Liquid Identities

Awhile back Pete Brown ran a competition at his website to encourage new beer writers. The challenge? Write a 1000 word essay on the topic, ‘Why Beer Matters.’ The reward? Pete’s trip to the Budvar brewery in Bohemia and having the article published in ‘The Publican.’ I decided I would enter the competition (despite the fact that I would have to find my own way to London before going on to the Czech Republic). Pete recently announced the winners and, alas, I did not win the trip. However, because my article won’t be published in The Publican, that means I get to post it here for you all to read. Below you will find my original competition article. Enjoy!

 First off, let us state the obvious – beer is just a beverage made of barley, hops, yeast and water. To some it’s a thirst quencher; to others it’s a way to unwind after a long day at work. Sure, each of these uses holds a shred of importance to the individual, but why does beer matter? What has made it so ubiquitous worldwide? Why has beer become celebrated in cultures around the world? Perhaps it’s because beer acts as a window into a community. It allows a town, city, or region to tell a story about who they are in liquid form. This isn’t the case with all beers, but the most unique and imaginative beers begin to reveal their heritage after the first sip.

 

By the turn of the 21st century, the craft brewing scene had exploded; long gone were the days of mass commoditization and conglomeration. Craft beer was now commonplace, but in Santa Cruz, California, Alec Stefanski was doing something most uncommon. “It’s a brown ale brewed with pork!” Alec exclaimed emphatically. He is the founder of Uncommon Brewers, a new brewery that prides itself on doing things a little differently, and he had just gotten his first shipment of pork belly to brew his new bacon nut-brown ale. Santa Cruz is a city known for its independent spirit, alternative living, and its reputation as an international nexus of organic farming. Uncommon’s beers reflect Santa Cruz – they are unique, broad-minded beers flavored with an arsenal of bizarre ingredients including kaffir lime, poppies, anise, and candy cap mushrooms. The brewery is run by an offbeat staff that incorporates these ingredients into their 100% organic beers. Like so many other food and drink based businesses in Santa Cruz, Uncommon Brewers is grounded in the principles of the Slow Food movement, sourcing their ingredients from the farms in the surrounding region. To taste Uncommon is to taste the community of Santa Cruz, and if the essence of the city could be captured, it would be in one of Uncommon’s signature tall boy cans. But Santa Cruz is just one of the cities that can tell a story through its beer.

 

Garrett Marrerro was young and powerful; he was a recent college graduate making big money as an investment consultant. Like so many others, it seemed like Garrett was destined to spend his life working 9-5 for his paycheck. Unlike many others, Garrett took a bold step: he quit his job, moved to Maui, and opened a brewery. Many others have dreamed of leaving their unfulfilling jobs and moving to paradise. With sandy beaches, a tropical climate, and palm trees, Maui is, in effect, heaven on earth to the working stiff. It’s a laid back community that doesn’t take anything too seriously, and Maui Brewing Co. embodies that lifestyle and the Aloha spirit. This isn’t your typical Hawaiian beer that you drink at a ‘luau’ in line for the pineapple-glazed ham behind other tourists while a fire dancer bounces around on stage. Instead, Maui Brewing Co. produces truly local Hawaiian beer by sourcing many ingredients from the islands – CoConut Porter, anyone? Also, it is made by Hawaiians – Garrett prefers to train the local workforce as opposed to bringing in experienced mainland employees. Garrett explains: “It keeps more money on the island instead of sending ninety cents of every dollar to the mainland.” This is what Garrett refers to as ‘Brewing with Aloha’ – buying local first and supporting the community. His philosophy has led to Maui Brewing becoming the best selling locally produced beer on the islands. Garrett, like Alec and so many others, has created a product that goes beyond barley, hops, yeast, and water. He has helped mold a community identity, and has once again shown why beer matters.

