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The Long Tail of Beer Revisited

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Chris Anderson is the author of the Long Tail theory and the companion book The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More (and editor of Wired). He did a post last year about Anheuser-Busch’s foray into spirits, a division named Long Tail Libations, which got me thinking about his theory as it applied to craft beer.

Anderson has another post this morning further exploring this connection as it applies to the number of niche products the company has added over the last ten years. This leads him to the most niche (is nicheiest a word?) market going today, gluten-free beers. Check out his blog.

Playboy Uncovers Beer

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The February edition of Playboy magazine includes an article called Brew Romance, in which a distinguished panel of fourteen chose their favorite bottled beers in several categories. The article then recounts the results. Here are their top ten choices:

  1. Sierra Nevada Pale Ale
  2. Victory Prima Pils
  3. Ommegang Abbey Ale
  4. Anderson Valley Boont Amber
  5. Sierra Nevada Porter
  6. Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout
  7. Tröegs Tröegenator Double Bock
  8. Samuel Adams Utopias
  9. Alaskan Smoked Porter
  10. Deschutes Mirror Pond Pale Ale

And there were also a few honorable mentions:
 

  • Samuel Adams Double Bock
  • Rogue Shakespeare Stout
  • Anchor Porter
  • Anchor Steam
  • Victory HopDevil
  • Blue Point Toasted Lager

 

It’s a pretty good list, too. I can’t really quibble with any of the choices, they’re all great beers. Sure, I might have put some above others and there’s a few missing from the list I might have compiled — Russian River’s Pliny the Elder comes to mind. And it’s certainly great to see good beer in such a mainstream magazine as Playboy.

Proposed Man Law: Stick with Your Advertising

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In a move reminiscent with all of Miller’s recent ad campaigns, they’ve decided to pull the plug of Man Laws, which debuted last spring. Miller announced last week while I was in London that their latest campaign will be on hiatus, perhaps until football season resumes once more in the fall.

The official reason stated is “that Miller is shifting its strategy to focus more on the qualities that make Miller Lite different from other reduced-calorie beers,” which is, of course, businessspeak for sales of Miller Lite continue to fall and the blame has been put on the advertising.

As AdAge (subscription) put it, “Man Law No. 1: Advertising Must Boost Sales.” This seems to be the way these things go nowadays, in a world that’s increasingly faster paced, where new television shows are cancelled within weeks, movies have very short runs, and nothing is really allowed to find its audience over time. If it doesn’t work immediately, then discard it and try something new, and fast. Was our appetite for the next quick fix created by marketing machines or are they merely playing into our natural tendencies using more sophisticated techniques? It’s worth asking, because I can’t believe an entire society with ADD was inevitable … or desirable.

But this seems to be Miller’s biggest problem with their ad campaigns over the past decade, perhaps longer. They had great success with the “tastes great, less filling” campaign of the 1980s but have never really found anything close to duplicating that success. Every couple of months, a new campaign (by a new agency, in many cases) is trotted out to great fanfare only to die in a fiery ball of collective yawns from their target audience. Either they’re poorly thought out (catfights, “Dick”) or they’re not given much of a chance (like the man laws). So then it’s on to the next one, with the predictably same result.

Anhesuer-Busch, on the other hand, has been far more successful in creating a series of memorable ads. Sales of their Bud Light, along with Coors Light, have seen recent single-digit sales increases.

But even if the Man Law ads haven’t translated directly into sales growth, the concept has been wildly popular, inspiring literally hundreds of thousands of proposed new man laws to the Manlawpedia at the Men of the Square Table website. They’ve obviously managed to capture something that appeals to a great many people, so it seems like a bad idea to abandon it before it has a chance to build more fully.

According to AdAge, the “new spots differentiate Miller Lite from its competitors by noting its spelling (“Lite” vs. the less distinctive but not misspelled “Light” used by A-B and Coors). They are expected to air until new work from Crispin, Porter & Bogusky — a return to the more comparative style of advertising Miller employed during Lite’s 2003-2004 renaissance — replaces them in April.”

Of course, in the end, what they really should do is make a beer with more flavor. Because Man Law #1 honestly should be “No one, man or woman, should ever drink a light — or lite — beer … ever.”

