RealBeer.co.nz - Buyers Guide to Craft Beer in New Zealand

[nzbrewer]

In an effort to help retailers in New Zealand to purchase a good selection of craft beers I am working on the document below. Would love to have any suggestions or input. Once it has been polished it will be released to the Liquor Trade.

Why do this? recently I have had a number of bars bitching at me about some "craft beers" they have stocked which people try once and hate on, then they have to try and sell the rest of it out. This also has the effect on new and potential craft beer drinkers not adventuring outside their comfort zone again because they got burned.

So hook in to it I want to see your comments. If first time craft beer drinkers have an awesome experience every time, they will buy again, and there will be more demand for more craft beer.

Cheers
Luke

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RealBeer.co.nz
Presents

Buyers Guide
Craft Beer of New Zealand

Craft Beer made in New Zealand has all of a sudden become very interesting and many bar owners and liquor retailers are looking at providing a selection of what is available.

With 50 small breweries in New Zealand, and many making on average 5 beers each, this means there are potentially 250 beers you could add to your fridge. In most cases you will not have room for more then 6 or 12 new beers.

Here are some quick tips to getting a quality selection, and avoiding making a bad choice?

1. Award Winning Beers
Keep it simple. Stick with beers that have won awards. See www.brewnz.co.nz for latest results. So much choice, so little fridge space. (you need to note that of the 200+ entries from the Beer Awards only a third are worthy of medals, hence there are some problematic and poor quality beers out there)

2. Reputation for Quality
Sometimes you might be wiser to actually look at beers that have a consistent record of winning awards, or looking at the track record of a brewery and its ability to win awards for all its beers. Some brewers may get lucky once and ride on that win for 17 years.

3. Beers of Interest
Many craft breweries are make seasonal specials and interesting beers. Watch out for barrel aged beers, sour beers, fruit beers, and other strange ingredients. This definitely creates interest, trial and discussion about the diversity of beer.

4. Change is Good
To keep your customers interested and to always be fine tuning your selection, a good practice is to drop a couple of your slower moving beers and to try out a couple of new one. You might end up stocking your new biggest seller.

5. Support Your Local Brewery
Fresh beer is the best. Your local brewery is only going to prosper and improve their quality and selection with your support.

[Greig McGill]

Epic Pale Ale is an interesting case. I suspect most of us "beer nerds" will usually choose something else over Epic in a place like Tahi, since we know Epic is freely available in supermarkets and thus easy to obtain. I always go for the rarer beer over Epic unless Epic is exactly what I feel like drinking (and then invariably, I can't get any, but that's another story). I wonder if this has spilled over into the mainstream? They've seen Epic at their supermarket, decide it's a safe bet and they can try something else now? Or am I giving way too much credit to the mainstream drinker, and there's some other reason for the slow sales?

Luke: I'd especially love to hear your opinion on that.

Ian: I think I shall come up to Warkworth for a sunny weekend over Summer. Has anyone talked to you about joining SOBA yet? If not, that can be my excuse to visit! ;)
Can you recommend a nice place to stay?

[Reviled]

Im keen on a german beer in warkworth, maybe we can organise something?

[nzbrewer]

Greig, good point and I find that what you are saying was highlighted at Beervana, where it was obvious that people loved Epic as they came up and told me, but they were looking for beers that they hadn't tried before or couldn't get locally (as I was myself). hence the comment someone made that Epic was "mainstream". Fair comment in context with the 3000 beer geeks that drink good beer in this country.

For the other 4 million people out there Epic has never been hear of and is bloody hard to find, as it is in only 230 of the 14,000 licensed premises. (that is 1.6% of potential outlets).

The "supermarket safe bet" comment is also very topical right now as there is Harrington's Dux de Lux and Mates/Hawkes Bay beers turning up everywhere. Many consumers now have a huge selection of craft beers where once there were none (in alot of stores that may have only changed in the last month or so) I see that this is exciting times for the beer drinker, to try new stuff, and they will learn very quickly what are the good ones and what are not so good which they wont buy any more.

This time next year there will be a whole new range on the shelves as retailers drop the ones that aren't repeat purchased.

Overall this is great for the industry as the consumer will be feeding back to the brewer via sales what they like and don't like.

Re: slow sales, there are many factors that contribute to this, which can be speculated on, but sales for Epic beer are growing faster than I had even forecast for this summer so far. Last week we bottled 22 pallets of Epic Pale Ale, (with a similar amount due in mid December) and I'm not just doing that cause I can.

epicbeer.com

[Stu McKinlay]

Epic beer are growing faster than I had even forecast for this summer so far.


That is bloody heartening news Luke. It means there are still oportunities out there for local brewers who push a good product, even if they are at the high end of the price bracket. Hoegaarden is about $1/100ml a bottle, so why shouldn't our best beers be the same.

[Andrew]

Hoegaarden is about $1/100ml a bottle, so why shouldn't our best beers be the same.
Because us Kiwis, in yet another display of our lack of confidence, believe that something made on the otherside of the world must of course be better than a local product. (oh - and it could hardly travel any further to get here)

[Stu McKinlay]

The American beers travel even further. I've had a few Anchor beers that have a label saying they've been especialy imported the the UK by "So and So Importers". So they've come from Cali via the UK. I wonder if they were shipped via the Panama Canal or trucked across mainland USA and shipped from the east coast...

