When Cold Beer Counts
10 Aug 2011 Leave a Comment
in anheuser-busch, Avery, beer, brooklyn lager, budweiser, heineken, InBev, stella artois, Uncategorized
There is a famous scene in the John Cassavettes movie Gloria where Gena Rowlands, walks into a bar in the morning hours and asks for a beer. “What kind?” the bartender asks. Which Gloria (Ms. Rowlands) replies: “Cold.”
I didn’t fully appreciate this until after 16 days of plus 90 degree temperatures. In such a climate, “cold” is the most important attribute. In the hot summer sun, beer in a can seems quite suitable, so I have to laugh when the so-called craft brewing world announces the craft can revolution. Which I gather provides an excuse to sell their crafted creations in aluminum, dispensing with the notion that beer is always better in glass bottles.
There is of course resistance to that notion among those taught that glass was the last word in beer packaging. Brown glass bottles has always been a selling point with Samuel Adams, who so far have resisted the craft can revolution. A movement that now includes Avery, Brooklyn, Abita, and many others.
This is also where the marketing distinctions become a bit of a blur. In fact the term craft beer seems a useless designation, unless it simply means more expensive beer ($18 for a six-pack of cans?). And now the game is afoot, to convince all those glass bottle drinkers, that beer in a can can be just as good, after all those years of complaining about ‘metallic taste’.
It would be interesting to have a blind taste test to determine if you can actually taste the difference. Much packaging depends on psychology. How else can it be explained why so much time and resources is devoted to finding the right button to push? There is a dirt into gold aspect to this. Back in the 1980′s, the Mexican migrant worker cooler known as Corona became the sought after yuppie drink of choice, knocking off Heineken from its throne as the Number 1, U.S. imported beer.
This marketing coup was upstaged by another when Stella Artois, makers of a Belgian working class lager convinced the world, or at least the part that had money to spend, that Stella is a fine representative of “cinema, cuisine and culture”.
It should also be noted that Heineken, Stella Artois, and Corona are all available in bottles and cans. International branding doesn’t want to miss an opportunity. The redesign of AB Inbev’s Budweiser logo is a good case in point. Heineken pull tabs on their cans are green, Budweiser’s are red. Obviously, package design is enormously important, although the vast majority of consumers hardly even consider it. Marketing beer at this scale very often means promoting an imaginary lifestyle. Its not just beer, you might say, but a way of life.
Happy Halloween
31 Oct 2009 1 Comment
in Avery, beer, dunkel weizenbock, Point Classic Amber, samuel adams
It is misty with rain this last of October morning. I let my beloved cat, Belle, peek out the door and decide it wasn’t worth going out and getting wet, Very quiet too, with only a distant hum of a machine here and there, including the ancient Norge refrigerator, down here in the beer jazz cave, recently wired for the Internet.
Opening the old cold foot soldier, you need a flashlight to see what the contents are inside. The door light switch gave up the ghost last spring…
Let’s see what is in… oh yes, Avery’s Old Jubilation Ale! A tremendous malty pour with a chocolate ester nose. What does it taste like? Well, as a new world take on old English Winter Ale, it has a flavor note in the profile that is more like chocolate grape, rather than chocolate raisin. Deep and smooth with plenty of complexity.
What else is… oh yes, Samuel Adams Winter Lager, just arrived in the local stores this week. This version of their spiced dunkel weizenbock could very well be the best they have ever produced. Spices are used but are not overbearing, making this still a lager, rather than their equally great wassail, Old Fezziwg. I have often wished that Samuel Adams would produce a variety 12 pack that consists of 3 beers: Winter Lager, Old Fezziwg, and Holiday Porter.
Another perusal of Norge reveals that other than a few bottles of Point Classic Amber, there is nothing more important than going out and restocking this fridge with good beer. Halloween is one of the best reasons to party. There is music to be played. Creepy monster movies to watch. A day of celebration for young and old where Jack-O-Lanterns all unite. And you know the old saying: There is no such thing as too much beer!
Happy Halloween and thank you!
