously embrace economic localism, we cannot depend on them to be consistent customers, either. This is not intended as a slur, but merely an expression of reality. I recently explained it during a consideration of the book “Tastes of Paradise.”

What do we know about our customers? Well, we’re our own best customer when it comes to NABC beer served in two NABC on-premise locations.

We know that our beer still moves elsewhere, because it keeps going out the door. But to where?

We know that the industry standard for multi-taps and better beer bars is to rotate their beer choices constantly. That’s good, but it’s also bad. These sorts of establishments are the highest-profile exemplars of what the craft beer cognoscenti already know to be true, but craft beer cognoscenti make up a minority of a minority, as much as it pains them to hear it.

Look at the percentage of craft beer in the nationwide beer market. Look at which craft beers sell the most (a clue: this list includes Sam Adams). Can there be any other conclusion than beer geeks (whatever the definition) as a smaller than imagined bloc comprising a proportion, albeit influential, that isn’t big enough to support “everyone’s local”?

As far as NABC is concerned, there are no closed markets. Anyone and everyone are free to buy our beer, and we hope they do. However, day to day life with limited resources suggests that one must select targets with a game plan in mind. Lately, our plan has been to find the craft beer market that might eventually be known as the silent majority – people who are into craft beer, but not to the extent of those classifying themselves as beer geeks (or, as I’ve been calling them, the priestly caste).

Is this counter-intuitive? Perhaps, except that when other potential markets prove again and again to be unreachable or disinterested, isn’t it our obligation to think outside of self-limiting boxes? If we don’t, won’t we risk failure?

For instance, consider Match Lounge in Jeffersonville. Community Dark has been on tap since it opened. Cluckers has NABC draft, too. Down the street, Kingfish has been pouring NABC for more than two years, and it goes great with raw oysters.

Across the street from Kingfish, there’s the Jeffersonville branch of Bristol Bar & Grill, and Beak’s Best has been on tap for four years running. It’s not a stretch to suggest that with the possible exception of Match, these establishments cater to few militant beer aficionados; after all, the overall choice of beer at each is far more limited than the typical multi-tap and thus not attractive to those craving the next big thing. And yet, these establishments continue selling through kegs of our beer. That’s encouraging, isn’t it?

Like I said, there are no closed markets – well, apart from the ones that close themselves. Match, Cluckers, Kingfish and Bristol are selling fine local beer to people who appreciate it. They’re the next 10%, aren’t they?

It happens that the fine local beer they’re drinking is produced by us, and their loyalty in supporting our flagships makes it possible for us to brew seasonals and specialties. I’m laboring mightily to find anything wrong with this scenario. Isn’t it standard in the business to reward their day in, day out loyalty with better treatment when those seasonals and specialties go out the door?

All they need do is ask … and yet they seldom do. Maybe it’s because folks buy what the beers they’re selling now. Folks are loyal to these places, and loyal to a beer pouring there. We’re loyal to the places pouring these – our – beers on a daily basis. And, for those asking me where they might go for wider beer selections, I never fail to point them the right way, whether our beers are available there or are not.

Sounds like the American Dream to me. So why am I an outlaw for saying it aloud?

Someone get me an envoy and a pitcher of craft beer.

Yesterday I offered this brief assessment of the first annual Bloomington Craft Beer Festival on Saturday, June 4: Yesterday's inaugural Bloomington Craft Beer Festival.

On the same day as the Bloomington gig, Keg Liquors in Clarksville held its sixth annual Fest of Ale. Owner Todd Antz provides this report:

We came up with some great numbers for the Fest of Ale. We brought in over 1,000 people and raised $7,225 for the Crusade for Children. Thanks to everyone who came out and helped make this the best one ever!

The question: Are these two locations, Bloomington and Clarksville, sufficiently far removed from each other that there were no ill effects from celebrating craft beer twice on the same day, at the same time?

Now, I'm not interested in exploring who had which date first, or which charity is the more deserving. Rather, I'll cut directly to the chase and note that in the perfect world, the two festivals would be held at different times.

