H100: Beer's The Winner
Crafty Pint / 28.01.11
Well, what a palaver! A light-hearted poll to get people talking about craft beer turns into a spiky bun fight. Who’d have thunk it? While the debate continues elsewhere on this site, with comments ranging from the angry to the measured, the befuddled to the informed, we’d like to say one thing: “It’s beer, folks!”
That’s right. We haven’t voted for the return of borstals, mandatory euthanasia for people who are right-handed but kick with their left foot, or even a new law making it compulsory for Tony Abbott to wear nothing but budgie-smugglers and a spinning bow tie in Parliament. No, we’ve voted for beers we like and, as a result, helped spread word of Australia’s growing but still ever-so-small craft brewing industry that little bit further. And whatever you may think about some of the beers on the list or how they ended up where they are, step back a second and acknowledge that they make for a pretty amazing array that should make anyone who wants to see better beer spread across Australia feel at least a little bit warm inside.
If you don’t believe contracted beers or those from companies attached to the major brewers should be there, you’ll still find 65 to choose from. If your favourite brewery hasn’t featured as highly as you expected, ponder how much better they might have fared if they only had one or two beers instead of ten splitting their vote. By all means make your feelings known and rage on, but don’t be blinded to the bigger picture, which is that with polls such as this and the debate they spark, good beer’s the winner.
And, if we go by positions on the poll, so are McLaren Vale and Kooinda, probably the two biggest stories of this year’s poll. We’ve spoken to both. Here’s what they had to say…
Their Vale Ale finished top and their Dry lager, released in the past few months, came in at nine. Both are currently brewed under contract at AIB in NSW as the brewing company awaits delivery of the brewery it hopes to have commissioned in May this year. We spoke to Adam Trippe-Smith, founder and CEO, who has also posted a lengthy comment on the site.
Original photo found at mvbeer.com
On the result
We are totally shocked. Our jaws dropped when we were number one, but we were delighted.
On their campaign
I was getting a lot of other Facebook posts coming through from other beer companies and thought we should do the same and give people the option to vote. We put it on Facebook and Twitter and to our database and hoped that we might make the top ten with Vale Ale and get the Dry listed.
Any beer company will give their customers the option to vote. That’s what doesn’t make sense in the comments – people only go onto your database because they like what you’re doing and some of the positive comments get that. You’ve got to get people to like your produce before they’ll vote for you.
On the negative reaction
We’re not surprised, to be honest. What people on the East Coast don’t see is that in the little old Adelaide market we are reasonably prominent – active in the community and sponsoring events – so we stand out. It’s not unlike how Coopers started. South Australians are pretty parochial and rally behind us.
It also shows the power of our strategy of only having one beer. I examined the market for six months before getting involved and where some people have ten or 12 beers, all we had to do was to get people to vote for Vale Ale.
On insinuations they behaved in an underhand manner
I can categorically state that we offered no incentives whatsoever for people to vote for us.
On the future
We’ve been transparent about the beer being contracted from day one. We’ve ordered a 35 hectolitre, four vessel DME system that will give us an initial capacity of 1.2m litres a year which we can increase to 2.4m. Bruce Peachey is overseeing the commissioning and we’re now just waiting for the stainless steel to arrive.
When we started out, we had cash that we could put into a brand or sink into a small brewery. We decided that without a brand, we were wasting our time. We wanted a reasonable sized brewery and are now going to have the same setup as Moo Brew [whose new brewery is under construction]. It will make us the third largest in SA.
On the poll
It’s opened up a lot more beers to people with some of the new beers on the market doing well. The massive, hoppy, really out there beers aren’t going to see volumes in the market; the gateway beers are the ones that get people off the likes of Carlton Draught.
Five blokes and their families are behind this small suburban brewery that started out in a shed in the backyard of a Melbourne house but has now moved to a nearby industrial unit. They produce just one beer so far, a big American Pale Ale that claimed fifth spot. We spoke to Fenton Roffey.
On the result
Number five is huge. To be that high is ridiculous. I couldn’t believe it – it felt like winning an international beer award. Mind you, I rang the boys straight away to tell them and they were just, ‘OK. Cool.’ and I was like, ‘No. It’s grouse!’ I think a lot of it is that people know how hard we’ve worked so they’ll back us 100 per cent.
On the future
We’ve just been pushing it here. Jamie and Mick are now at the brewery full time, five days a week and getting paid a wage. Travis and Rob are doing what they can and we’re all getting the weekend off at last. We’ve been working on a Belgian witbier with coriander and orange and have added some raspberries to it for the Great Australian Beer SpecTAPular. [He won’t confirm whether this will be the long-awaited second Kooi beer, but says they are looking at something a little more “back to basics” given how big their first beer is.]
We’re going to milk this [result] for all it’s worth! We’ve done the hard work, but are still putting in money – none of us have anything back yet so now it’s time to really push it. We’ve just had calls from Queensland and The Wheaty in Adelaide so hope to get the beer out further.
On the poll
At the end of the day, the industry wins. If people try number one or number 100, it still means they’re aware of 100 beers.
