A Question of Loyalty

Hot on the heels of the realization that I am an un-loyal brand consumer,* Forbes.com contributor and brand research consultant, Robert Passikof has listed how well and to what degree the large breweries on the American market are engaging customers with their brands. Passikof's company Brand Keys, uses predictive behavior in determining brand equity and loyalty as an indicator of profitability. The list compares—what Pasikoff refers to as—"regular" strength and light beer brands. The top six spots for the "regulars" are:

"Fredo, don't forget to bring a sixer of
Sam for the fishing trip."

1. Coors/Sam Adams**: 90%
2. Heineken/Miller**: 88%
3. Budwesier: 85%
4. Busch: 83%
5. Corona: 80%
6. Michelob: 78%

The top for the light beer category:

1. Coors Light: 89%

2. Amstel Light: 88%

3. Sam Adams Light: 85%

4. Bud Light: 83%

5. Corona Light: 80%

6. Busch Light: 78%

A few changes from last year— Heineken and Miller rose two and five spots—respectively—and Budweiser jumped five spots from number eight, last year, to number three, this year. Neither Stella nor Guinness made the top six this year—Stella falling from last year's number two spot and Guinness dropping of the list from five. Corona also fell, but stayed within the top six—from three to five. 

On the light beer front, Coors Light trumped Sam Adams Light, moving from second last year to first this year—booting Sammy to third. Amstel blasted up from the seven spot to fill the Coors Light void, and Corona Light usurped Natural Light in the five spot—dropping the later from the list all together.

Keep in mind these lists aren't ranking the best-selling beers. Consumer loyalty engagement percentages are predicting the drinkers habits. Basically it's data, obtained via survey, that determines if a consumer is drinking the same beer as they did a year ago, or if they've switched to another brand.

Sam Adams is particularly interesting in this scenario—least of which is because it's the lone craft brew on the list. Sam Adams has consistently ranked at the top of the consumer loyalty lists for the last five years. According to a 2012 article about customer loyalty, by 24/7 Wall St. on DailyFinace.com, Sam Adams ranked second out 11 brands who received the highest Brand Keys scores in relation to those brands ideal ranking, from that year—and not just beer brands either—Costco, NBC Nightly News, and Purina also made the list with the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare video game franchise placing first. The article notes that Sam Adams had a product score/ideal ranking of 97.3%, and a loyalty score of 130—just 3.5 points shy of the category's ideal score of 133.5 points. The article continues:

Proof that you don't have to be among the biggest to be among the best: Sam Adams has a quite small market share compared to the top-selling brands in the light beer arena -- less than 2% in 2010, according to Beverage Industry Magazine. At least six other light beers are more widely consumed. However, according to the Brand Keys survey, those who drink it have a lot of good things to say about the Massachusetts brew. According to respondents, the Sam Adams Light rates highly as being suitable for drinking in different times and places, for being easy to drink and well made, and for having an "invigorating taste."

Although an "invigorating taste" might be marketing frima-framas, it appears that the people have spoken, and the evidence is pretty clear where folks loyalties lie. A few question arise, however. Is Sam Adams' ranking a result of the craft beer biz and the loyalty to what that industry may tout as a commitment to quality, or simply a testament to the marketing prowess of Boston Beer Company? Second to that, does a rising tide lift all boats? Will we see more increased profitability in the craft beer industry due to product loyalty? Are Sierra Nevada fans only loyal to Sierra Nevada? Are there Fat Tire-ists or Heady Topper-ites? Is the loyalty issue brand-based or craft-based in the world of micro breweries?

I don't know, but if I'm any indication my loyalties seem to lie with my taste buds. Although, I do wish I had grabbed some Boston Beer Company stock back in 1995.





*The more I think about this, I've realized that I can't remember the last time I bought a packaged quantity of a single style—or offering from a single brewery for that matter—in what seems like forever. 