Upland Brewing Company subordinated its Rad Fest into the Bloomington Craft Beer Festival, with hopeful results that vindicate the notion of placing a Brewers of Indiana Guild satellite event there. In spite of Big Red Liquors, Bloomington deserves the placement.

Meanwhile, Todd has done such a good job of establishing Fest of Ale as a metro Louisville tradition that it might easily be transformed into the Brewers of Indiana satellite fest intended to titillate the emerging Louisville market and to introduce it to the burgeoning world of Indiana-brewed beer.

But the fests simply cannot take place on the same day. Brewery personnel cannot always be organized into split squads; logistical choices must be made, and not all these choices are good for the consumer.

Can't one of them take place in the spring or early summer, and the other in the fall? I believe the reconciliation talks need to begin right away so that we can have an effective, balanced calendar in 2012.

Wednesday Weekly: "To Heck with Rants (Part Two)"

Continued from here: Wednesday Weekly: "To Heck with Rants (Part One)"

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NH: There’s also a nouveau riche thing going on with craft beer. It seems to be all about ostentatious display of IBU’s, ABV, etc., etc. It’s the whole Double Black Barrel-Aged IPA, beer mad lib thing that is completely boring to me. Communities like Beer Advocate advocate that phenomenon more than they advocate the full spectrum of beer appreciation. And just like the arms race brewers have to out “extreme” each other, dudes who review beers do the same thing.

RB: There is no such thing as bad publicity when it comes to turning heads. Yet again, I refer to the educational mandate that we all ignore only at our peril. You say you’re not in favor of the reviewers, or the brand of preaching practiced at Beer Advocate? Fine, then start your own damned church, but don’t withdraw into a shell and decry all comments, because turtle shell marketing can’t help craft beer at all. AT ALL. Everyone on the inside has had our issues with entities like Beer Advocate, but just look at the work these entities do to attract potential patrons to our side of the street! Besides, recently I’ve been using Beer Advocate and Rate Beer quite a lot to compare and contrast their respective takes on beer style definition, not so I can flaunt my nouveau riche attitude (i.e., I’ve been around this for more than two decades without striking the mother lode), but because is it helpful to me as I seek ways of educating prospective adherents.

Have I mentioned the importance of education?

NH: No longer is it good enough to say that a beer has a citrusy aroma or a grapefruit hop nose. Now, it’s grapefruit “pith.” Really?! Pith?! Come on….save the pretentious “notes of vine-ripened figs, off-set by a pumpernickel bread crust and grapefruit pith” for the wine world! It’s friggin’ beer, people! ”I hand wash my chalice with spring water, an Indian cotton wash cloth and handmade soap and and store it on a pillow made of the finest crushed velvet between my tasting sessions.” Beer is social and beer is fun and sometimes drinking one out of a red plastic cup is perfectly awesome!

RB: For those unfamiliar with the straw man fallacy, it’s when one places the weakest possible argument in the mouth of his or her opponent, then happily dashes the artificially weak argument to shreds. Do some beer tasters take it too far? Of course they do. Does a better understanding of how and what we taste assist our appreciation of anything we eat and drink? Of course it does. Beer’s better consumed from a glass, and yes, red plastic will do in a pinch. Know the rules first … and then break them with equanimity.

NH: I’m also cynical about the whole “celebrity brewer” thing. And I know quite a few wanna-be celebrities in this area and they make my stomach turn and my eyes roll!

RB: I hate to be a kill-joy, but something needs to be said here: If you are brewing professionally, using a brewery system that presumably cost more than a few bucks, it’s more than technical expertise. It’s show business, and we’re all performing at one level or another. You need to get used to it. There are celebrities in every field of human endeavor, for the simple reason that people demand them, period. Quit whining and pick a shtick – before someone else does it first.

NH: The whole beer-food pairing thing is pretty lame, as well. Beer isn’t wine! Don’t have a geuze with nachos. “Ah…but I find that the notes of figs and grapefruit pith are the perfect complement to a braised leg of lamb and fingerling potatoes.” Give me a break… As a pub brewer, I suppose I should be more into the pairing thing, but I think it’s pretentious, ridiculous and adds nothing to the beer culture, except for pushing it ever closer to the wine world.