Off to the White Horse

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The Bulletin will be on vacation for the next week, returning on Tuesday January 30. I’ll be jumping the pond this morning to attend the Old Ale Festival at London’s White Horse on Parson’s Green. This is supposedly cellerman Mark Dorber’s last year at the pub, so I’m glad I’ll have a chance to see him there. It should be a great time. I’m pretty sure they’ll be photos and stories here next week.

The White Horse in London.

Here’s the beer list for the two-day festival:

British Beers:

Adnams Tally Ho 7.0%
Ballard’s Wassail 6.0%
Bass Museum No 1 10.5%
Bass Museum P2 Imperial Stout 8.0%
Bass Museum Worthington White Shield 5.6%
Broughtons Old Jock 6.7%
Caledonian Santa’s Little Helper 3.7%
Cottage Norman’s Conquest 7.0%
Dark Star Dark Star Original 5.0%
Dark Star Imperial Stout 10.5%
Exmoor’s Beast 6.6%
Fuller’s Old Winter Ale 5.3%
Fuller’s London Porter 5.4%
Gale’s Winter Brew 4.2%
Harvey’s Old Ale 3.6%
Hogs Back A Over T 9.0%
Lee’s Harvest ale 11.5%
Lee’s Moonraker 7.5%
Mauldon’s Black Adder 5.3%
O’Hanlons Port Stout 4.8%
Oakham’s Oblivion 5.7%
Orkney’s Skull Splitter 8.5%
RCH’s Old Slug Porter 4.5%
Reepham Velvet Sweet Stout 4.5%
Robinson’s Old Tom 8.5%
Roosters Body Warmer 5.0%
Roosters Jaks 3.9%
Theakston’s Old Peculier 5.7%
Thornbridge Jaipur 5.9%
Titanic Stout 4.5%
Uley’s Old Spot 5.0%
Woodforde’s Head Cracker 7.0%
Young’s Winter Warmer 5.0%

Belgian Beers:

Abbaye des rocs Speciale Noel 9.0%
Binchoise Special Noel 9.0%
Brigand Christmas 9.0%
Bush Noel 12.0%
Cantillon Lambiek 5.0%
Corsendonck Christmas 8.5%
Geants Saison Voisin 6.0%
Gouden Carolus Christmas 10.5%
Peter Lieven Bruin 6.5%
St Bernardus Tripple 6.7%
St Bernardus Prior 7.6%
St Bernardus Abt 12 10.5%
St Feuillien Noel 9.0%
Troubador Obscura 9.0%

Drinking Liberally

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If you like your news leaning to the left, you could do no better than the AlterNet, a portal that brings in news that appeals to liberals from a variety of sources. They had a lengthy article posted today by author Nick Pinto called “Drinking Liberally: A New Strategy for Progressive Politics,” about the progressive organization that was founded in May of 2003. Drinking Liberally is pretty much what it sounds like, a group of politically like-minded progressives who get together on a regular basis to enjoy a beer and talk politics. Their motto is “Promoting democracy one pint at a time.” There are currently 175 chapters in 42 states (plus D.C.), including four here in the Bay Area: in Oakland, Palo Alto, San Francisco and San Jose.

The website provides a forum, information on each chapter (like when and where they meet) and how to start your own chapter, but the AlterNet article is a great overview of the organization’s origins, structure and goals.

Founders Justin Krebs and Matt O’Neill met working together on a PBS-funded non-partisan project aimed at getting young voters involved in politics. Though they found modest success, both remained frustrated with the state of political discourse and decided to do something about it.

From the article:

Krebs and O’Neill agreed that part of the problem was that there wasn’t really any space where people could discuss politics and the issues of the day in a relaxed atmosphere that was as much about social life and fun as it was about politics.

“It was also just a strange time,” Krebs remembers. “The country was about to go to war in Iraq. The people seemed powerless. The press seemed asleep. There was this sense among those of us in New York who didn’t like where the country was going that there was a surplus of progressive energy but it wasn’t obvious where to put it.”

Both fans of Robert Putnam’s Bowling Alone, which documents the decline of civic institutions in America, O’Neill and Krebs began to talk about creating a drinking club loosely organized around progressive politics.

