How to increase the popularity of realales (beers)

[Alelover]

Just wondered what the opinions were on this subject. At the moment I feel that the real brewers of NZ are making some headway into the market, but I dont think the big boys are quaking in their boots. So what can change this? Price;availability;education;marketing? What can change the typical drinkers attitude;turn them away from the tasteless foam they so willingly swill?

[Barry]

One of the major barriers in uptake of craft beer has to be price.
I agree with James, you can't fire-sale it or people perceive that it's "cheap" - bad connotation. But, and this is the crucial point, beer is something you drink in volume. People will have a hard time choosing a tastier 6 pack over a similar-priced dozen. People want volume.

The other problem is, the big breweries have swindled us into believing that Monteiths/Heineken/Stella are the best beers money can buy. When people trade up, they trade up from Lion Red to Heineken. Not from Lion Red to Epic. Why? Because they don't know about Epic. They don't know about hops. They don't know about flavour, all malt, beer styles, you name it. They know NOTHING.

And how could they know about Epic? Or any craft beer? Their local supermarket/bottleshop/wholesaler doesn't stock it. I have to drive at least half an hour from my house past many bottle shops to find one that stocks the kind of beer I like to drink. You have to know a thing or two to bother going to that amount of effort.

How many pubs are there in the Auckland area? And how many of them sell any craft beer?
There would be well over 1000 outlets (I really don't know but it's a LOT). And there's probably in the vicinity of 20 that sell anything decent in the way of beer. That's such a tiny, minuscule percentage. How the heck is the average punter meant to know anything about anything beery. I'm often surprised any of us do with odds like that.

The good news here is the potential for growth. Massive.

One of the key things to educate people on (in my opinion) is beer styles, good old traditional been-brewed-for-hundreds-of-years beer styles. When people find out I homebrew they generally ask is "can make something like Heineken" or, "which kits do you use", or, "can you make something like Corona?". I bet you anything brewpubs, your Cock & Bulls etc get that all the time over the bar - "I usually drink Steinies, what do you have like that?"

The general population have never heard of pale ales, porters, bitters, milds. They only know brands. This has to change. That way they will see that any brewery can brew their take on a style of beer. Then and only then will people accept diversity over brand.

The tricky thing is, the big breweries have spent so many millions of dollars developing brands, they're hard to break down. One way I guess would be to have style-based tastings - West Coast IPA challenges, hop harvest festivals and the like.

I don't believe there's an easy answer. But I do believe there's a massive market for people willing to make better, tastier choices.

[Kempicus]

I completely agree with everything you say....apart from one thing ;0)

The jump from Lion Red to Epic, sure they probably don't know about it but the price jump is a bigger barrier....$6 a six pack to $19-$20 is hard for people to stomach....what they can do with monteiths/mac's/heineken is get a 'perceived' better beer for $12-$14 with an advertising campaign to back their choice.

It all gets back to percieved value, is a six pack of epic worth three times more to them than a six pack of lion red....probably not but a 6 pack of monteiths/mac's/heineken with 'cool' value added is probably about right (to them)

[Barry]

Yep, agree. And to add further complexity, they probably jump from a dozen red to a dozen Monteiths. $16ish to $20ish ($19.99 on special?). Lion Red drinkers don't drink by the 6 pack.
So $40 for a doz is never going to fly with that kind of drinker. Nor is a solitary 6 pack.
One thing I've always felt is that it's a stretch for craft brewers to expect people to reduce volume for quality. People want volume regardless, if they can't afford better beer in volume they won't buy it.
Don't know what the answer is there, other than to homebrew :)

[Kempicus]

Yeah absolutely, i was just using six packs for ease of comparison :0)
People drink beer in volume to get pissed that's the bottom line.
My argument has always been to triage....ignore those people that're already dead save the ones you can, the ones with an open mind and some disposable income! target people that buy into the organic bullshit, target snobs and restaurateurs, target influential writers, target national icons and the upper echelon. We need the NZ version of Madonna saying that Tim Taylor Landlord is the best beer in the world….

[Stu McKinlay]

ignore those people that're already dead save the ones you can, the ones with an open mind

Here here.

My thoughts entirely. I always cringe when someone mentions Lion Red drinkers... there are so few of them who would make that leap. Middle-aged wine drinkers are the sort of people that should be targeted. A lot of them are people who gave up on beer in the 70's or 80's because it was so bad. Targetting Lion Red drinkers is like trying to explain to the average New Zealander about why football is a better game than rugby.

Who is our Madonna?

[jt]

A lot of them are people who gave up on beer in the 70's or 80's because it was so bad

Really, I thought wine became fashionable .. like calling soccer football ?

[nzbrewer]

.ignore those people that're already dead save the ones you can, the ones with an open mind

I think Neil Miller is the best example that you can pull someone from the brain dead masses and convert them. Here is a guy that use to worship Tui, had the Tui inflatable couch, the Tui beer fridge, and only drink Tui.

What was the one single event that showed him the light, and changed his ways, to become the hop-head he is today?

There is hope, but what is the catalyst that is required to opened the eyes of the masses? get them past the brand?

[Greig McGill]

James, you and I used to be those Lion Red and Waikato drinkers. We were saved. Why not others.

[Reviled]

So what was Neil Millers life changing event? Im curious :o)

And with the whole volume thing, is it not workable to bring out 12boxes of Epic?

[Stu McKinlay]

There would be well over 1000 outlets (I really don't know but it's a LOT). And there's probably in the vicinity of 20 that sell anything decent in the way of beer.

And only a couple of them have something on tap.

[nzbrewer]

There are around 14,000 license outlets in New Zealand.

Craft beer is 2.5% of the market so could we take the wild leap to saying there are 350 outlets that stock craft beer?

I'd actually think that this is pretty close as Epic is now in 254 outlets, and only a handful of those are in the South Island.

So yes there is much potential but if 80% of those outlets are under contract by the big breweries (11,200), that leaves only 2800 potential outlets, less already stocking equals 2450 outlets available to have craft beer stocked.

How about that for random logic?

[Ian]

Teach your children - and anyone else who'll listen. Long live the beer evangelist!