- Bottoms Up (RSS)What America needs: A beer-care certifcation system for retailers
By William Brand
Tuesday, October 21st, 2008 at 9:23 am in Uncategorized.
Here’s a topic for the day: Great beer suffering at the hands of indifferent distributors and worse, retailers who obviously don’t have a clue about the care of beer.
Background: Yesterday I published a review of Bay Area brewpubs and breweries by a guy from the Washington, D.C. area. It was fairly critical. One of his many notes about Anchor:
- ” I also found the tasting of actual Anchor Steam to be fascinating as I had never tasted it before. Or, to be more precise, the Anchor Steam I have drunk in DC for the past 20 years never tasted like that I had at the brewery. But after seeing their packaging operation, I can see where oxidation would be a real challenge for them.”
His assessment about bottling makes me laugh. If you drank Anchor in the Washington area that didn’t taste like it does here, the reason is you were drinking beer that had been shipped 3,000 miles, and most likely was OLD BEER, not that there was a flaw in bottling.
One of the curses of buying bottled beer in America is both indifferent retailers and indifferent distributors, who treat their top-selling light lagers like gold and yank bottles and cans quickly, but ignore craft beers and let them sit on store shelves forever.
Personally, while I know the three-tier system with brewers, distributors and retailers has its strong points, good care of craft beer is a notorious disributor weakness. Ditto to retailers who boast a wide stock of beer, but keep it on dusty shelves in brightly lit, warm rooms for months, even years. That’s criminal.
What we need is an independent beer-care certification system for disributors and retailers, perhaps a label on the door that tells patrons that the retailer know how to take care of beer and does it.
In England, a group of real ale brewers and pub owners have started something called the Cask Marque system. It’s an independent non-profit, supported by subscription fees from pubs and brewers. An independent inspector checks the condition of beer at each pub twice yearly.
Pubs that meet cask ale standards can display this logo on their front door. Patrons see the logo and can be assured that they’re going to find a decent pint inside.
We need something like this for retailers who sell beer. It’s probably inpossible, but why not dream. Comments anyone?
[You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.]
October 21st, 2008 at 10:01 am
Wouldn’t this cut down on the variety of tastes?
Just kidding.
It’s a great idea whose time has come.
October 21st, 2008 at 10:14 am
Yeah, there’d be fewer surprises, like stale beer, oxidized beer, skunked beer…oh let me count the ways….
October 21st, 2008 at 11:50 am
I would certainly visit pubs/craft beer stores with the certification over those who didn’t have it. Also I would love to apply for the position as an independent inspector!
October 21st, 2008 at 3:15 pm
I started thinking that there’s no reason it couldn’t happen here, but then I got the need for an educated public. If people are buying stale beer because they don’t know the difference between fresh and stale beer, a mark signifying the difference won’t be an incentive for retailers.
But, if more beer drinkers understood the difference, there might be enough people making choices like James that retailer would be vying for the mark.
Beyond some official mark, is there some place where people are trading tips on which distributors/retailers are doing or not doing a good job? It was through reading here that I have stopped trusting BevMo for beer. If I knew who the trusted distributors were in the Bay Area and the retailers they supplied, I would go out of my way.
William, last month you sent me a list of retailers in the Bay Area. If that could be put in a more public place where people could rate by freshness, the beginnings of a mark ala Zagat or Yelp could emerge.
October 21st, 2008 at 3:27 pm
Getting the word out to beer fans is easy. Tables at beer festivals. Advertisements in beer mags. It will spark word of mouth. Put a website on the stick you put in a retailers door and people will go there out of their own interest.
October 21st, 2008 at 6:16 pm
Is it just me or is Anchor Steam a really sensitive beer? I only buy Anchor Steam from Whole Foods or Bottle Barn. Every other place I have bought it from has been a disappointment.
October 21st, 2008 at 9:30 pm
Actually I believe the idea exists in Germany too, it may well have started there first but I don’t know enough of the groups history to say for certain. It’s definitely in Bayern, but it might be in other Lander as well.
I believe it’s a club of beersnobs, er geeks who comes by about that twice a year interval and checks on bar quality. I believe they even publish a guide to reliable bars. I think it is funded by members and the book sales, but I don’t have any citations to note my story.
October 21st, 2008 at 9:35 pm
Abpit Anchor. Don’t think it’s particularly sensitive, but six months is about it, before it begains to fade. Whole Foods beers are refrigerated and they have great turnover. Don’t know about Bottle Barn, but even if they don’t refrigerate their beer, I’m sure the turnover is rapid.
October 21st, 2008 at 9:37 pm
The idea probably comes from Germany, sounds right. Wonder if anyone knows? I’ll e-mail a friend there and ask.
October 21st, 2008 at 9:44 pm
+1 what Scott said.
I think once people know that there can be differences in beer quality beyond what happens where it is brewed and bottled – people will choose to buy from distributors and shops that care. As a result, we will then see more distributors and shops that care!
Its like a AAA or Michelin rating @ a hotel vs. one with no rating. Where would YOU stay?
October 22nd, 2008 at 6:09 am
I dont see many people not buying from a distributor if they want the beer that distributor carries..since it’s pretty much the only (or easiest) way they could get that beer.
