Beer Innovation Summit 2014

Beer Innovation, they say, is largely marketing bullshit.

But, perhaps, whilst it might be nothing more than clever use of bullshit to gain competitive edge, that might just be innovation in itself.

I'll let you ponder that one.

The key point made by the innovation skeptics is that there really isn't anything new in the beer world. Barley wines, oak cask aged beers, imperial stouts, mahousively dry hopped IPAs and even eisbocks have all been done before. Kegged beers, serving beers out of fancy bottles, more art than beer, or any other fancy, value added claptrap, is nothing new.

Indeed, as a brewer who would like to be innovative it becomes increasingly difficult these days to come up with ideas that really are new.

Never-the-less, I feel that microbreweries do tend to be more innovative. Even if that innovation is nothing more than exploring how a more diverse acceptance and broader appeal is developed. Even if the product is similar to what has been produced before, perhaps even many times, if it reaches a new audience, or if it enables consumers to accept a less homogenous range of products, then this is certainly helpful.

My own living memory is not yet half a century in length. It might be getting close, a fact I'm not entirely happy about, but there we go, at least it does enable me to draw on some experiences and empirical, if anecdotal knowledge. I'd like to be more certain about some facts before the start of my memory, and if I were not so busy I'd do some research. However, I feel I can hopefully generalise some historical accepted situations to help illustrate my thoughts.

The vast majority of beer sold in this country today is some form of 4% ABV fizzy yellow liquid. The differences, in my mind, are much more to do with branding than flavour. On the one hand it could be said that this is the case because this is what people want. Whilst this might be true, at least in part, I also have some reservations.

I often compare beer to wine, spirits and other beverages. I also feel very nervous about doing so, after all, beer should be able to compete on it's own terms. I still think it is important to look at where we can learn lessons from a broader market, and so avoid the pitfalls of accepting the status quo as an unmovable certainty.

Beer has become, as a general rule in the mass market, very narrow in it's product variation, quite a surprise considering beer's real versatility. In reality the general public think of lager, bitter and stout and not much more. They think that anything over 5% is just plain crazy, and yet those same people will drink wine at 13% or whisky at 40% plus. Why?

Then there is the biggest bug-bare of mine when it comes to beer. Beer is, in general it would seem, quite masculine. My exploration of why this might be the case has gotten me into quite deep water, which continues to bother me. However, whatever the reasons, it must be something that most readers of this blog would agree with me on; beer is still considered by the vast majority of the general public as a mans drink, and nice ladies don't drink beer. The fact this is so is quite wrong and disturbing.

I cannot think of a single food or drink that divides along gender lines like main stream beer does. Are hops such a violent repulsive flavour as to inherently and instinctively alienate females? I really don't think so.

The generally accepted view among beer enthusiasts is that beer used to be stronger and more varied than it is today. The narrowing down and masculinising of the beer market would seem to me to be partly as a result of mass production and associated marketing.

Equally, and I'm drawing very much here on anecdotal experience, people who prefer to consider themselves more sophisticated don't tend to drink beer. TV often doesn't feature beer, although I do notice this is an improving situation, but for sure, many beer writers recognise that getting work into main stream media is not easy. A key blame for this is that up-and-coming editors and media types couldn't possibly be seen drinking beer and are much more likely to hang out in trendy wine bars. This then relates to a bias towards wine within the main stream media.

Whilst not universal, wanting to be successful, or wanting to be seen to be successful, biases the ambitious away from beer.

I've been invited to sit on a panel entailed "The State of the Nation" at the up coming Beer Innovation Summit, where apparently "top beer writers and brewers will discuss the challenges facing the industry"

Last year I was amongst a number of people who criticised the PMA for not choosing various important groups to be represented in the speakers. To me, it was obvious that micro-brewers were missing. One could assume that I've now been elevated to the rank of either top brewer or top beer writer by the fact I kicked up a fuss last year. Or perhaps I'm one of the token minorities.

The other objection, which I'd have to admit I failed to notice until it was pointed out, was that it was a very male dominated line-up last year. This year our panel includes Marvarine Cole, which I'm delighted about. Equally, Sarah Barton, who has already made her mark in the industry by being proactive about inclusion of people irrespective of gender, will also speak at the summit. Emma Reynolds from AB InBev is also to speak. It does still seem to be male dominated however, so I'll reserve judgement until after I've attended.

For me, the most powerful form of innovation that could be brought to the table is that of considering how to engage those markets, or social groups, or age ranges that are currently turning their back on beer. We live in an age where more and more people are moving away from the old-fasion stereotypes of gender roles and class status.