Anyway, they have usually been surprisingly good but I did have a Porter the other day that was awful.

[Tony]

Just hooked on to this discussion. I like it. May I suggest:

Managers/bar poeple, do a tasting of a selection of beers, before they decide to stock them. I know this seems counter productive, but if an 'average' bar person, who may not be a 'craft beer' drinker, likes what they are tasting, chances are their clients will too.

Along with that, is the SOBA liaison person, might come along and give suggestions and tasting notes, in order to 'educate' the barstaff, as to what they are drinking.

I think the biggest problem out there, is lack of education. If bar staff actually had a clue about beer, then they would be better informed to 'market' their product and in turn sell it to their patrons.

[Andrew]

Along with that, is the SOBA liaison person, might come along and give suggestions and tasting notes, in order to 'educate' the barstaff, as to what they are drinking.
This would probably be the single most effective thing that SOBA could do to push the cause. I would happily provide the wares if the right person could front up and do a little educating (it happens with our coffee providers and I don't know why, but our staff seem to take more notice of a 'knowlegable' outsider than the do of me - perhaps I don't spank them enough). One of the most difficult things is actually is to not let your personal preferences get in the way when reccomending a product to a punter. No point in telling someone they should drink the whale when they are a horse person.

[Ian Marriott]

I have always believed that tasting for staff forms an essential part of their training and it is also important that brewers supply good tasting notes for training as this gives staff a sense of confidence to talk about a product with customers. When we first stocked Epic I recieved a dozen free and used them for this purpose, Aoteoroa Breweries have always supplied us with table top promotional material and A3 laminated Promo sheets and tasting stock...Sorry to say it folks but these things also sell beer and where they will win in sales stakes is that if a customer sees these forms of marketing then that is what they will buy. We do a "beer of the week" that is advertised internally and externally and this sells beer. No matter how simple the forms of marketing are they will help the retailer sell. Since Luke did a tasting at the Local New World the Epic sales are slowly increasing and there is more sense of adventure generated when public tastings are performed. I think it is important to find out what flavours people prefer, what beer would you normally drink? and say well try this ..it is what a pale ale/ pilsner/lager/stout etc should taste like. This is working for us. Andrew is correct in that support is needed if you want to form a strong cohesive approach. The wine and coffee industries are doing it and it would appear that it is working for them. I am try to convince a local vineyard that runs cooking classes for men and women that are really more social than anything that when they do the BBQ cookery day for blokes that they should be doing it with beer as opposed to wine. We need people to be saying ...NZ pale ales are great not just one or two but showing them that there is a huge range of good beer available . I think the supermarkets are doing a good job for brand awareness but get them to brand them under a sign for NZ brewers, not mixed in with weiss beer from Munich and fruit beers from Belgium.

[Tony]

Agreed. I would be happy to come along and do a tasting with anyone in the Auckland area. I think the level of education among barstaff, about any drink, boarders on pathetic. And yet bars are happy to charge considerable sums for their stock.

I heard an interview, several years back, with Chef Steven White. He considered the level of service in our restaurants was way below par, for what we pay. I think think the same is true of our bars. There is no product knowledge. They hire someone on minimum wage, charge full whack and expect the punters to accept it. I always notice when I go to a bar or restaurant and get good service, it sticks out like dogs balls and yet why should it? It doesn't take much to educate bar staff on product. It just takes a little time and effort and a few beers. As a SOBA member I have had the privilege of visiting and talking to some of our best brewers in town. It really doesn't take that much to do.

It's time we started supporting our local product and educating our bar staff, drop me a line.

[Andrew]

Good on you Tony.That's a great start. Just bare in mind tho that not all bar staff are beer drinkers and some just don't like the stuff full stop (weird, I know). There is also an art in inspiring and informing the consumer without making any promises or creating expectations which you may not be able to deliver on - which can be even worse than keeping your mouth shut in the first place. The classic example of this is the long winded restaraunt menu that waxes on about every little ingredient that may have been involved in it's creation and when the dish arrives you spend way too long searching in vain for the said ingredients that can't possibly be hiding under that sliver of carrot or be concealed in that knob of mash.
Like Martin said a while back - it's easier to simply give the punter a small sample and let them make their own minds up - and this is always our first course of action if someone should ask us what a certain beer tastes like.
This also has a very good PR component for the bar. For one you are willing to give something away - which says to the customer you think they are worth investing in and secondly it says to the customer that you have confidence in their judgement.

[Ian Marriott]

Why don't we ..as retailers sort a combined tasting for key staff which, in association with brewers will not only increase the level of knowledge and appreciation but will also motivate them to sell products. There are also one or two companies that have decent imported ranges that we could get involved as well to further increase their sales opportunities as well. If we kept it regional it could only help the profile...
As I said in my original post you must sell to the sellers. Promotional kit doesn't have to be flash. Simple A3 posters work a treat. most retailers will know where their hot spots for promo matter are. Get them put there.
I agree the sample is the best way to sell but if like me most of your product is bottled then it is not always feasible. Just because the public have been dumbed down with poor quality beer in the past it does not mean their palates are dead. I believe more people than we realise appreciate real beer but they have a mis conception that it is always going to be expensive...more expensive than a Tui ...probably...more than a Stella or Heineken...not necessarily