Big Brewers control the media.

[Hugh Grierson]

I thought that a discussion of the latest big brewery schemes to marginalise Craft Beer could be amusing.  Aside from a few beacons the mainstream media are useless at something that many people find interesting. Why? Obviously there is the kiwi weekness of only acknowledging something when its recognised overseas, but there is a deeper, more sinister reason. Big bad beer controls the media, using it big bad beer money. The Herald's beer writer is a DB employee, and both Dish and Cuisine Magazines have had big brewers swimming through their bowels at some time.
The July 2010 issue issue of Dish is an example of this, a magazine that previously carried stories about Epic or Mata has now metamorphosed into a beer wench for the worst of the    "premium craft beer", Montieths.
You can tell when has happens, only one brand of beer exists in the magazines universe, you might find a positive review or beer/food match, and of course many advertisements for the one monied brand, no reviews of any competition.
I thought that this discussion could become a collection of biased and shoddy media, maybe they just need to know we are onto them..
Oh and also if my chopper crashes unexplicably, it's not pilot error.

[JR]

Also on the front page of Realbeer,co,nz

[Reviled]

Thats a pretty good write up Luke!! Impressive

[Nick T]

Slighty related - radio ad today for Brewers Arms in Merivale: "blah bah blah, X beers on tap, including the 'best' from BOTH Breweries..." Sigh... I guess they play both types of music too.......

[Hugh Grierson]

More of a antibeer bias story here, from the latest issue of Cuisine, the Magazine for Old Women Who Drink Wine. The beer/ wine matching event at beervana gets a fleeting mention.
First the reviewer insinuates that the beer victory occured due to beer bias because it was a beer event, not that beer could beat wine on the table.
Then he complains that one of the matchings did not work (for his taste) because the beer was over hopped. Despite having one example of a match that did not work the summation is that beer matching is a fad and wine is the only table drink the magazine supports. Except when mentioning Montieths of course, they dont "overhop" their beers, oh and they buy lots of big ads. Anyone else read this?

[Stu McKinlay]

i haven't seen it but you summed the magazine up nicely... try Dish if you want a mag who are willing to take a broader view (they actually have a beer and food article coming out in December, apparently).

[Tilt]

Whats the deal?
Have those Bigbeer reprobates (as opposed to the Bigpharma and Bigtobacco variety) infiltrated into the safe refuge of the Realbeer forum?

I was interested to see which commercial beer scored an 11/50 in the NHC comp via the realbeer news link left hand side column on the main forum page..... but the link leads to a dead end!!

Is this a case of enforced censorship under threat of immediate and devasating blitzkrieg like legal action?
Or is this a case of applying the same fair standards to all entrants in the comp - commercial behemoth and garage based craftsman alike?

[Reviled]

lol a commercial beer scored 11/50??? Bahaha, thats awesome, take that big boys!!!

[Hugh Grierson]

Yeah but to be fair it was ranfurly station ale. Big brewers make better beer than that. Independent made "Bean Rock" a few years ago at the same brewery as a contract brew, and it was yum.

[Greig McGill]

Heh, no conspiracy, I swear. The author just pulled the article for personal reasons.

[Tilt]

Sweet - just whipping things up for the sake of relieving a bored afternoon at work.