 

Beer is a reflection of our communities; it has the capacity to convey societal values and ideas in an accessible and unpretentious manner. Think drinking a beer isn’t like tasting a community? Try one of Alec’s brews, and when you taste the organic ingredients of the Santa Cruz Valley, you’ll quickly reconsider. Open a can of Garrett’s CoCoNut Porter and try not to envision relaxing on Wailea Beach. Beer showcases our community bonds; it promotes our societies’ collective creativity and displays our penchant for and acceptance of new ideas. The art that is created at breweries across the world is every bit as important to their communities’ identities as Mozart was to Salzburg’s or Van Gogh to Amsterdam’s. Yet the art of beer is down-to-earth and genial. A simple trip to the pub can take the consumer from the beaches of Maui to the beer halls of Munich and any number of places in between. Beer matters because it acts as a cultural medium between communities, a common language in which to communicate the following:

 

‘We crafted this beer for your enjoyment, but also to let you know who we are. We crafted this beer, and it reflects the values, beliefs, and attitudes of our community. We crafted this beer from our land’s ingredients and through our people’s labor – both are contained within every bottle. We crafted this beer for you to know us, so drink up and enjoy. Cheers!’

The Next Craft Beer Market Opportunities

When the craft brewing revolution began in the ‘70’s and ‘80’s, the very notion of a full flavored beer brewed without adjuncts such as rice and corn was enough to create a noteworthy product that the initial consumers would seek out. I’m not saying that the initial craft breweries coasted on this alone and didn’t have to work hard to grow their organizations, but I am saying that new craft breweries cannot take the same approach. Craft beer is no longer a novelty.

The same can be said for the big or extreme beers. Once standard craft beer became more common place, these beers became the novelty, the outstanding, the exceptional. However, in the last few years more and more extreme beers have become available to the consumer.  What once seemed extreme may now seem pedestrian.

New start up breweries cannot rely on the formula used by the craft brewing pioneers or the extreme breweries that came after them. So what will the next formula for success be? It will likely be something very different. Equinox Brewing is taking the beer education approach. A friend of mine is exploring the idea of brewing exclusively for golf courses. What are some other experimental brewery models? Which experimental model will be the next to take off?

Brewing Benevolence: Surly Brewing (Minneapolis, Minnesota)

Brewing Benevolence is a series of articles and interviews with breweries that are committed to more than just brewing beer in their communities. In this edition, I talked to Omar, founder of Surly Brewing in Minnesota . Read on to learn about the service projects Surly has undertaken and how they are helping their Twin Cities community.

Surly’s new charitable efforts program was given the moniker ‘Surly Gives a Damn.’ What events or projects will comprise the ‘Surly Gives a Damn’ effort?

We just completed our first Surly Gives a Damn event last week. We had over 50 Surly volunteers help out a local food bank. We sorted food and put together different food boxes. I meet with our Surly Gives a Damn coordinator weekly to figure out what events we will be doing in the future. We are looking at volunteering for race events and a greenway clean-up projects. At the moment, we are spending a lot of time figuring out what types of volunteer events that are available for groups of 50 or more. Most volunteer group events are built for smaller groups.

Service projects seem to be very important to Surly.  How have these service projects not only benefitted the community, but also the brewery? Also, why get involved in these labor intensive type projects as opposed to just donating beer?

We do both items, donating beer and merchandise and the service projects. The beer donations is a bit of a no-brainer, everybody loves free beer, but I think the service projects are really a great way to connect with the community. I have always felt that breweries are very local, connected to the communities they are in. Even if we sell beer all over the country, we are still a Twin Cities brewery. I think the service projects are a great way to connect with our community that has supported us so well.

Which charitable organizations have you chosen to work with?

We have worked with a number of different organizations; theater organizations, sports leagues, city planning groups, food shelves , a Mississippi River group, children’s services, MN Zoo, Faith’s Lodge. The list is actually pretty long and diverse. We get so many requests for help, we try and spread it around.

How have you chosen which organizations to support?