**As far as I can discern, Sam Adams equates to Boston Lager, while Miller means Miller Genuine Draft.

For Simon

The song says, in heaven there is no beer.

There sure as hell is now.

#RIPscoop

The iTunes Phenomenon

I've discovered something about myself recently.

"The Swag" - Link Wray
"Extradition" - Ice Cube
"Camarillo Brillo" - Frank Zappa
"Solea" - Miles Davis & Gill Evans
"Cono" - Salif Keita
"Tailgunner" - Iron Maiden
"Lee Majors Come Again" - Beastie Boys
"Lost in the Supermarket" - The Clash
"North to Alaska" - Johnny Horton
"Death or Glory" - Motörhead

Those are the last ten songs played from my iTunes. Nothing to far afield, but I'd say it's a fairly broad range of musical styles and genre. A little punk, metal, old-school country, jazz and rap. For as long as I've been able to throw digitized music onto the computer (or my phone) I've just dumped it there and let it play—no rhyme or reason. Whatever comes on, comes on. I've recently added the Pandora app on my phone and iPad—it's taken the whole unsystematic concept to another level.

So what does this have to do with beer—this is a beer blog after all?

Well, I'm starting realize that my varied musical taste—or randomness therein—reflects my beer drinking habits as well. For the proverbial shits and giggles, I jotted down the last ten beers I've drank, just to see if this randomness was a naturally occurring character trait or if I leaned one way or another beer-wise. Heres' the result:

Sierra Nevada Summerfest
Rushing Duck Naysayer
Home brewed Dunkelweizen
Sixpoint Brownstone
Southern Tier IPA
Cricket Hill East Coast Lager
Saison DuPont
J.W. Lees Manchester Star
Session Black lager
Victory Alt

There you go. Ten bottles (or pints, as it were) and ten different kinds of beer. No repeats in brewery or style—and I swear I picked them subconsciously. Even, the music repeated genres, but not the beer.

All said and done, I apparently like to drink my beer in shuffle mode.

In Defense of the Hop Bomb (It's Not What You Think)

I suppose I knew that commenting on Jeff's Beevana Facebook post—about Adrienne So's indictment of hop bombs and the beer industry on Slate.com—would lead me to writing my own blog post today. Deep down I think I knew it from the very first keystroke of that response. I didn't want to do it. It's beautiful outside, and It's Friday afternoon and nobody reads blog posts on Friday afternoons. Yet here I am, defending the hop bomb—or rather the inalienable right to brew the hop bomb.

Here's the long and short of So's position—from the last paragraph of her article.

Craft brewers’ obsession with hops has overshadowed so many other wonderful aspects of beer. So here’s my plea to my fellow craft beer enthusiasts: Give it a rest.

Every so often a statement or article, such as this one, emerges where a fan-boy—or in this case fan-girl—raises stink about "The way things should be". 

There in lies the rub. 

Someone is, yet again, telling me why I should, or why I should not drink one beer over another—be it hop-bombs of craft versus krafty, or whatever. 

I have grown tired of this tactic. 

Moreover, quality it seems has very little to do with it. I read her closing statement as rallying cry to topple the hop bomb—not as a call for better beer but rather, a call for the de-mainstreamification of those kinds of beer. Which to me seems a little ridiculous, because realistically hoppy beers—bombs or otherwise—are still pretty niche.

Now, here's the long and short of my position.

I don't see the need to do way with any beer—regardless if I like them or not. 

Data Mismanagement

I'm not trying to get all beer-snob douchey here, but I'm going to be honest with you. I'm not impressed by BeerViz's beer picker-thing.

Data should get some sun,
he's looking a little Helles.

I noticed it first mentioned it yesterday morning on Twitter (why, yes I do have a Twitter account—it's @drindrank1), and then 500 more times throughout the day. Using data collected from BeerAdvocate, the site claims presents a pretty straight forward idea, "Tell us your preferred beer style, and find similar beers to try out."

I guess it kind of does that, but not very well.