RB: “As a pub brewer, I suppose I should be more into the pairing thing” – stop right there, Nate. Apologies, but while it remains that as a brewpub owner myself, I’d never seek to prevent an employee from expressing opinions, I’d have you out in the woodshed over this section of his rant.

Why talk about beer with food when you own a brewpub? BECAUSE PEOPLE LIKE THAT, and it assists in marketing, and it helps convince people to step inside the tent, and if you’re brewing for me and can’t wrap your arms around doing what comes naturally with beer and food, okay, but you had best learn to be better damned actor than that. Beside, it’s the wine world’s job to come closer to beer, not the other way around.

NH: Let’s see…what else am I cynical about? Craft fans seem to ascribe a false virtue to the small brewers and false vice to the big brewers out there. We laud some brewers’ success and vilify others for theirs. And the argument usually, and ignorantly, falls along the lines of “the big guys don’t care about beer, only profit.” And, “I know Sam Calagione and/or Greg Koch makes beer because he’s passionate about it.” Try opening a brewery in San Diego or Wilmington and see just what a couple of swell guys Sam and Greg are! Craft fans have taken up the mantel that they are fighting the big guys out there. In reality, however, Mercury Brewing is competing more fiercely with the likes of Wachusett than they are with Anheuser-Busch. But, David versus Goliath is a much easier and intriguing tale to tell if you’re a small brewer, even if it’s not entirely correct.

RB: Nate, you’re absolutely and spectacularly wrong with the gist of this assertion, which is understandable for someone who doesn’t believe in marketing or related evangelism of any sort, because if you don’t believe it’s fitting and proper to try to convince a mass-market drinker to switch his or her approach, then you’ve no choice except to believe that craft brewers are fighting one another for market share, not taking it from the big multinational boys.

That’s illogical. The big boys control 90% or more of the market, and that’s growth territory for craft beer for decades to come. How have we, as a segment, even come this far? By doing all those things Nate Heck so vehemently dislikes. How do we make further inroads? By doing all those things Nate Heck vehemently dislikes.

Is a pattern beginning to develop?

The ultimately puzzling nature of Nate Heck’s rant lies in the fact that he seems to have paid no heed to any side of the craft beer business and marketing equation that exists outside the confines of the brewhouse, and as a result, he’s missing just a few very important components. If everything he’s cynical about were to be taken away from craft brewing, both he and I would be having this dialogue while standing behind the counter of the convenience store, where we both would be working, then breaking for a few MGDs out by the dumpster, probably without red plastic cups.

That’s all I have to say about it. If you wish, you can call me a nasty beer evangelist … and I hope to meet Nate Heck some day and try his beers.

Out of a glass, please.

Wednesday Weekly: "To Heck with Rants (Part One)"

(In two parts to make up for last week's blank spot)

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It has taken me more than ten days to write this column.

Seldom do I worry very much about how my words might be taken out in the world, but this time, a disclaimer seems merited, because I don’t want anyone to think that I’m overly denigrating Nate Heck, a brewer somewhere in the Eastern United States, and a fellow I’ve never had the pleasure of meeting.

I’m not knocking Nate, just disagreeing on a few central points, and perhaps learning something about the nature of capitalist division of labor – and my part in it – in the process.

You see, I’m mentioning Heck’s name here only because a few days ago, he managed to spark one of those brief Internet furors that flare into “trending, and then disappear into the cyber ether, way faster than you can drink a pint of gently carbonated cask Bitter (an overview is here).

Evidently, the brewer Heck was asked a question, responded with a long-suppressed rant, and subsequently the beer world (more accurately, those beer enthusiasts hanging out on-line) lined up to debate his rant’s numerous bullet points, because as rants go, it was a real beauty.

It will surprise no one who knows me that I’ve had some measure of experience inciting riots, perhaps less lately than in the past, when the beer world was so much smaller and it was easier to cop a profile on the fly. Consequently, I’m the last person on the planet who’d criticize anyone for speaking his or her mind, Nate Heck included.