Comments
ian — 28 January at 07:39PM
I hope the guys at McLaren Vale realize there is no such thing as bad publicity! I can imagine there are a lot of "beer nerds" out there buying a bottle or two just to see what the fuss is about. Bruce Peachey is a master brewer in the true sense (as well as a top bloke) and I'm looking forward to seeing what he'll be doing with that DME system.
Holgate definitely pimped for votes our on Twitter and Facebook accounts. We were asked by Taphouse to publicize the poll, and we weren't about to miss a chance for some self promotion in the meantime. Yeah, maybe our vote was split 12 ways or we didn't push it enough. It's a popularity contest - though the quality of the beer is a big factor - not the AIBA so no sour grapes here. Good on all the top 12 beers. We'll have to be content with lucky 13 this time around!
Chris Mc — 28 January at 09:08PM
Thanks for that Ian. This discussion has been wanting for some commentary from the other side of the producer/consumer divide.
Bill — 28 January at 11:56PM
How has Vale Ale been transparent about beer being contract brewed from day one?? All the marketing has said it hails from Mclaren Vale, McLaren Vale did not have a beer now it does, artisans from McLaren Vale etc etc. Where on theie web page does it say it is actually brewed in Sydney?? Early on they didn't even have a McLaren Vale presence, merely a PO Box which I bet was redirected to Sydney. I bet they don't even live in the McLaren Vale.
This beer could be the best in the world and that is fine, it is the connection to McLaren Vale which is the issue. They have felt that this is important and as a result this is NOT transparent. You could not do the same with wine, even beers like Stella state on the label that it is not actually the imported version and that it is brewed undr licence in Australia. McLaren Vale Ale makes NO attempt to let consumers know it is not brewed in McLaren Vale.
Sadly I am sure he will continue to get away with this and this only hurts those who a fair dinkum about honest craft beer.
Crafty Pint — 29 January at 09:17AM
Bill
There is regular discussion within the industry as to whether there should be a way of distinguishing - and how to distinguish - between "craft" beers with their own brewery and those who brew under contract. As I think has been stated elsewhere, there are good contract beers out there - and reasons why people choose that route on their way to opening a brewery - and those that aren't good and are purely someone trying to make money and pull the wool over peoples' eyes. Whether there is enough knowledge in the market at this point for the majority of customers to know what it actually means is up for debate, but there are those out there - and I don't include McLaren Vale in this - with deliberately obfuscatory back stories to their beer or who make claims of their beer that are not matched in reality. At some point this distinction may be made - perhaps on labels, who knows - but it is right, in Crafty's view, that you should be able to tell a beer's provenance from picking up a bottle as some people would prefer to drink a beer they know has been made at a genuine microbrewery under that brewery's name.
If it helps, the only listings you'll find on the brewery's directory page on this site are for breweries with an actual brewery, a decision that was taken when this website was merely an idea; we believe those who've taken a gamble and opened their own breweries deserve the leg up and also want the map to show readers places they can actually visit. What's more, what photos could we use on a listing for a contract brewer? Admittedly, as a site still in its infancy, we only have Victorian breweries on there for now (and some will no doubt take umbrage at Matilda Bay being there, but they can take their umbrage and eat it - we thought long and hard and spoke to many other brewers about whether to approach them and the feeling was overwhelmingly yes, not just for the historical role they play in Australia's microbrewing growth but also the role they play now in turning drinkers' heads - and, of course, producing lovely beers like the Alpha, Dogbolter and Longshot). There will be new listings for some of the major interstate micros and venues being added soon and, over time, the hope is to offer as comprehensive cover of the country as possible; please be patient as it's something of a Paul Kelly / Kev Carmody approach... But be assured that however it does develop, only breweries with stainless steel will appear on the map - as, we hope, will McLaren Vale, once their system is commissioned later in the year.
Cheers
Crafty
Victor — 29 January at 12:12PM
The sad thing here is a lot of airplay is being wasted on this ridiculous first place result.
Cast that aside and the top three are LC, S&W and Feral. I actually think that is a pretty accurate fair picture of whats happening in craft beer in Australian. Also three brewers I could proudly suggest to visiting beer lovers are top class beers that should be tried.
You've got LC who are bigger and now admittedly a public company with some Lion Nathan shareholding (but anyone reading this site could go buy shares in it on Monday) who make a world class pale and do a hell of a lot for craft beer in general as well as obviuosly sell a lot of there own. A bigger craft brewery maybe, but a brewery who sticks to craft beer ideal, FOR SURE.
Stone and Wood are three guys who have come up with a uniquely Australian beer which who nows may one day be seen as a definitive Australian ale style, time will tell. It may be easy drinking but it is also intersting and really well made.
Then you have Feral in third and these guys knock out a heap of good beer from a very small and almost agricultural brewery away from the big markets. I counted 6 in the top 100, so for Hop Hog to place where it did show that there is some real appreciation of good beer by the public.
HH will probably never beat LC Pale in this type of poll and arguable it shouldnt beacause not enough people are able to try it, but for it place shows some sophistication in the voters tastes.
Sad thing is time is being wasted talking about the farce of a first place and nothing is heard about or from the guys that should be heard from