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The opening ceremony of Brau Beviale in Nuremberg, Germany included a thought provoking presentation on Samuel Adams – one of the best selling craft beers in the US – by Jim Koch of The Boston Beer Company.
He was one of 3 Bavarian Beer Medal Winners as his hops are grown in Germany and he went on to tell the tale of his life as a craft beer pioneer.
“They say that in business there is always a woman behind a success story and for me it was Rhonda. We began brewing back In the 1980’s when beer was in decline. In fact, my father had been a brewer and he thought I was being even more stupid than usual in setting up my own brewery. But I persevered in brewing and went from bar to bar with beer in a suitcase, selling solely on taste, not advertising and that is what wins thorough every time. It was the beginning of a beer revolution
“My first batch was just 240,000 litres and in fact that batch failed but I knew that a premium beer was the direction in which we should be going. But of course this can be costly. So we made good but inefficient beer and today even though we are making 5 million hectolitres, in comparison to the big brewers, we are small and proud of it. Our big USP is freshness – so much beer today is not fresh. All too often beer is sold when it is 6 months, 8 months and even a year old. At Sam Adams we do not sell bottled beer older than four months or draught beer older than 2 months. the craft beer industry is about variety and innovation.
“Today America can stand alongside the great brewing nations such as Germany and the UK and is no longer just producing flavoured water with foam on top.
“There are now 60,000 craft beers across the world from Pale ale to porter to IPA and Pilsner to ESB and ESP all with a cornucopia of brewing styles. Today in America the small brewers are totally different to the big brands like Budweiser.
“Flavour, variety and quality are key. Hops are the soul of the beer. The better the hops the more complexity fullness and richness you are going to get into your beer. We grow beers that you want to drink. we share a passion and we share our beer with our friends.
“The Mass domestic market is currently 90% owned by the two big brewers, in fact 190 million hectolitres is made by the two biggest brewers in the US but it’s a big bucket with a lot of little holes in it. It is leaking – to craft beers and to flavoured malt beverages, to ciders to teas, and most importantly to speciality brewers. That gives us 3 or 4 hectolitres that is up for grabs and that is mostly going to the high end beer – and that sells for around 60% more than mass market beers but people are choosing to buy it.
“At Sam Adams we even sell some beers at 150 euros per bottle (yes!) and we sell every bottle. If you make perfection people will buy it. We do blind beer tasting with Sam Adams beer ‘Utopia’ alongside an ultra expensive port or 1000 dollar bottle of Louis Xlll cognac -and we have only lost twice! Innovation in flavour is critical and we use grains of paradise, fruits, chocolate, pepper, dates and ageing the finished beer in used spirit barrels to give our beer maximum flavour.
“There are a myriad ways to create new malts, for example using new waters eg rose water. The other way is to use new fruit flavours such as lychee mango pineapple. I always say embrace chaos it is often the happy accidents which win through. There are now unusual flavoured beers such as Cranberry Lambic and Chocolate bock that are doing very well.
There are so many elements that make up beer, as brewers we have more choices at our fingertips than in almost any other area of the food industry. In Yakima there are hundreds of hops grown in 1 hectare. Aspiring brewers wander through the fields, smelling the hops and start making a trial brew. From this random process great things have come.
Recently, The New York Times asked the big question: What came first? bread, beer or civilisation? Beer of course – beer brewing began 10,000 years ago. If you leave crushed grains in warm water in sunshine in 4 days days you can drink it! This was made in a large vat and naturally filtered through a real straw.
The Mayflower carried no water, but had a gallon a beer a day for every man woman and child – no wonder the US went on to be a beer brewing nation!
So it seems that all through the economic crisis, even though cost is important it is exceptional flavour that is paramount and people are prepared to pay for it.
“A quart of ale is a dish fit for a king” said William Shakespeare – and so long as you a referring to a good craft beer, I think you may be right.
Claire Phoenix is FoodBev Media managing editor – magazines. This is a personal blog and views expressed are her own.
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