I'm very pleased to be involved with the Innovation Summit, and I hope to provide a robust but balanced view from my part of the market. For me there is an ever increasing trend for younger people to never even starting to look at beer. Alcho-pops, spirits, wine and many other drinks are making off with our market share. A fresh look is always a good idea, even if it is just giving beer marketing bullshit that that is less gendered and enables a broader acceptance of variety.

Discussing Gender Issues Surrounding Beer

I posted on my blog the other day about the problem of beer being perceived as a largely masculine drink by the majority of the population.

It caused offence. I wonder if that offence might have been as a result of misunderstanding and how widespread that offence was. However, it caused significant offence to enough people for me to decide to take down the posts. I am sorry for causing that offence and I am unhappy that it has. If I should write again on the subject I shall be far more careful.

What has worried me more than anything is that I feel I am closer in opinion to those whom I have offended when it comes to gender and beer, and probably wider gender issues too.  Although I have a business driver for this, anyone who knows me well, will understand that I shape my business based on what I believe in, not the other way around.

I remain extremely interested in the issues surrounding gender and beer. I believe that the issues are complex and difficult to tackle. I believe they are influenced by wider gender issues in society, some of which are very difficult to tackle from a broad and honest perspective. I do think, if we are to understand it well, we have to look more broadly than just beer.

I think it might be awkward to discuss the issues if we can’t explore how the main body of society view such issues for fear of upsetting those who have very strong gender agendas. I believe it is important to explore these issues from various perspectives, including that of the most masculine in society, without fear of overreaction. As with all subjects that require opinions to be aired, there is a risk of polar opinions damaging an honest debate.

I am a heterosexual male and just because I sometimes fall foul of some of the stereotypical flaws I have, does not mean I can’t discuss the issues of gender. Indeed, I feel that the dichotomy within myself, which has consumed me over the last couple of days, has helped me to shed a little light on the subject

What bothers me most is that the subjects I was trying to air have barely been discussed at all. Mostly, the discussions which evolved ended up being related to the offence I caused rather then the topic for discussion. So, I am now wary of writing about the subject at all.

I wonder how many other people, similar to me, are scared of getting involved with discussion for fear of causing offence.

I’d love to know generally if I should now just leave this difficult subject alone and forget it, or if it is indeed something we should tackle in detail.

I’d be hopeful that it is the latter.

Sexism and Beer

Last week I visited the doctor about an inguinal hernia I have been developing. This week I went to see a consultant and was immediately offered surgery. I was really surprised, as I had one side done already when we were still running the pub and there was a risk that the NHS waiting lists would cause me to have a 6 week rehabilitation period right in the middle of our busy season. Last time, completely against my principles, I elected to have it done privately so as to jump the queue. I had a parallel request in the normal NHS route but only received the letter inviting me to make an appointment to see the consultant a couple of days before my privately arranged surgery. Things have moved on and only 1 week after first visiting my doctor I am promised to be given a date for surgery which is likely to be within the next 4-6 weeks. There certainly have been some improvements to waiting lists.

However, this post is not about congratulating the NHS on improving, nor perhaps considering that the previous government did in fact do some things that were good; indeed, I'm now feeling guilty that I'm robbing some more worthwhile case from life saving surgery. As it happens, my particular condition is getting worse at an almost undetectable rate and is way off causing me any grief. I only went to the doctors early because I expected a 3-6 months wait.

This post is about the differences between men and women; I've done a small amount of research into this, as much as I've been permitted to get away with, and discovered some pleasurable physiological differences between men and women. There are also some unfortunate differences and my hernia is one; men are around 25 times more likely to develop the condition, mainly due to the significant anatomical differences downstairs.

There are psychological, emotional and perceptive differences too; women like dresses and shoes and make-up and spending far too long looking for wall paper or choosing paint or a new sofa. Men like fast cars and sport and looking at naked women and beer; life is way too short to waste time on shopping. Women are far more perceptive when it comes to fragrance or colour matching and men are better at taking cars apart and reading maps, sometimes they can even get the car back together again and occasionally they don't get lost.

I'm painting a picture using only prime stereotypical colours, I know. Looking at individuals we can find plenty that crossover the stereotyping boundaries and thankfully our reasonably liberal society of the western world continues to break this down. This begs the question of how much the very real differences between men and women are due to social conditioning and how much are due to real XX verses XY chromosomes, I believe a little of both; for me the debate is not that these differences exist and arguing about whether it is nature or nurture, it's about understanding that there are differences and using or suppressing them as appropriate.

