Where does the future of craft beer lie?

The recent announcement that Goose Island was to be bought by AB InBev has got me thinking about the future of craft beer and what the future may hold for the fledgling Irish craft beer scene.

I am a big fan of Goose Island's IPA as well as their Honkers Ale and so I greeted this news with mixed feelings. On the one hand I lamented the fact that a great craft brewery had succumbed to the corporate greed of the brewing behemoth, however in retrospect I think that this augers well for Goose Island. For me personally it should certainly mean greater access to their beers as they make use of the global distribution network of AB InBev. Also if reports are to be believed, it appears that Goose Island will still operate as is, with very little input from AB InBev in relation to brewing operations, marketing and product development. This should allow the brewery to grow and prosper, opening up their quality product to a wider market. From an AB InBev point of view it would seem that this deal has lots of positives. They are buying a proven and quality brand. They are tapping into a market, that while currently small, is growing year on year. Lastly they are expanding their product range, so that when you or I walk into a bar or off-licence, they will probably have a product that meets our needs regardless of our taste in beer.

But how will all of this play out in our little craft brewing backwater of Ireland. I think this deal will have one major long term effect, and that will be to open up the market for Irish craft brewers to prosper. If AB InBev put a small fraction of the capital they put into promoting their mainstream brands into promoting Goose Island then it is safe to say that in the medium to long term we will all be drinking more Goose Island. We taste Goose Island, we like it, our interest expands, we try other beers we may not have heard of etc etc etc.

I cannot envisage a day when Trouble Brewing, Metalman, Dungarvan Brewing or any of our other indigenous craft breweries would catch the eye of a Diageo or AB Inbev, but you never know what the next 10 or 20 years will hold for these fledgling enterprises. Hopefully as they begin their journey it will help their product reach a wider market and lead to more choice for beer lovers.

The style debate

I recently read the following essay on scoopergen.co.uk, the essay makes the argument for a new classification of beer to be entered into the style guidelines. The new beer style was named Mid-Atlantic Pale Ale. I also recently read an article in BYO that promoted another new beer style, Cascadian Dark Ale. With all of these proposed new beer styles floating in the ether I thought it would be a good time to discuss the role that beer styles play in the world of homebrewing.

The late, great Michael Jackson

Firstly here is some background. The BJCP maintains a list of beer styles and provides guidelines as to the characteristics (i.e. colour, bitterness, strength, ingredients etc) of each style and sub-style. This list currently stands at 23 styles of beer and 78 sub-styles (not including ciders, meads etc). Although the BJCP was only established in 1985, being able to distinguish between different types of beers has been something that people have been doing for centuries. However it was with the 1977 publication of Michael Jackson's book The World Guide To Beer that a methodical approach began to classifying different beer styles. Michael Jackson's list of beer styles can be found here. The BJCP list of styles is a relatively organic document that can be updated and changed as new styles or trends emerge, possibly the next iteration will contain the aforementioned contenders.

Among homebrewing circles 'the style debate' is a very emotive topic and the debate is characterized by strong opinions and a certain lack of flexibility. In essence I would see the battle lines being drawn along the following arguments:

For:

The style guidelines offer homebrew competition judges a framework in which to analyse a particular sample of beer, this is of course very pertinent for the US homebrew community where competitions are very important. The guidelines are there to be descriptive not prospective and as such offer much needed help and guidance to beginner homebrewers, as well as more experienced homebrewers that want to experiment with different beers that they may not be familiar with.

Against:

The style guidelines by their very existence stifle creativity. Homebrewers at all levels should not have to brew within a structural framework, but should rather experiment with ingredients, bitterness levels, colour levels etc. Although not a big issue outside of the US, all homebrew competitions sanctioned by the BJCP must judge beer based on these strict style guidelines and as such this is stifling the hobby.

My View:

I have to admit that when I am formulating a new recipe the first thing I will do is pick a style, the second thing I will do is to look at that styles particular characteristics and parameters in order to give myself an idea of how to formulate the recipe. After that I am not too concerned if my beer ends up crossing over styles and falling outside of suggested parameters. I personally think that the beer style guidelines offer beginning brewers an invaluable resource for starting to formulate their own recipes, without this information the process would be unbelievably daunting for a new homebrewer.

More experienced (and gnarled) homebrewers will wave a hand in the air and say "down with that sort of thing, brew beer you enjoy", however as a starting point it is a great resource. Let the style guidelines grow and grow, mid-atlantic pale ale, cascadian dark ale, oirish ale, let them all in. However do not feel that they must be strictly adhered to, brew beer that you enjoy in the first instance, even if that beer may be a raspberry flavoured imperial stout!

