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.

[Stu McKinlay]

In case people missed it -
How about something about asking the independent experts - beer writers, other brewers etc.
Or dealing with reputable expert wholesalers/retailers rather than direct with the brewery (e.g. Regionals, The Beer Store, Rumbles, BeerNZ etc).


Greig - you're right, I shouldn't have started the "pick your list now" thing. I didn't mean for everyone to do it, I just wanted to see where Luke's theory was going. This thing will be published and he will, no doubt, be asked to recommend some beers (as per my comment above, which could turn into point 7?).

[nzbrewer]

I started a discussion with Craig Bowen from BeerNZ about this document and he also suggested we should add financial information to outline that retailers make higher dollar margin from selling craft beer compared to the mainstream.

So extra points for possibly the back of the A4 document
6. education, (tasting notes)
7. recommendations (what beers and where to buy them from)
8. financial proposition (examples of what return on investing in craft beer)

The discussion also lead onto how to make these recommendations. Initial ideas are to add a section onto the RealBeer.co.nz that lists NZ breweries and beers. It would be information beyond reviews from ratebeer (which do get very skewed by personal preference to a brand or brewer, excellent example of this see TheGrandMaster). Additional information about beers such as history of awards, recent ranking and comments from public tastings - these could be feed in by people doing regular tastings such as Neil Miller, Craig Bowen and Geoff Griggs.

I am currently looking for some technology that would be easy to use for presenting this information so that it is straight forward to read, and to add additional information to.

[Greig McGill]

A wiki would seem like the right answer (didn't I set you up one somewhere once?) though takes a bit of effort to get it working and working well, and needs people dedicated to keeping it up to date.

Volunteers?

[Sam Possenniskie (TGM)]

haha

silly me, letting my own personal preferences getting in the way of my own comments on beer that I drink

from now on I will make sure that I only make comments that I think other people think I should be making

look, to even show I have turned over this new leaf, I have updated my 'favourite beers' on my realbeer home page ;-)

[nzbrewer]

oohhhh, that was toooo easy :-P

[Stu McKinlay]

You guys should both have Yeastie Boys on their too... spread the love a little, please ;-)

[Steph]

I would think that 6 or 12 new beers would be quite a shock to the average boring beer bar!! But, I suppose, if you don't aim high...Note there is a typo before the "6".

With regard to point 2, do you know any craft brewery that has won an award for all its beers? Maybe I haven't been paying enough attention. I think consistency, in that a particular beer has won an award more than once is a good indicator.

In relation to "Beers of Interest", I think that bourbon porters and the likes are likely to appeal to those crossover beer/bourbon or beer/whiskey drinkers and could be used as an example instead of "barrel aged". People might think "barrel aged" is a bit of a wanky wine thing. Seasonal beers are also an idea...

I also think that a beer list with a short line or two of tasting notes is a good way to attract interest and provide information. Printed or on a blackboard.

Six beers in the theoretical cafe for me, presuming they are local craft beers on tap, would be (tricky, and not definite)...
1. Emersons pilsner
2. 3 Boys IPA
3. Tuatara Ardennes
4. Epic Pale Ale
5. Founders Redhead
6. Invercargill Brewery pitch black
Maybe a little boring but generally all very tasty beers that I'd be happy to have on tap regularly at my local.

I'm presuming your PKB may have run out

[Greig McGill]

With regard to point 2, do you know any craft brewery that has won an award for all its beers?

Epic is a consistent winner, and Tuatara just cleaned up at BrewNZ with the Champion Brewery award, so there's a good start.

I also think that a beer list with a short line or two of tasting notes is a good way to attract interest and provide information. Printed or on a blackboard.

Couldn't agree more - so point 6? Educate your customers and encourage them to try the new beers by having tasting notes available. Good sources for these are (insert link to ratebeer.com, email address for SOBA - this is a service we could provide, other sources?).

I'm not going to pick my 6 here as it will turn into one of those rating type threads and divert from the useful discussion. ;) That said I'm really surprised nobody has mentioned Biman from Invercargill yet - I've never had a bad drop, and it always does very well in Neil's tastings.

Question to brewers: WHY is consistency so difficult? Is it just the natural brewer's desire to fiddle with things, or are there other factors?

[jt]

If consistency is a problem- make it seasonal - give it a theme - do the food matching bit and broaden the audience

[nzbrewer]

point 9. food and beer matching suggestions (and where to get help finding this information)

Maybe in the additional material about a beer such as awards, reviews, and recommendations there is a food match for that beer, that can be downloaded.

[nzbrewer]

With regard to point 2, do you know any craft brewery that has won an award for all its beers? Maybe I haven't been paying enough attention. I think consistency, in that a particular beer has won an award more than once is a good indicator.

Check the history of Cock & Bull beers, most years since they started entering awards in 1996 all of the beers in the range generally won something at each of the competitions entered. I think to date the C&B beers have won 180+ medals. When including Epic Pale Ale there are also 3 x Supreme Champion trophies from the NZ International Beer Awards.

[denimglen]

I think listing some examples of actual beers may not be a great idea. It wouldn't surprise me if most bar managers would read those six or so examples, order some samples and then go 'yup, i'll stock those' and then every pub in town is stocking the same six beers from the list. But then without some examples they may see it as a bewildering task of sampling the hundreds of available beers and then just choosing a few. Maybe instead of listing actual beers list some styles and quick notes on them that would be easy movers? Like APAs, wheats, browns, blondes opposed to say the beers that may be a bit in-your-face for the average drinking, eg IPAs, lambics. But still drop a note about stocking an in-your-face beer or two.

Also I think you mentioned not having too much info in this guide. Maybe an extended more in-depth version available online?

Might not be the kind of thing to put in this guide but for point 6 drop something about staff education, and getting the bar staff to try and sell beer instead of just serving it. A 'hey, if you like this beer you should give this other one a shot' sorta thing, which I've never heard at an average bar.

Also a lot of bars I go to have the knee height beer fridge almost un-seeable so unless I actually climb up onto the bar too look in you don't know what's there, and when you do find your binoculars and see the fucking thing all that glares back at you are rows of heinekins and steinlager pure, then behind some thick condensation in the corner you may see a beer or two that might be little promising. And Joe Average who doesn't really know to look doesn't know these other beers exist.

I dunno, just my two cents :-P