On a Thursday night in May of 2003, after e-mailing an invitation to some friends, Krebs and O’Neill held the first session of Drinking Liberally at Rudy’s, a popular Hell’s Kitchen bar known for its hot dogs and cheap pitchers.

The group grew slowly over the summer, with some Thursday nights finding only Krebs and O’Neill holding down the Drinking Liberally fort. A west-coast chapter opened when a regular attendee at Rudy’s moved to San Francisco, and the group’s profile rose somewhat when it hosted some events during the 2004 Republican National Convention. But what really catapulted the group into the national awareness was a photograph in a Newsweek article about young people’s political engagement that showed someone wearing one of the group’s buttons, which read, “I only drink liberally.”

“Over the course of that week so many people started Googling ‘I only drink liberally,’ finding our Yahoo group, and writing us to say, ‘Hey, how can I start my own chapter?'” O’Neill recalls.

After the website went up, things began to snowball and the movement grew quickly, taking only a few short years to extend its reach into over 80% of the states and almost 200 metropolitan and not-so-metropolitan areas. Today the average age of a member is 36, a little older than the founders originally envisioned, but as the author notes, the growth of Drinking Liberally mirrors the growth of liberal blogs, too. An interesting concept to be sure.

The idea has also spawned other similar liberal organizations such as Laughing Liberally and Screening Liberally, all hosted by Cosmopolity, whose mission is “political action through social interaction.”

The True Meaning of Beer?

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This little screed came courtesy of a regular east coast reader (thanks Loren) by way of the Beer Advocate Forum, where it was commented on extensively already. It’s a column from yesterday’s Pittsburgh Tribune-Review entitled “Beer snobs forget the true meaning of beer.” Despite being a large former bouncer, the author, Mike Seate, is apparently vying to be the next Ann Coulter. He also writes a blog for the Tribune-Review called the “Hot Seate” and according to his bio there, he has already gotten a “stack of hate mail as tall as Shaquille O’Neal” and “collected more than nine hours of angry phone calls from readers, many of which he hopes to compile into a comedy CD tentatively titled ‘He Hate Me.'” So it seems clear he’s acting this way on purpose. He claims to be “writing about the grittier side of local life, focusing on touchy subjects like racism, economic strife, crime and the police, transportation, pop culture trends and, occasionally, the absurdity of modern politics.”

I won’t spend much time dissecting his article, it’s too intentionally inflammatory to bother and Todd Alstrom and the legion of Beer Advocates commenting after him have pretty much said it all already, anyway. Suffice it to say it’s the ignorant ramblings of a man who honestly appears to know nothing about the subject he’s writing on. It’s pure unadulterated opinion. There’s nothing wrong with having an opinion per se, plenty of beer writers have them — not that I’m naming names. It’s when you can’t back them up with supporting facts, any expertise or even familiarity with the subject matter that causes those opinions to become meaningless. Obviously anyone can say anything they want to. But that doesn’t mean anyone else has to listen. It’s unfortunate that some such people get an imprimatur from the mainstream media outlets by virtue of their thoughts being published. Newspapers, radio and television openly court controversy because it sells papers and air time. Now that “news” has become viewed largely in the same way as entertainment programming by their owners, ratings and revenue have become more important than providing a public service as a thank you to all of us and the FCC for giving them control of the airwaves so they can make billions of dollars. As the great writer A.J. Liebling wrote. “Freedom of the press is limited to those who own one.”

Seate reminds me of the peasants outside of Dr. Frankenstein’s laboratory with pitchforks and fire, ignorantly mistaking the technological advances his work represents as a monster. He clings to the notion that the “true meaning of beer” is that it’s a “workingman’s drink,” ignoring centuries of history. Mike’s blissfully unaware that were it not for the “strange orders of Trappist Belgian monks who craft their beers in dank basements” he so blithely insults he would have no industrial light lager to swill from a Styrofoam cup. Like virtually every commodity the world has ever known, its role and status in society is always changing and evolving. Things very rarely stay the same. Mike is obviously uncomfortable with change and seems especially upset that beer with more flavor also is more expensive. Oh, the humanity!