Everything starts off—well—a little off. It first asks you "What's your kind of beer? Choose your preferred beer strength to begin exploring similar beers." The viewer is then presented with images of three beer—one Light, one Medium, one Dark. I'm pretty sure I don't have to tell you guys that color and strength are not remotely related, but maybe someone should mention that to the BeerViz developers. In any case, each glass, upon clicking it, has a number of associated styles. In the Light category, for example English Bitter, Munich Dunkel Lager and Faro are represented.

Something seems to have gone a little pear-shaped.

Things get a little confusing in the Dark category, too. Not that they don't have Stout covered (six of the eight beers listed are one form or another of Stout). No Porter, Dunkelweizen or Brown Ale, but they do have a Helles Bock included in this category.

*sigh*

Onto the "Explore Similar Beers by:" area.

Four categories here—Appearance, Taste, Aroma and the generic Overall. Here's where we get into the site's "wheel of suggestion" based on all that Beeradvocate data. Clicking on any of the "Similar Beer" tabs will show you beers that share similar characteristics for that category. By choosing Medium / Taste—for example—someone who may enjoy Dog Fish Head Pumpkin, and wants to find something similar in flavor and color might (according to the wheel) also enjoy Goose Island Matilda—logically. Those looking for something less specific might click the Overall tab. Fans of the classic English Bitter, with all its caramel malt and earthy hops—say like a Ruddles County—might (again, according to the wheel) really dig the six chili pepper-spiked similarity of Twisted Pine's Ghost Face Killah. Those two seem pretty akin.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the developers of this, uh, tool, don't really know anything about beer—that, or they're just sloppy. They seem to be trying to let the data do all the work—and they also seem to be inputting it incorrectly. Data are only as good as they are interpreted—and it doesn't look like it was interpreted that well.

Or at all.

Tax On, Tax Off

There's a beer battle (don't do it) brewing (sorry) between Washington D.C. and public health researchers.

Forbes.com is reporting that bi-partisan lawmakers, U.S. House Representatives Tom Latham (R-IA) and Ron Kind (D-WI) are proposing a 50% cut to the federal beer excise taxes, putting it at it's lowest rate in 23 years. The Brewers Excise and Economic Relief Act of 2013 or—coincidentally—the BEER Act, as it's known, would eliminate the tax (for those breweries producing less than 2 million barrels a year) on the first 15,000 barrels produced and reduce the rate from $7 per barrel to $3.50 from the 15,001 to 60,000 mark. For breweries producing quantities above 60,000, the rate rises to $9 per barrel—still less than the existing $18 for both small and large breweries in the U.S.

All said and done, the BEER Act would cut a nickel off the cost of every 12 ounce bottle sold in the U.S.. The bill, introduced last week, hopes to ease the tax burden on the booming beer biz in the U.S., especially smaller breweries. That, and waving the "We love beer!" flag is a great a way to garner re-election votes, because as we all know that's why politicians do everything.

Needless to say The Beer Institute and the Beer Association are rejoicing, but who doesn't like cheaper beer, right?

Weeelllll....

According to Dylan Matthews of the Washington Post's Wonkblog, (Hey, didn't I evoke the Post's name, just a few days ago?) Duke University's Phillip Cook and UNC's Piette Durrance, who authored a paper in the Journal of Health Economics, might not necessarily agree. You see, Cook and Durrance found that when the Federal excise tax was raised way back in 1991—a mere 6%—there was an estimated 4.5% initial reduction in alcohol-related injury deaths, and the hike had a larger affect on overall violent crime. The article also sites analysis done by University of Florida researchers Alexander Wagenaar, Amy Tobler and Kelli Komro who say,

“Our results suggest that doubling the alcohol tax would reduce alcohol-related mortality by an average of 35%, traffic crash deaths by 11%, sexually transmitted disease by 6%, violence by 2%, and crime by 1.4%.”