But really, what has this got to do with beer? Well, I often watch adverts on TV with a critical eye. I often declare that such and such an advert will never make me buy that product; the advert insults my intelligence. Sometimes I think that the product is shit, but well done on an entertaining advert, it was better than the tripe that was supposed to be the main feature. When it comes to beer adverts I take a little more notice. Most beer adverts are for the mainstream brands I wouldn't be seen dead drinking¹ and sadly BrewDog and Thornbridge are yet to place prime time TV ads, but perhaps there is a future?

Most of the beer adverts amuse me, sadly due to the fact that I'm a male chauvinist. Sometimes I do a good job of hiding that chauvinism, sometimes not, it surfaces with great gusto when many of the major beer brands feature in the increasingly frequent and extended commercial breaks that populate² the television. The Heineken ad made many of us poor testosterone ridden, deoxyribonucleic acid deficient mutants rock with laughter. Personally, I think it's a bit of a fight back against female chauvinism that results in much of our hard earned cash³ being frittered on rarely-to-be-worn fashion accessories.

Comments about this resulted in Kristy writing about such male targeted marketing. It certainly can't help us to make beer more accessible to women, and I'd like that to happen just as much as Kristy does. But is it ever going to work so long as society is the way it is? Gender orientated advertising is not just limited to beer; it features in many adverts. We are, as a society getting better, but there is an underlying proverbial principle that it's a pint for the bloke and a fruit based drink for the lady.

For me, the Heineken advert simply points up the existing mainstream established gender divide that exists in society. Worrying about the fact that major brand beer is keeping this sometimes frightening gulf between the sexes alive is like worrying that Heinz are perpetuating the belief that good food is made better with ketchup. Major brands work because they have synergy with mainstream society, brands that try to buck that trend tend to become marginalised.

And anyway, blokes would never openly discuss medical issues relating to downstairs, only women have that sort of problem.

If the reader is thinking this sounds all a bit defeatist then take heart; it is my experience that in the beer world there are a significant and growing number of women who are involved in beer. Looking at CAMRA, beer bloggers or beer twitter there is a healthy and increasing number of women who are active and there is good reason for this, but I think that is the subject of another post.

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¹My twitter followers will know that there are moves afoot to make me do just that and compare some major brands in a blind tasting. Why not? It'll be a hoot.

²I also notice the products change depending on the style of program being shown. When there are a large number of adds for sanitary products, soap powder or things you have to buy for your kids because otherwise you are a parent from hell, I start to suspect I've inadvertently started watching a chick flick.

³To be fair, Ann cannot be labelled a slave to fashion, so I'm lucky there.

Various bits of news

It's quiet here now. The pub is in winter mode which means we don't open during the week. Hardknott pass is closed for repairs and in any case traffic along the road averages about one car per hour outside the summer season.

But still, there seems to be lots to do. I'm brewing today, a beer with an O.G. of around 1100, I hope. Needs many hours of boiling which will no doubt result in small but inevitable increased shrinking of the polar ice caps. Sorry penguins and polar bears.

I'm also starting to look at the options for selling beers in bottles mail order. Don't get too excited, it's very early stages just yet, I've got a bit of work to do before that happens. Quite apart from actually brewing the beer and the time it takes to bottle, I also have to explore various commercial difficulties such as economic and reliable ways of shipping from this far flung corner of the globe.

Last weekend we had another very successful wedding. I'm going to have to explore further how we promote that little addition to our repertoire. It's just something else to work into a long overdue revamp of our marketing and branding. If I get bored and we get a spell of fine weather, and yes it does happen even in Cumbria, we've got lots of outside painting to do. When it's raining we've got stuff to fix up inside too. So there, that's my excuses for reduced blog posting.

Hopefully I'll get a little bit of time to write next week; I hope so as I miss it. Meanwhile you can have a look at my second post as guest blogger for the BitterSweet partnership. I'd be interested in knowing what the reader thinks of what I've said or maybe more generally about the BitterSweet project.

That's all for now. Better go back and see if my copper has exploded yet.

Making beer Unisexual

As a brewer and licensee I have a vested interest in understanding the reasons why people might choose the drink they do. I have written before about the subject of the gender imbalance in the beer market. Dividing by sex is the clearest and most measurable of differences in peoples drinking habits. It's a subject that fascinates me intensely and so when the BitterSweet partnership asked me to write for them I was only too happy to do so. Yes, I know they are funded by the major multinational conglomerate Molson Coors, but it's all part of the beer world. And besides that, they own The White Shield brewery where there are some remaining bottles of the 140 year old Ratcliff's Ale. I know there is little chance of them letting me try it but the long shot is worth it.