Who to help is the most difficult part of the Surly Gives a Damn project. There is not enough beer and donations to go around, so we do have to choose which groups to help. In general, we look to help charitable groups and events as opposed to individuals requesting donations. Other than that, we really do try to spread out donations to as many different groups as we can.

Why is it important for Surly to be involved in its community?

We have been really fortunate at Surly to be so embraced by the Twin Cities community, it seems natural to give some of it back. I have never been a big volunteer guy myself, but the amount of energy that is in the Surly Nation is pretty awesome. I said at the food bank event last week that the 50 people working together that night did way more than 50 of us working as individuals. As a company, we can really make a great impact in the community by harnessing that energy that Surly Nation has. It was actually a Surly volunteer, Jon Jackson, that came up with this idea.

Brewing Benevolence: Boulevard Brewing (Kansas City, MO)

Brewing Benevolence is a series of articles and interviews with breweries that are committed to more than just brewing beer in their communities. In this edition, I talked to John, the founder of Boulevard Brewing in Kansas City, MO. Read on to learn how Boulevard is supporting the greater KC area.

1. Recently you helped out with the Beer for Bikes fundraiser by donating your space and pouring some pints. Is donating your event space and beer a common charitable practice for Boulevard?

Boulevard Brewing has always felt it was important to give back the local communities that have been so supportive to the brewery over the last 20 years of business. It is rare we turn down a beer donation request from a 501c3 company. While our event space is typically rented out we are able to help organizations from time to time in that capacity.

2. Boulevard Brewing was a sponsor in the commissioning of the USS Missouri. I’m sure this was a one-of-a-kind opportunity for a brewery. How did you get involved in this and how has it helped Boulevard Brewing?

Boulevard Brewing was approached by the USS Missouri Commissioning Committee to be a sponsor. We were proud to join numerous Missouri-based businesses and organizations in supporting the commissioning of the USS Missouri (SSN-780).

For every barrel of beer sold in the state of Missouri between May 1st and July 31st Boulevard will contribute $1 towards the commissioning ceremony, which will be held on July 31st in Groton, Connecticut. All Boulevard brands and packages are included in this effort.

The primary reason for our sponsorship was to support the state in this historic commissioning. It is something that will not happen again in our lifetime. It also gives Boulevard the opportunity to expose new consumers to our beer who might not have tried it before but want to support our efforts. Our goal is to reach every Missourian with our message of home state pride and support for our troops.

3. As part of the commissioning deal, every sailor on the USS Missouri will be given a 12 pack of Boulevard Beer (what better way to support our troops?) How do you think the sailors react and has this helped your product’s standing amongst military personnel in general?

We will provide the crew members a 12-pack of Pilsner beer after the commissioning ceremony. While we haven’t heard their reaction yet, our guess is that they won’t turn down free beer.

Boulevard has been thanked by numerous individuals –both military and civilian– for stepping up with our USS Missouri sponsorship.

4. Boulevard seems to have a connection to the bicycle – from the Boulevard sponsored bike team to the Boulevard Cup cyclocross race. Why is it important to Boulevard to promote bicycle usage?

One of my biggest passions is conserving our world. Anything that promotes a greener lifestyle, such as biking, deserves Boulevard’s support.

5. Aside from the organizations listed above, what other organizations have been the primary beneficiaries of Boulevard’s generosity?

Boulevard supports so many organizations every year it would be difficult for me to list them all out. We truly try to donate to any 501c3 when we have the capacity to do so. We’ve given beer and employee support to events such as Jazzoo that supports the Kansas City Zoo, the American Cancer Society, the Kansas City Repertory Theater, the Kemper Museum and the Urban Culture Project, just to name a few.

7. Why are charitable donations and community involvement important to Boulevard Brewing?

Without the strong and sustained support of its hometown, Boulevard Brewing Company would not be where it is today. As a token of its appreciation, the brewery gives generously to the Greater Kansas City community through year-round donations of beer to non-profit groups and charitable organizations.

Thanks again to John and everyone else at Boulevard Brewing. Visit their website here.