Also according to Matthew's article, Cook notes that since the tax isn't indexed to inflation,

"$18 a barrel turned out to be a nickel a drink, and inflation since then has eroded the value of that nickel down to less than three cents ... We’re almost back to 1990 even without any new legislation, in real terms.”

So where does that leave us? Cut the tax and get cheaper beer, keep the tax and save lives. This is like Sophie's Choice for beer drinkers. Seriously though, I can't in good conscience say that a 30¢ difference in the cost of a six pack would be such a burden or a relief that I could justify someone dying—40¢ maybe, but not six nickles worth (That was a joke). Yeah sure, I suppose a nickle per bottle adds up overtime, and saying violent crime will rise by 2% or drop by the same amount—depending on your slant—seems a bit abstract. But, that whole people not being killed in firey automobile crashes—or not as many crashes—makes you think.

I think I'll go ruminate on this over a beer.





*As well as 33 co-sponsors—split nearly 50/50 Dems to GOPers.

Culture Shocked

This week, Stan put up a post, spurned by a Washington Post article about the ever increasing importation of American beer into Germany. Stan, being Stan, is far more diplomatic in his approach than I'm going to be, but I think we're both on the same page. Americans can be a bit douchey, when spending time in other countries—not all mind, you but a select few. Here's an example from one of those few—Matt Walhall, one of three Americans opening what they've dubbed a community brewery
in Berlin.

“This was simply to fill a void...We feel as if we’re teaching a lot of Germans things about their own beer culture that they’ve forgotten.”

That statement—in any context—is an amazingly pretentious thing to say.

I'm all for trying something new, and I agree that American craft beer leans a bit more adventurous than some other cultures, but c'mon. At what point did Walhall decide that "When in Rome" really means, "impose your viewpoint on another culture, while actively engaging those practicing the norms of said culture." As my grandfather used to say: "That's a good way to get popped in the nose"

On a parallel course of douchebaggery, comes this line from the general manager of Brooklyn Brewery, Eric Ottaway, while in Germany:

“The German beer industry has to reinvent itself in a hurry, or it’s going to be a small fraction of what it is now...”

It's not so much what Ottaway said, but how his statement relates to the next line in the article

...Brooklyn Brewery which has been expanding in Europe and has been exporting its beer to Germany through Braufactum, which sells a 12-ounce bottle of Brooklyn Lager in upscale grocery stores for the equivalent of $4.20 — almost three times its typical American price.

Allow me to translate the whole thing for you that for you.

“The German beer industry can in no way compete with the awesomeness that is American beer—especially Brooklyn Beer—that we will sell to you at an inflated price.

See how the translation helps to cut through the rest of that garbley-gook. This whole statement is about implication and inference.

Truthfully, I hope Brooklyn and Firestone Walker (the other American brewery mentioned in the article) make a great go of it in Europe. Both brewery's beers are fantastic, but I'm pretty sure that the aggregate of German brewers and breweries didn't asked nor particularly wanted to know the opinion of someone outside Germany on how that did or did not run their industry—right, wrong or indifferent.

Would this same conversation have been had in the U.K.? Walhall states toward the end of the article,

“My friends would come to visit me in Berlin, and we would taste beer, and very quickly, I realized, we reached the end. We tasted all the styles,”

First, let me state—more does not equal better, but more importantly, and back to the U.K. question, would any of these conversations have been had by an American brewery to a British audience. Would Sierra Nevada or Sam Adams say to a room full of Brit beer-geeks that 1.) There were not enough British styles, 2.) The British beer industry need to reinvent itself, and lastly 3.) A bunch of Yanks were going to school them on their beer culture.

Probably not.

American beer can be great—with all of its piney, bitterness and potency—but popularity does not denote quality. If it did, Tim Tebow would still have a contract with the Jets. More so, even great American beer doesn't negate German beer—especially in Germany. When it comes to other cultures, sometimes, it's best to heed one American, Abraham Lincoln, who knew that sometime it was better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.