It’s quite funny that the only to beers he mentioned are Guinness and Boddingtons, neither of which are held in great esteem by the beer snobs he so disdains, and both are from fairly large companies, especially Guinness, whose parent company Diageo is one of the biggest beverage concerns in the world. But he manages to mangle just about every assertion he makes in his piece and in the end, I think that must be the point. Shock and awe always creates more of a stir than thoughtful analysis and reason. And like Coulter’s ignorant pronoucements, it works. I should be ignoring what he’s saying but I can’t. The bait is there and I took it. It’s schadenfreude. I can’t look away.

So what is the true meaning of beer? It’s a good question, but not one that’s easy to answer, especially since it means different things to different people. But like it or not, there are probably many millions of people who are afraid of better beer just the way Mike Seate is, ignorantly lashing out at what he doesn’t understand. It’s a common enough strategy for those that cling to their precious status quo. Change is always a little scary. Perhaps all we can do is offer him our sympathy that his ignorance keeps him “doing [his] drinking at home, on the cheap, from a Styrofoam cup,” while the rest of us are above ground, out at one of “those so-called beer emporiums,” enjoying a beer so good it will make you cry out of a “tiny brandy snifter [or] elegant, hand-blown glass goblet.” Ah, now that’s the life.

2007 Bloggies

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E-mails have been floating around this morning with the news that nominations for the 2007 Bloggies awards end tonight at 10 p.m. eastern time (that’s 7 p.m. for us left coasters). If you like the Brookston Beer Bulletin, please consider nominating it for “Best New Weblog” and/or “Weblog of the Year” (hey, I can dream, too, can’t I?). But you have to nominate at least three so I recommend also voting for Lucy Saunders’ wonderful Beer Cook and Grilling with Beer blogs, especially since she nominated mine. Apparently, final nominations are determined by the number of votes potential nominees receive, so I’ll need all the help I can get, dear loyal readers (note pleading suck up tone). Just click the link to the 2007 Bloggies below and start nominating whoever you want in at least three categories and then follow the instructions at the bottom of the page. That’s it. Thanks.

A New Gluten-Free: There’s Vikings in Them Thar Dark Hills

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There’s new gluten-free brewery coming. This one is Dark Hills Brewery and is viking themed. It’s located in northest Arkansas near Fayettville. Owners Constance Rieper-Estes and Leigh Nogy (who’s also the brewmaster) plan to have the production facility up and running by fall of 2007. They will be producing five different beers all using just rice and corn as the grain substitutes.

Man Laws

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This is a strange admission for me, but — geez, I can’t believe I’m saying this — I actually agree with almost all of Miller’s list of “Man Laws,” part of their newest ad campaign to persuade people that drinking Miller Lite isn’t just for kids, er … young adults, anymore. Maybe that says more about me than the Man Laws, who knows? If you’re a regular reader of the Bulletin, you know how I feel about low-calorie light beers — no sane person should drink them … ever. But I have to give Miller their props, especially after a number of ill-fated and ill-advised ad campaigns. Anybody else remember the ads by “Dick” in the late ’90s? Or the infamous Catfight? The Man Laws are at least somewhat clever. There was an interesting article in yesterday’s New York Times by Stuart Elliot all about the unusual partnership between Miller and the magazine FHM (For Him Magazine), a British men’ magazine with an American version. FHM is a men’s magazine in the mold of Maxim or Stuff, not Playboy.

Apparently in one of the new models to get advertising for major accounts, magazines are pitted against one another to come up with the concepts themselves, essentially taking on the role of advertising agency for the privilege of winning a company’s advertising. I guess that’s cutting edge and obviously winning the accounts is lucrative for the magazines, but it sure feels a little sleazy to me. I’m sure that’s my own naivete and sense of fair play, but how about these companies come up with their own ways to advertise their products?

From the Times’ article:

The FHM print campaign was selected after a competition that pitted ideas from the magazine’s ad sales department against those submitted by their counterparts at several other monthly men’s magazines. As is becoming increasingly common as magazines battle the new media for ad dollars, the FHM campaign involves elements that extend beyond prosaic ad pages.

Readers can take part in a contest on a special Web site (fhmus.com/manlaws), to which they can upload photographs to report “violations” of the laws. The contest is also accepting entries through cellphone text messages and e-mail messages.

