Does American craft brewing have a
quality problem? This is
not just a rhetorical question, or just the title of Eric Gorski’s blog from this past April in the Denver post. This is an
honest question with one easy answer, (YES), which leads to more related questions,
and imminent debate. If you’re thinking
to yourself, “Well XYZ Brewing Company doesn't have a quality problem,” then
you’re wrong. That’s the catch with the
beautiful tight-knit craft beer community.
If one brewery is having quality issues, then it potentially affects
every other craft brewery in existence. Even
with over 2,000 craft breweries in the United States, their sales only
represent a 7.8% market share. So even
though craft beer awareness is growing, those thousands of breweries all still
get lumped into one big family. The
worry for the breweries lacking quality issues is that someone would drink
another problematic craft beer and associate that negative experience with the
whole craft market.
Now that we've established that American
craft brewing does in fact have a quality problem, let’s get on to the follow
up questions before we get into the debating.
How big is the problem?
Who is responsible for these problems?
Most importantly… can the problems be
fixed?
Unfortunately, these questions don’t
have the same simple answer as the initial question.
There isn't a metric to say how big the
problem really is. You might say that
the size of the problem grows with the size of the industry. More brewery openings mean a greater
likelihood of quality issues and more reputations collectively at stake. There could be an argument saying that
quality concerns aren't a big problem because the majority of the actual beer
being produced most likely comes from a top 50 brewery which would
significantly increase the chances that poor quality is not an issue.
By no means does this argument exempt
any and all top 50 breweries from contributing to the overall problem of beer
quality. I can’t say that a large
brewery is just as likely as a small brewery to produce beer of inferior
quality, but they are certainly not perfect.
A bad batch from a top 50 brewery is in a lot of ways more detrimental
to the overall perception of the craft beer market as a whole. The sad reality of this situation is that
regardless of size, breweries are far from being the only culprits in the
overall quality of beer.
Thanks to Prohibition, beer isn't always able to come straight from the brewery to the customer. Unless you’re drinking a beer at the brewery,
you can’t be certain that someone else hasn't handled that beer in a way that
negatively affected the quality.
Distributors are usually the next group involved in handling the
beer. Does the distributor ship the beer
in cold trucks or unrefrigerated? Are
inventories being rotated properly? Is
the beer that’s being sold staying within the brewery’s recommended shelf life? Just like how breweries have a wide range of
size and experience, distributors are the same way. This can create scenarios where a brewery
sends lower quality beer through a distributorship that is meticulous in its
standards or a great beer gets shipped across the country on a hot truck and sits
in a warehouse for months on end.
The final stop the beer takes before
reaching the customer is either a retailer or a bar. At this stage, not a lot can be done to
bottled or canned beer to seriously affect its quality. Exposure to excessive temperatures, light, or
dampness should certainly be avoided as well as continued consideration for freshness. Draft beer is considerably more challenging to
serve. The overall amount of equipment
and space required for serving beer on tap can increase the chances that
something can go wrong. Without
oversimplifying it too much, a bar needs to be consistently monitoring gas
levels, gas pressures, equipment condition, draft line cleanliness, tap faucet
cleanliness all while ensuring that the beer they’re serving is kept cold and
fresh. Great beer can be destroyed by
dirty draft lines while bad beer can be served through an immaculate draft set
up and still come out just as bad on the other side.
After considering all of these
variables and the sheer size of this industry, it’s hard not to agree that craft
beer has a quality problem. Thankfully,
the problem (or more appropriately, problems) can be solved! Breweries, distributors, bars and retailers
can all take strides to improve their operations to achieve higher quality
beer. This involves an investment of
time, money and education. Ray Daniels’
Cicerone certification is a relatively new program for all facets of the beer
industry. The Brewer’s Association also provides
a plethora of resources to its members to help stay on top of all things
quality related.
Since there’s no way to accurately measure
this problem, it will be impossible to say that the problem has been completely
eliminated. Like anything, when people
stop talking about it so much, it won’t be such a big deal.
Sources:
http://www.brewersassociation.org/press-releases/brewers-association-lists-top-50-breweries-of-2013/
http://cicerone.org/
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