The Negative Perception of Homebrewing

One thing that I have noticed when I began to homebrew was that there was an inherent negative perception towards it in Ireland, and I would guess in any country where it is not an established practice. The negative perception comes from a belief that homebrewing is all about making cheap beer with lots of sugar that will get you drunk for cheap. There was certainly some element of this in Ireland as elsewhere, however homebrewing is much more complex and rewarding than this belief suggests. In order to get a better understanding of this it is important to look at a country that has led the way in terms of homebrewing, the US.

The Homebrewers Association in America purports to represent a community of 20,000 homebrewers. This is a startling number for what is in essence a niche hobby. Couple this with the hombrewers in America who are not members of the association and you could be talking about a brewing community somewhere near the six figure mark. By contrast Ireland has probably a few hundred active homebrewers! When you read American brewing forums you are constantly met with the acronym LHBS, at first I struggled to understand what this was until I leaned it meant Local HomeBrew Store. In America it would seem that the large active homebrewing community is supplied by a large network of local bricks and mortar shops that provide everything from equipment to ingredients, again contrast this to Ireland where there are two bricks and mortar shops and a couple of online outlets. Now many will argue that it is unfair to compare Ireland to the US, however it is simply used to make a point. And the point is that in an environment in which homebrewing is actively practiced and supported, it creates the platform on which craft breweries can emerge and be very successful. This has been demonstrated very clearly in the US in the last twenty years.

Grains I used to make my recent
ISO Standard Stout

Homebrewing has come a long way from the kit and kilo days of college bedsits. Today in Ireland all grain brewers are experimenting with techniques and ingredients that produce beers that are the equal of commercial examples and certainly far more flavoursome than the majority of draft beer sold in pubs. People unfamiliar with homebrewing look at me disbelievingly when I tell them that what I do with my homebrewing is exactly how commercial brewers make beer but on a smaller scale. The ingredients are the same; grain, hops, water and yeast. The techniques are the same; mashing, sparging, boiling and fermenting. The main difference is that due to the fact that homebrewing is done on such a small scale that the homebrewer has a lot more freedom to experiment. 

I hope that the attitude towards homebrewing in Ireland is changing. Some homebrewers have made the leap from back yard breweries to commercial enterprises, Dungarvan Brewing being the most recent example, and hopefully this trend is set to continue. If you are a homebrewer, or craft beer enthusiast, you should make it your mission to evangelise good beer, whether that is your own creations, or some of the excellent beers on sale in Ireland from micro breweries. Only through spreading the word will we in Ireland who appreciate beer make the case for more quality beers being stocked in our local off-licenses and pubs.

The re-awakening of Irish Craft Brewing

Ireland's brewing history is a rich and colourful one. However if you were to ask somebody today to name an Irish brewed beer, you would more than likely get the answer of Guinness, or possibly Murphys or Beamish. You would be surprised to hear names like Galway Hooker, Helvic Gold, Clotworthy Dobbin, Headless Dog, Oir etc. However we have seen in recent years a re-emergence of micro brewing in Ireland, the latest addition being the Dungarvan Brewing Company from Waterford. So the question is, are we seeing a re-awakening of the Craft Brewing industry in Ireland?

A fews years ago some of the guys over on IrishCraftBrewer.com  decided to try and trace the rich history of Irish brewing and to create a map of Ireland highlighting all of the 'lost' breweries, currently the map contains references to over 160 breweries from Ireland's past. I am in no way suggesting that these type of figures could be replicated again, however with the launch of a number of micro breweries in the last few years it is undountedly a sign of progress, maybe even a re-awakening. Here are some of the new breed of Irish Craft Breweries:

Dungarvan Brewing Company

Est.: 2010

Products: Black Rock Irish Stout, Copper Coast Red Ale and Helvick Gold Blonde Ale

Stockists

Galway Hooker Brewing Company

Est.: 2006

Products: Galway Hooker, Irish Pale Ale

Stockists

Trouble Brewing

Est.:2010

Products: Oir

Stockists: Currently limited availability, watch out for it on the guest tap in the Bull & Castle and other specialist pubs.

The question of course that all of this boils down to is whether or not there is a significant market in Ireland to support micro breweries that intend to maintain a focus on the local market? Here are some interesting facts:

• There are just under 1500 Microbrewers, brew pubs and craft breweries operating in the United States, thats one for every 206,000 people. At that concentration the island of Ireland could theoretically support 30 Microbreweries!
• The Irish beer market is worth approximately €3.2bn (2007 figure), if microbreweries could capture 1% of that market it would mean annual sales in the region of €32m.

The acid test for all of this is persuading consumers to choose not only something different, but something Irish. This is a task that will begin in earnest on the 1st of July with the official launch of Beoir, a beer consumers group for Ireland. More on this to follow.