But after reading his thoughts, what bothered me was that they kept on bothering me, and I couldn’t put a finger on why this was so. Something he said in his rant got to festering under my skin. What was it? A few dozen beers later, it has become slightly clearer to me.

Both Nate Heck and the Publican obviously give a damn about beer. No arguments there.

However, he’s a brewer, and I’m a brewery owner.

At first glance, you’d think this wouldn’t matter very much. Most of the time, it doesn’t. Vast and pervasive tracts of daily workplace experience are shared by brew house artisans and management, and yet ultimately, there is a difference in perspective; nothing like a chasm, but a difference nonetheless, and one perhaps best illustrated by my chosen job description.

My business card says “Carnival Barker,” not owner.

Whether I’m good at it or not, and I’ll freely admit that it’s a coin flip of a call on some days, my job as brewery owner extends beyond signing the paychecks, donating my house (more than once) for use by the bank as collateral, and sometimes even deigning to provide overall direction to the daily operations.

(If not for co-owners who do much of the dirty work, it’d get ugly.)

For better or worse, I’m also NABC’s central pitchman. Not only that, I’m the chief educator as well. In my opinion, if I’m the owner, and I’m not pitching the product and educating, I’m not doing my job.

Furthermore, if there is any one thing I’ve learned after twenty years, it’s that selling better beer stands alongside love and war, in the sense that all’s fair while undertaking it. Any tools you have to market your products, don’t hesitate to use them.

From the beginning, even when my natural shyness was sometimes a crippling impediment to overt public advocacy, I’ve thrown myself out in front crowds and curves, and tried my best to talk people into taking a peek inside our tent -- and if they like what they see and taste, to spend a bit of their hard-earned money while they’re here.

Because: No money coming in, no business … and no freshly brewed craft beer, either.

And so yes, while much of what Nate Heck “cynically” ranted makes sense, it makes less sense when you consider the inconvenient truth that if craft beer does not succeed as a business enterprise, it will not continue to exist as a generous gift to us from governmental subsidies, or materializing afresh after the wave of a magic wand from the Wizard of Good Beer.

We have to sell beer and grow the segment.

That’s the way it works, folks.

Here’s what Nate Heck wrote (in italics), followed by my response (in bold). In the spirit of the dialogue, natch.

NH: I have spent most of my adult life making beer. I love what I do and of course, I love beer. However, it seems like over the past few years, something has changed and I’m still trying to wrap my head around what it is exactly. I guess I’m cynical because I see a lack of appreciation for the history of brewing. Lots of people seem to think that craft brewing started when Sam Calagione started DFH, and believe that “Beer Wars” are the gospel truth about the beer industry and that Stone Brewing doesn’t market their beer.

RB: If people have misconceptions about history, whether history is taken to refer to brewing, the American Civil War or ancient Sumerian numismatics, the only way these misconceptions can ever be addressed is through education, a pursuit that rewards patience and constant repetition, among other necessary qualities. As with any teacher who is instructing in any discipline, enthusiasm about the subject matter is vital. Take the initiative, and take information to the customer.

NH: And that is also something I’m cynical about…the evangelical aspect of craft beer. People feel they have to convert the unwashed Bud drinking masses. Beer is not some binary thing. You can enjoy an ice cold PBR AND like Russian Imperial Stouts…at the same time! *Gasp!* The blasphemy!!!

RB: Teaching is evangelistic. I appreciate where Nate is trying to go, but his mistrust of evangelism is bizarrely short-sighted. Take away the evangelistic aspect of craft beer, and watch as market penetration declines (not increases) exponentially. Take away the evangelistic aspect of craft beer, and shed numerous jobs, perhaps even the ranter Heck’s own paid brewery position. Take away the evangelistic aspect of conversion, and lose much of the entire point of brewing different (better, more diverse) beer in the first place. Craft brewing is a business, but the beauty is that it can be a lifestyle, too. Evangelism and marketing are two ways of referring to the same process, whereby we invite those outside the tent to step inside and try our wares. It sells itself, but only up to a point.

Continued here: Wednesday Weekly: ""To Heck with Rants (Part Two)"