Pages

Sunday 17 June 2012

MBA - State of the Dan Nation


The other day, or yesterday (whenever it was), I pinned up a quick note about the state of the beer scene in Birmingham now (as in ‘now’), plus a vision of where we are headed and whether things are looking good.  Which they are. 

But what about me?  Where am I located on the graph?  Well, I clocked up 221 rates on Ratebeer so far this year, which is a healthy number.  Travel-wise, I've managed very enjoyable visits to London and Sheffield, and popped home to the Swan andRushes - all of which have reinforced (quite thickly), my excitement about beer and my passion to continue seeking out the very best. 

But. 

I can see trouble on the horizon, and it is this: I am starting (ever so slightly) to be priced out of the craft beer revolution. 

I have a job, I pay my bills etc, so I am not claiming poverty by any means; BUT the general state of the economy means there is less disposable income at my, err disposal than previously.  In fact the economy might not even be the principal factor in limiting my pocket money.  It's more likely something to do with the fact that I am no longer a young, thrusting urbanite, instead, I am grown up (sort of) and have responsibilities.  Being a parent invariably requires a different allocation of financial resources, with beer ranking lower on the family spending plan, than e.g. clothes for one's child (me and my mixed up priorities, eh?).  But anyway, less disposable income, coupled with the very real increase in the cost of today's 'premium' beer products, means that I end up with less bang for my buck.  Like it or not, good beer is an expensive business these days***.

This is frustrating for a number of reasons, but mainly because I feel that with over a decade's experience of hunting for great beer 'under my belt', I now know a thing or two about quality, style etc etc.  It's just that I can't ruddy well afford to keep my knowledge up to date.  In my brain of brains (honestly) I do know that a barrel-aged imperial stout will be more interesting and flavoursome than a Polish Mocne, but if I want to have a couple of drinks whilst watching The Big Question, with NickyCampbell on TV, what am I more likely to buy?  Which of those two can I afford to buy?*

There is obviously a sliding scale of cost, with lots of great UK beer available at perfectly reasonable prices (yes I'm talking about Bristol Beer Factory, Buxton, Summer Wine and so forth), but there are also an increasing number of products with price-boosting features - i) limited editions, ii) higher strength beers, iii) imported beers, iv) super trendy beers, v) collaborations, vi) all of the above.  With my own twisted logic I can** say YES to a £6 Nogne #100, which is a very strong beer, flown over the fjords from expensive Norway (plus I already know how delicious it is); but I am always going to struggle to say YES to a Brewdog/Nogne/Mikkeller collaboration for £17, no matter how fantastic it might be.  {I also hate having to cough up for 750ml bottles, which I might not like or might have to share, but that is an unrelated grumble.}

In short, I have to limit my involvement in the craft beer scene, due to rising costs.  I'm not all in; I'm a % of the way in.  Am I the only one?  How do other beer fans on a budget cope?  If I lived in London for example I would want to be in Craft Beer Co or Euston Tap every day sampling halves of £4.95 foreign DIPAs, but I wouldn't be able to. 

Depressing though it is, maybe I was more ignorant and blissful, when Birmingham was more rubbish for beer.  Being confronted with good beer, with increasing ease and frequency, is turning me green with envy.  Gosh, that is bad karma on my part.

Hence the ‘Second Summer of German Beer’, which I keep trailing, and honestly will explain very shortly. 


*you know the answer to this.  It's called a rhetorical question.
**just about.
*** with a few notable exceptions, e.g. Brodies

8 comments:

  1. Wholeheartedly agree with the entire post. I spent a few minutes in Stirchley Wines umming and arring over buying a bottle of £11 of Brewdog Alchemist/Anarchist (I decided against it in the end!)
    I've resorted to having a half in bars such as BrewDog and Craft Beer Co. and then having a free tasters of other beers as it would be too expensive for me otherwise.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I drink crap like Tesco own brand lager inbetween good beers.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Came this way through a Twitter link...Oh where to begin, but I agree with you. And I am not convinced HMRC are the culprits.

    I think the problem is that the 'craft beer' industry (and it is that, let's face it) has given rise to a fringe pseud culture, much in the way I despise with the wine drinking fraternity (...I get old age pensioners undercrackers with a hint of TCP..). Pur-lease.

    As someone makes his own beer, it is useful to read people's tasting notes and then see if you can pick this up yourself - pointing you in the right direction for you next brew. But, on final analysis, my real question is 'Do you like it?'

    The thought occured to me on reading this (http://beerprole.wordpress.com/2012/06/08/bitter-and-jaded-changing-tastes-and-bloggers-ennui). Its kind of gone all porno on us now...our need to move from that soft-core pint of Holdens to some hard-core Scandiwegian-Vietnamese mash up made with three tons of tar, the whole North American hop population and fermented on a bed of dog blankets beacuse everything else is, well, just a bit dull and doesn't spark our interest anymore.