Retailers may be a bit more elastic. Wishful thinking but wouldn’t it be nice if the small shops labeled each bottle w/ date stickers and the bigger shops were forced to follow because more people went to the small shops?
October 22nd, 2008 at 7:21 am
Most distributors and suppliers teach the distributor sales team how to read the production and/or best by dates on the individual packages of ALL brands they carry. In my extensive experience on both the supplier and the distributor sides of the business, I reviewed reading date codes with every sales team at least once a year. Each sales person also received a pocket card I put together as to how to read the several different codes, and product life. But, alas, to some people this is a job, not a passion.
October 22nd, 2008 at 7:46 am
Rich…so they have the codes in their pocket. Is there any policy to remove stale craft beer? And what about indifferent retailers?
October 22nd, 2008 at 12:51 pm
I was going to ask if these codes were somewhere regular folks could use them. Not sure why I didn’t think of this before….
I found these. Are there others?
Beer Date Codes Demystified
http://troygephart.com/beerdateinfo.aspx
Explication of the date code of somes beers
http://pages.infinit.net/altair/codes_en.html
Now that I have this information, I can make my own decisions at the retailer.
October 23rd, 2008 at 12:44 pm
I guess the question as to whether this will come to pass is who will pay for it. If beer geeks get together and rally for such a standard, and can support it through some sort of certification scheme at no cost to retailers, it’s a no brainer for a retailer to participate. If there is a cost to the retailer to get this certification, they will only do so if they will expect their sales to increase to offset the cost. (They’ll want to see the return on the investment.) In addition, there’s a cost to removing past due inventory, so even if there was no cost to a retailer to participate, there would be a cost to remain in compliance. (Unless they were successful at turning over their inventory.) So I wouldn’t expect retailers to be flocking to this idea unless their costs were low or zero, and could expect a lot of new business because of this.
Furthermore, an unintended consequence is that retailer may restrict their inventory to brews they expect to turn over quickly, to save costs of checking and throwing out old inventory, limiting choices in the store.
I think it’s a good idea and would a support a store that met this certification, but the devil’s in the details.
October 23rd, 2008 at 1:15 pm
You said it, Derrick. The devil’s in the details. America is so vast, so multi-faceted that any kind of inspection scheme seems impossible.
All we can do is patronize places that care about beer and take care of the product and mostly drink locally, knowing when we buy a beer from afar, we’re taking a risk.
October 24th, 2008 at 7:43 am
In the interest of fresh beer, I just got back from Bottle Barn and was assured that all of their beer, even the older bottles, are kept properly. If you buy something and it’s gone bad, they’ll give you the credit for the beer.
November 10th, 2008 at 5:29 am
Hi, I work for Cask Marque in the UK and thought I would just clear up any mystery!
We were formed in 1997 in the UK and are a non profit making organisation whose main aim is to improve the quality of cask conditioned ale/craft beer in pubs and bars. We are owned by our members (brewers and pub group owners). After the govt banned brewers from owning large quantities of pubs, the support and knowledge that the pub owners were provided with fell dramatically and with it the quality of the beer being sold.
We have approximately 50 assessors working for us and they are mainly retired brewers and we cover England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and occasionly parts of Scandinavia. As far as I am aware there is nothing similar happening in Germany although I would be happy to be corrected on this!
Cheers, Al
November 10th, 2008 at 6:58 am
Thanks for the info Al. What a great program.
December 7th, 2008 at 9:08 pm
Yes, old beer is a problem. I don’t have an opinion about the particular suggestions. But labeling on what counts as a craft beer does seem to be an option.
We all remember what happened to the once proud Sierra Nevada. To many of us this was mother’s milk, at least for commercially available bottled beer. Now it is an overpriced malt liquor.
But the reason I’m on this blog at all is my recent experience with North Coast’s Red Seal Ale. It used to be a reliable, hoppy, beer. In the last year it has become sweet, chocolaty, and frankly a bit hard to swallow. Do you know if NC has been swallowed up by bigger fish? (I don’t think it’s JUST stale).
Greg
December 8th, 2008 at 9:34 am
About Sierra Nevada. The beer – I assume you’re talking about Sierra Nevada Pale Ale – has never changed; it’s bottle conditioned, as are all Sierra Nevada beers. If you get a bottle that’s been around for a long while, the beer will taste quite dry. However, most places it moves fast and never gets to that stage.
About North Coast. No changes. It’s still owned by Mark Ruedrich, a former marine biologist, and a couple of friends. Red Seal has absolutely not changed; what’s changed is your perception of what is hoppy.
As I recall, Red Seal is about 45 IBUs. That was hoppy when it came out in the late 1980s. No longer. This is the era of the Double IPA, Pliny the Elder has 100 IBUs and others are over that.
I really like Red Seal, but admitedly I haven’t tried it in a while. However, I’m positive they haven’t messed with the recipe. My suggestion, try another bottle and get that bottle from a place where the beer moves, not some cranky mom and pop or big soulless chain where the beer sits un-refrigerated in bright light for weeks, months on end.
December 9th, 2008 at 4:32 pm
Thank you,
I’ll take your words seriously. Perhaps you are right. Still, you might try a bottle.
Greg
December 10th, 2008 at 12:24 am
I’ll check out Red Seal tomorrow Greg. I drink Sierra Nevada Pale Ale fairly regularly and am always surprised how good it tastes.