I think the beer world is too masculine and here is the first post on the subject as guest blogger at BitterSweet.

Beer, women and sex

A great combination don't you think? Combine all three together, and providing you don't spill too much, it sounds fantastic. I'll be honest, I like women and sex just as much as I like beer, perhaps more. I also know what appears sexy when it comes to the look and behaviour of women. I'd like very much to see more women drinking beer, if I put my beer lovers, brewers, publicans hat on; But if I consider my masculine sex instincts with true honesty, I find that beer drinking women don't look sexy. Well, at least not drinking regular British beer. A nice goblet of Belgian fruit beer, well that is a different matter.

Now go on, shoot me down for being a male chauvinist. Perhaps you are right, but if it is conditioning, then why is this despite the fact the my mother drank pints? I think it comes down to what we males think looks and appears sexy. It's all to do with instinct.

I know a lot of people in the beer world want to try and eliminate this natural sexist bias. The beer world seems to be healthily full of moderate, liberal, anti-bigoted people. It is this very fact that makes the whole scene so damn friendly and enjoyable, so I'm not asking for you to treat my inner feelings as acceptable or right, but just to say that I know what turns me on and women drinking beer ain't it.

My point here is that I think the greater general male population would agree with me. The greater female population knows this, at least subliminally. Women also want men to find them sexy, to flirt with them and eventually form a relationship and find love. Most women believe that the first stage of this is to look sexy so as to attract attention. It's just a courtship ritual that has parallels throughout the animal kindom. This courtship ritual most often occurs in a social drinking environment. Many people don't really give it a second thought unless they have some sort of anti-sexist agenda.

Ignoring the most powerful of human instincts, the thing that put us here and the thing we will do that might generate more of us, is ignoring a powerful driver for most people. Sex is more important to most people than beer. Even for me it just about wins. Give up sex or give up beer? Drink beer and never have sex? Sorry beer, I know which I'd choose and I suspect the rest of the population would agree. OK, perhaps for women they would prefer to think along the lines of love, relationships, marriage, children and life companionship, but ultimately, it's sex.

Women don't want to look un-sexy and so here is one reason they don't drink beer.

Now, please go easy on me, I'm expecting to be flamed here, at least consider the fact that I've got the balls to post this.

This was provoked by Kristy's post on the BitterSweet partnership blog. I'd have commented there but you seem to need an account - I already have too many on-line accounts.

Beer Makes Strong Bones

With all the fuss made over alcohol by various agencies and the press, it's nice to find a healthy bit of news, especially for women drinkers. It seems that beer drinkers are less likely to get osteoporosis. It's no great surprise to me. The best beer is made with water rich in various mineral compounds, including calcium salts. That is bound to make your bones stronger, Sherlock.

The slightly scary thing is this research also shows that beer really does contain female hormones. These plant derived hormones are called phytoestrogens and are similar to human oestrogen. Perhaps that explains why male beer drinkers are prone to developing man-boobs.

Yeah, I know there are plenty of sexist jokes out there on this theme. If you haven't seen any just type "beer female hormones" into Google to find them.....but I didn't tell you to do it, OK?

Old Dog, New Tricks

Well, that's a surprise, Tokyo*, the controversial 18.2% beer, is something of a revelation. My delivery arrived yesterday. I was quite excited. A chance to try this beer. I guessed I'd like it quite a lot¹. I was not wrong. Described by others and Mark does a good job, so no point me repeating it here. But my significant other, Ann does not generally like beer. She pulls a horrible face when she tries nearly any beer. She tried Tokyo*, and she likes it².

This all comes neatly on the tail of a discussion over on Impy Maltings blog about "blonde" beer names being marketed to men only and possibly being offensive to women who might like to try beer.

I'm really intrigued to know how much marketing, taste, upbringing and culture have an effect on the desire or otherwise for half the population to generally snub beer. I don't know the answers, but for now, I've found another beer to add to Ann's list; Kriek, Geueze and now Intergalactic Fantastic Oak Aged Stout.

Bugger, better order some more then.

Of course we drank it out of wine glasses and we shared the 330ml bottle between two of us. It is not an everyday beer, and probably best with a good blue cheese or a rich chocolate desert, or ideally, a desert that combines the two³. Treat it like a fine port wine, that's my advice.

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¹I seem to detect phenols in this beer, but it seems to work. I'm still getting my palate trained to recognise various "off" flavours. What is also intersting is that I'm finding that certain flavours that might be wrong in one beer work for me in anouther. Phenols in double stout is OK, phenols in IPA is wrong. Just my view of course.

