Big breweries have some obvious advantages over small breweries, not least are the massive economies of scale that come from buying the ingredients for tens of millions of litres of beer rather than tens of thousands. They also have highly industrialised processes that enable them to achieve almost unnatural consistency for their product which enables every beer to taste just like the last.
On the other hand, small breweries have certain advantages too - not least is the ability to produce an enormous array of flavourful beers that don't have to appeal to the widest possible demographic to survive. They can experiment with styles and flavours because they are brewing far smaller batches and serving a different constituency for their beers. Capitalising on this advantage, Australian small breweries are starting to produce an amazing selection of great beers.
Still things are pretty tough for small breweries. Their offerings are generally competing at the same price point as the "craft" offerings from the big brewers, despite being far more expensive to produce due to smaller economies. Therefore their profit margins are thinner for the same beer. Also, they cannot hope to complete with the advertising, distribution and public relations machines that the big brewers have.
Still, sometimes I see claims made to support "craft" brewers that defy logic. The can really stretch credibility and can downright harm the broader public's slowly growing knowledge of the industry.
For example, I received the following media release from Snowy Mountains (emphasis is mine).
‘Greenwashed' beverages and Natural beer
In the non-alcoholic beverage field there are juices that claim to be healthy, yet contain as much sugar as soft drinks. Similarly, fruit and flavor infused waters and vitamin enhanced drinks often are sugar sweetened - making the natural and healthy suggestion as per the packaging, branding and labeling misleading. In the beer industry itself it is just starting that we are seeing genuine eco-beers such as the Cascade Green (carbon neutral) appearing. Yet some brands are producing beers with claims of being ‘natural', which can not necessarily be justified. When it comes to ingredients there shouldn't be anything much else in beer other than the basic four ingredients, said Snowy Mountains Brewery managing director Kevin O'Neill.
With the growing trend of people wanting to choose environmentally friendly products many more products have appeared on our shelves making ‘green' claims, appearing to be natural, environmentally friendly or carry logos that suggest being better for the environment, when these claims are not necessarily qualified. This is referred to as ‘Green Washing' - which ultimately misleads conscientious consumers. Among the hype of eco-friendly production, ‘Greenwash' marketing and natural ingredients claims - award-winning craft brewer O'Neill takes a basic approach.
"The obvious is to choose a product that has been deliberately made without additives and extra ingredients; this is especially true for beer, which traditionally is made from only four basic ingredients - hops, malt, yeast and water," said the natural craft brewer. "Don't be fooled, cane sugar is not a traditional ingredient in beer," he added.
"Choosing smaller breweries such as craft and boutique labels means you are supporting smaller operations which usually do have a lesser carbon foot print simply due to the size of their operation. Then look at choosing beer styles that follow traditional recipes such as Pilsner, wheat beers and ales that follow closely the oldest food and beverage laws still in existence - the Germany purity law or ‘Reinheitsgebot' from 1516. This rule permits the use of only 4 basic ingredients for beer production - not that it is compulsory to comply with that here in Australia, yet the brands that do are a good choice as this ensures as natural a beer as possible with the proof often found in the taste."
"The smaller a brewery or label the more attention goes toward individual flavour and care in production versus large operations of standard beer. And I think people are catching on," said O'Neill.
The Australian craft, boutique and premium beer market has been the strongest growing segment, indicating more people are beginning to prefer to drink a better tasting and natural beer. With the impact of the economic down-turn being felt in most areas, alcoholic beverages seem to keep selling despite people changing their spending habits in other areas.
"It shows me that consumers are not happy to do without, but are starting to go for less of a better product than trading quality and flavour for a lesser spend," O'Neill said.
Craft and boutique beers are usually sold at a slightly higher price than standard beers, but most often offer greater taste, less additives and a lower environmental impact than large breweries. More and more restaurants and eateries are following this trend by stocking locally produced specialty beers, smaller labels and naturally produced alternatives to the usual standard ales.
"We are also seeing a lot more food and beer pairing popping up in restaurants, menus, cook books and food styling articles" explains Kevin O'Neill, who founded the Snowy Mountains Brewery in 2004 following a skiing trip to the famous destination.
Snowy Mountains Brewery produces their Bullocks Pilsner, Charlotte's Hefeweizen (wheat beer), the award winning Razorback Red Ale and their Crackenback Pale Ale following the strict purity law and has been recognised with a stack of awards including four Australian International Beer Awards Medals, a People's Choice Award and two Australian Hotel Beer Awards in 2007 and 2008.