    And if we are going to make beer that way, it costs. And if it you are going to ship to other countries it's going to cost again (let alone increase its environmental footprint by God knows how much)

    Certainly for the last who knows how long, beer has been the working class drink, and it needs to rediscover these roots again (perhaps). Lets take my haunt here in Southampton - a real free house, beer predominantly local, very well kept, and still under £3 a pint. CAMRA regional winner most years (nearly made it the ultimate prize in years gone by). Lets take my local at home (I come from near you, fromn the border between Sedgley and Wolverhampton) the Beacon Hotel. Dark Ruby made on site, cracking pint and still affordable.

    I have not drunk much in Brum, but on my last visit happened upon the Wellington. Think that's your answer, if there is one.

    It just seems that once this stuff becomes 'craft' it takes on some kind of cache that allows us to charge the Earth, like that poxy coffee that's collected from wolf crap. As lovely as these brews are (and some really are, and some really are not), beer drinking is not some kind of Panini sticker race to collect the most obscure and obscenely strong brew. It is, for me, the most social and convivial drink, now brewed to be enjoyed with friends rather than under the covers hoping that your missus doesn't catch you at it. These people need to get out more and get drinking in pubs that only sell bland, brown stuff and campaign to change that and get them selling the fantastic cask beer that is coming out of an ever expanding micro/nano brewery scene. Maybe that way, as demand goes up, variety expands and price may stabilise.

    Look what you've started now. I'm off for my bottle of BrewDog Feremented Starling with crushed Cricket Box. Only cost me a weeks wages.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Blimey Paul, not only is that the longest comment I've ever had, but it also rather well written and compares favourably to my own writing - perhaps I should delete it (only kidding).

    Yep, love the Beacon and Welly; but you'll struggle to convince me to drink more boring, brown bitter, in any location. I'm not sure craft brewers are to blame for not getting their products into more pubs... in Brum for example we have virtually no real ale distribution or wholesalers, which makes it very difficult for the best stuff to get here.

    But yes, being rare obviously increases the premium-ness of 'craft' beer, which is perhaps quite good for them...

    Thanks for replying.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Dan -- sad to say, but we've found ourselves not buying beers we'd like to try because we know that the price of one bottle would equal two, three, four pints of perfectly delightful beer in a nice pub. We don't think craft brewers are trying, on the whole, to rip anyone off; or that they could make their beer much cheaper in most cases (though some will shout at us for suggesting that); but we still can't afford it, except as an occasional treat.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I definitely agree with your thoughts Dan - I've been quite happy to spend money on interesting craft beers, as I consider it a hobby and I don't spend on other things like clothes or Sky TV or a car as a 'hobby', so it seemed fair enough. But over the past year I've found more of a questioning attitude coming to the fore, possibly as more interesting beers have been made and are reaching places I can buy them, where I weigh up how much I like the sound of the beer, against the cost if it seems just a tad exorbitant.

    I've found that I'm even avoiding visiting Bham's craft beer off-licences at times as I think prices are too high for the stuff that will tempt me to buy, so I'm seeking out my hop hits elsewhere and developing a new mindset of not being so bothered if I don't get to try beers that I really like the sound of.

    I will be spending more time in London in coming months, and cost of beer in places like the Rake, Euston Tap and Craft is definitely going to be an issue - if I was living there I would *have* to find and cultivate a good 'local' to go to where I could still get some interesting beers, but not emptying out my wallet each time I wanted a convivial pint.

    It's frustrating not to be able to try new beers, revisit ones we've had and loved, and keep up to date with exciting craft beer developments, but I guess we have to accept that there must be a much richer type of punter out there than us, and I guess there must be enough of them (export probably being a major market too) to sustain production and sale of these beers, otherwise the brewers and off-licences would be taking a look at their pricing structure and cost-to-produce elements and doing something about it!

    ReplyDelete
  7. One of the biggest culprits, at least on tap beers, is the keykeg which costs around a tenner a time for a 20 litre one -we know, we use them for exports where the cost of the keykeg is added to the price and the customers accept it as, most of the developing cultures such as Italy and Spain, it's accepted that craft beer will cost more then industrial (which is another argument altogether).

    But, in the UK, why do brewers use keykegs? They add around 30p per pint to the beer and, while this doesn't explain why some beers are £2 more than "normal" beers, it does go some of the way... and that's even starting on the waste of keykegs.

    But, basically, I agree that some brewers / pubs are using the term craft to change excessive prices for mediocre beers which don't deserve via label. Obviously there are some superb, innovative brews which may be worth the price but there is a lot which, imo, simply isn't.

    ReplyDelete
  8. One of the biggest culprits, at least on tap beers, is the keykeg which costs around a tenner a time for a 20 litre one -we know, we use them for exports where the cost of the keykeg is added to the price and the customers accept it as, most of the developing cultures such as Italy and Spain, it's accepted that craft beer will cost more then industrial (which is another argument altogether).

    But, in the UK, why do brewers use keykegs? They add around 30p per pint to the beer and, while this doesn't explain why some beers are £2 more than "normal" beers, it does go some of the way... and that's even starting on the waste of keykegs.

    But, basically, I agree that some brewers / pubs are using the term craft to change excessive prices for mediocre beers which don't deserve via label. Obviously there are some superb, innovative brews which may be worth the price but there is a lot which, imo, simply isn't.

    ReplyDelete