²Look at that "watchit, anymore of this stuff and you'd better be up for it" kinda look. Perhaps sharing my beer has some advantages.

³A white chocolate, cream cheese and blue cheese fondant dark chocolate crunch base bomb. Known as a Blue Bore Bomb to us. Perhaps I'll have to post about that sometime. Extreme beer and extreme deserts, fantastic.

The ladies beer?

Some time ago I discussed the issue of beer for women. It sparked a bit of controversy, which I still haven't got a final conclusion to in my own mind. Discussing a new product was an interesting exercise. Suggestions that making a beer taste like an alcopop, which was an option put forward, resulted in the retort that anybody who needed beer to taste like an alcopop might as well just drink alcopops. An argument that is difficult to find counter claims for.

Cask ale week came and went. It was a partial success for us as we certainly increased awareness of the concept of asking for a taster. We put about £10 up for a couple of cases of little taster glasses which of course we are still using.

FemAle day came and went without any hint it had happened. OK, we didn't do anything different. But then I'm not going to single out women on any particular day and say "You're a woman, why aren't you drinking ale?"

What we do is suggest they try our Kriek and give them a taster. It actually works for blokes as well, although the poncy glasses we have are a bit off putting. Yes, we've got pint ones as well. Some don't like cherries, perhaps we should get some Fruli or Frambosen as well, that'll perhaps catch the rest. Oh yes, and a wheat beer, thanks Velky Al. So perhaps there are plenty of beer products out there for people, it's just they don't know about them yet. OK, it's not Real Ale, but we can't have everything.

Beer, the chauvinist drink!

Now that goes against all my mothers attempts to avoid me becoming sexist. It seems though that I'm peddling a most bigoted product. Perhaps I already sort of knew that. Ann doesn't really drink beer, a greater proportion of my female customers don't drink beer compared to their male partners and this is probably a pattern all over this country and perhaps the world. It's surely not the beers fault though, is it?

For a business this is perhaps crazy. Half of my potential customer base doesn't really like to drink one of the main products that underpin my whole strategy. This is not something that I've given much thought about, until today that is.

I got an email today from The Bitter Sweet Partnership, which apparently is a multi-million pound investment by Coors brewers. For some time now this giant multinational brewery has produced little of interest for me. This initiative however has generated some interesting detailed market research results.

"The BitterSweet Partnership conducted research of over 2,000 women to get their thoughts and found that there are very real barriers and myths that exist around women and beer."

The significant result from the research was that there was little wrong with beer itself, only 25% of respondents wanted the taste changed. Most were happy with taste, it was image that was the significant factor.

Direct comparisons were made between the image wine projects against that of beer. There are figures given in the report that show significant biases. Here are the bullet points.

Image of wine drinkers

• Sophisticated
  
• Independent
  
• In control of drinking
  
• Successful
  
• Health conscious
  

Image of beer drinkers

• Overweight
  
• Binge drinkers
  
• Strapped for cash
  
• CHAV
  
• Uneducated
  
• Masculine

Most worryingly this appears to only be a UK based perception. Many other beer drinking countries including America, Ireland, Italy and Turkey have a greater proportion of beer drinkers being female. The report suggests our beer drinking culture is stuck in the 1950's.

Why do women in the UK see beer in such a bad light? OK Coors identify branding as a problem along with targeted advertising aimed at the male proportion of the population. Big breweries sponsor sport, are we really that surprised? I also think that the beer world is very masculine, beer nerds, regular pub goers, beer writers and beer bloggers are generally male.

No pints please

I knew you wouldn't like that. But it seems the women don't like it too big. A nice looking smaller thing is more their choice. A sexy and interesting branded glass would be a much nicer proposition.

"The fact that for cocktail drinkers, the way their drink is served is the second biggest reason for choosing (46% compared with 7% of beer drinkers) suggests a need for the beer industry to offer alternatives to the pint glass."

Beer information

Wine lists and other information it seems makes other drinks more appealing.

"Looking at the experience in bars too, there’s an imbalance between the information available about wine and information about beer on offer. Around a quarter of women said that ‘they never know which type of beer to buy or order’."

..and for the Pub?

Pubs are places where people go to drink beer. Yes, you could drink wine or spirits or alcopops, but most of the volume is beer. If the whole of the beer industry is geared towards and giving out a masculine signal then pubs are missing out on enticing 50% of the population. Anything that can reduce this impression will be good for pubs. Perhaps, for once, I am friends with Coors.