Kevin's 3 tips for choosing a better tasting beer are:
1 Look for beers made by smaller brands and boutique breweries
2 Read the label for the list of ingredients and whether it is made or owned by a large mother company
3 Try traditional beer styles (purity, traditional characters, no additives) rather than ‘middle of the road' or standard brews
At the outset, I have a natural sympathy to small breweries and Snowy Mountains is making some very good beers, they have won a stack of awards for them and, importantly, they are doing good things for beer generally. But sending a release like this out just spreads misinformation about beer at a time when mainstream reporting on beer is already pretty ordinary.
In terms of this release though it's all over the place, seeming to suggest that smaller breweries are more environmentally friendly than big breweries, that 'natural' beer only has four ingredients and smaller breweries are necessarily better.
To deal with these in the order they appear...
1. When it comes to ingredients there shouldn't be anything much else in beer other than the basic four ingredients, said Snowy Mountains Brewery managing director Kevin O'Neill.
If this were true, the Belgian brewing industry is screwed and I won't be able to drink some of my favourite beers. Coriander, orange peel, candy sugar, oats, honey, chocolate, cherries and raspberries would all be barred from "good" beers, meaning that a wide range of great Belgian styles couldn't be made. Even cane sugar, used by brewers to lighten the body and colour of a beer, isn't necessarily an evil. A wide range of very respected - and flavoursome - beers use small amounts of cane sugar for a variety of reasons and still produce good beers.
2. "Choosing smaller breweries such as craft and boutique labels means you are supporting smaller operations which usually do have a lesser carbon foot print simply due to the size of their operation.
This is like saying buses should be outlawed because they create more pollution than cars. Unfortunately, they also move more people. Big breweries create less pollution per litre of beer produced than many small breweries. There are some excellent small breweries - such as Mountain Goat - that are making huge inroads into reducing their carbon footprint, but then again the Fosters Brewery at Yatala is using something like 2.2 litres of water for every litre of beer produced which is a phenomenal result.
There are a huge range of factors at play in "environmentally friendly". If a craft brewer is using speciality grain from Germany, it's going to create more pollution and food miles than domestic grain from the Darling Downs; kegs are more environmentally friendly than bottles although shipping empty kegs around the country is pretty polluting; bottles are more polluting to transport than cans...it's not easy to say what is the least polluting way to make beer but you definitely cannot make the above claim, particularly in a media release drawing attention to the practice of "greenwashing".
3. "The smaller a brewery or label the more attention goes toward individual flavour and care in production versus large operations of standard beer.
As much as it pains me to support big brewers over small, while they may make less flavoursome beers that appeal to the widest possible market, you cannot fault their attention to detail and care in the brewing process. This doesn't result in better flavoured beer but it is high quality and consistent to a degree that small brewers envy. They don't go after the flavoursome end of the market the way smaller brewers do, but you cannot question their "quality" in terms of care and attention. In this sense, "flavour" and "quality" are two very different issues.
This also raises the question of what a small brewery is. The media release constantly refers to small breweries and small labels and I assume the latter is referring to Snowy Mountains. Snowy Mountains is neither a brewery nor small. Snowy Mountains beers are contract brewed at the 100-hectolitre (10,000 litre) plant at Australian Independent Brewers in Sydney. To put that into perspective, Northern Rivers Brewery at Alstonville has possibly Australia's smallest commercial plant with a 3.5 hectolitre plant (350 litre batches). A typical small brewery or brew pub runs anything from 6 - 20 hectolitre plants (600 - 2000 litres).
Now, none of this is to suggest there is anything wrong with either contract brewing or brewing at that size, but it is disingenuous to try and cast yourself as a small brewery (and while the release doesn't specifically say it, it is certainly the tone). Snowy Mountains makes really good, flavoursome beers, (as do Barons Brewing who also brew out of AIB), you can brew great beers out of big breweries (again, look at the Belgians and the Germans) but be honest about what you are and let your beer speak for itself.
I am no apologist for big breweries, but I'm pretty sure that if Lion Nathan or Fosters put this release out (or Coopers for that matter) they would have the ACCC on their tail in no time...
Since my last post about the Beers with Obama I have come across plenty of discussion about what they should drink. I think anyone who gets het up discussing what they should drink is missing the point. It's a beer. It's not the focus of the meeting, beer just makes the meeting possible. If what they drink is important, maybe they should be drinking wine. This is the sort of situation where beer is just the wallpaper. It means something that they're drinking it but it doesn't have to be fancy, certainly nothing where a big flavour intrudes on what they are there for...my pick would be a good golden lager. If they have to go for Budwesier, at least make it the one from Budweis (Ceske Budejovice). Of course, that would just start another war about not drinking American (not the Budweiser is American anymore), which would in turn distract from the whole point of the meeting...