Here is a list of all of the current Man Laws:
 

Man Laws

  1. Now matter how long the trip, a man’s suitcase shall not exceed 1.8 cu. ft.
  2. No man shall own a dog smaller than a football.
  3. Under no circumstances should a man be seen wearing sunglasses indoors.
  4. Armbands, headbands and such accessories are not to leave the gym.
  5. The Wearing of socks with sandals is henceforth forbidden.
  6. At no time shall any man believe a comb-over looks good.
  7. Men pull pranks.
  8. A man shall never dance for fun unless to improve his chances of getting a girl.
  9. When swatting an insect, never do it yelling “get it off, get it off!”
  10. Regardless of how scary the ride, it is never permissible for a man to squeal.
  11. A man shall never get in his vehicle by sitting sideways and swinging both legs in.
  12. Technology that makes you look like a mumbling crazy person is not cool.
  13. You can take the last beer or the last chicken wing — not both.
  14. Acquire tans by accident, never by credit card.
  15. Regardless of the name, a man doesn’t visit a manicurist.
  16. A man may wear pink provided that he refer to it as “light red.”
  17. No man shall ever make excuses for the haircut he has been left with.
  18. Highlights are sports clips, not something you do to your hair.
  19. “Too cold” shall not cross any man’s lips on game day.
  20. All football injuries are treatable by walking it off or rubbing dirt on it.
  21. Interpretive dancing shall be reserved for weddings and touchdowns.
  22. When attending a football game, you can not wear the jersey of a former player, unless that player is retired.
  23. No man shall ever tuck a team jersey into his pants.
  24. Shirtless players shall not repeatedly post up on their defenders.
  25. A man shall not wear a full team uniform to play pickup basketball.
  26. A man shall never have two-hundred dollar basketball shoes and a three-cent game.
  27. Three or more air-balls in a game and a man shall be relegated to passing.
  28. A man shall not nag another man, but a firm stare is OK.
  29. A man must abide by the locally accepted shotgun rules; failure to do so results in automatic shotgun forfeiture.
  30. A man must attempt to stop a friend from calling his ex-girlfriend a minimum of three times, after that he’s on his own.
  31. When your friend’s girlfriend breaks up with him, she’s off limits; unless she is drop dead gorgeous, in which case you must wait six months before dating her.
  32. A man shall never use a lame pick up line.
  33. All men must possess the ability to operate a knife, either electrical or traditional.
  34. Fireworks are always in season.
  35. A man shall never pay any attention to the evenness of his tan line.
  36. In a pinch, it is perfectly acceptable for a man to commandeer female clothing for Halloween costuming purposes.
  37. Holiday decorations must absolutely, positively be taken down before spring.
  38. Crushing a beer can on your forehead is lame.
  39. A man shall never put a lime or other fruit in a beer for any reason at any time.

The best photographs depicting violations of the Man Laws are then entered into a contest, which … let’s let the Times continue explaining how it works:

In an example of the trend known as consumer-generated content, the best entries from the contest will be compiled in a 16-page booklet to accompany the May issue of FHM. For readers who cannot wait that long to learn the finer points of “man laws,” Miller Lite will be the sole sponsor of a 2007 calendar that will be included free with the January/February issue of FHM.

It’s an interesting concept and certainly better than most of Miller’s recent ad campaigns. Now if only they’d put some more effort into making some better tasting beers.

The Lost Abbey and Brewer’s Blogs

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I got an e-mail from Tomme Arthur yesterday, letting the cat out of the bag, so to speak, on his Brewer’s Blog. I don’t think he was planning on it being a secret, but it is just getting started. From the few posts there so far, it looks like it should evolve into a fascinating peek into Tomme’s mind and the work and thinking that goes into running a brewery and building a brand. If you love his beers — and you’d be a fool not to — you will undoubtedly enjoy his musings, as well. I’m looking forward to following along.

Although blogging may take time away from his Washoe practice which, as Dave Keene can tell you, he clearly needs (yes, that sound you heard is the gauntlet being thrown down for a rematch).

This is a good trend, I think, of commercial brewers having their own blogs to let their customers behind the curtain to see how the process goes of working at, building or running a brewery. There are now several professional brewers with a brewer’s blog. Below is a list of the ones I know of. If you know of any others, please let me know as I think it’s high time I added a new category of links just for them.
 

Brewer’s Blogs