One of the reasons I am glad I called this a blog about "good" beer way back when is it is up to me and you to decide what is, in fact, good. If you and I disagree, we are still each right for our own purposes. "Good" has so much openendedness it is almost never bad. Few words are so useful in that way. Consider, by comparison, this news for a moment:
A brand incubator for Coors Brewing Co. has created what it calls the first beer in which as much as 99.8 percent of its ingredients are from Colorado, including its hops, its packaging and even marketing devices that are placed on each bottle. In doing so, AC Golden Brewing Co. aims to capitalize on what it sees as a desire among younger adults to support local companies and to consume products that have less negative effect on the environment. It began putting its new beer, Colorado Native, into Denver- and Boulder-area liquor stores in recent days and hopes to expand distribution throughout the state by mid-May, said Glenn Knippenberg, AC Golden president. “We wanted something that would help celebrate all the great reasons we live in Colorado,” Knippenberg said of his amber lager. “Some people are interested in the carbon footprint, and others are interested in the great flavor.”
I haven't had this beer and, by definition, I really shouldn't. It's meant for someone else. In fact, by its very creation it laughs at me as the brewer did not make one for my jurisdiction. But if this is local is local good? What value does mere locality provide when it is dislocated from any element of goodness? Well, that begs a question or two, doesn't it. It might be pretty OK beer and it might really express Coors and its own presence in Colorado. But does that make it worthy?
I say no. I think there needs to be more. For example, I know when I am having a Utica Club and usually that means I am in or have been near Utica. You may not love that taste but it tastes like someplace. I would hope that Colorado Native has at least a taste that distinguishes it and that that taste somehow relates to Colorado. Doesn't "local" need at least that?
Comments
The Beer Nut - April 6, 2010 9:03 PM
I wouldn't count this as local because the profits, to some extent, are going to investors on the New York Stock Exchange who could be anywhere. The main thing I love about drinking local is the principle that my beer money goes back into the local economy. Here, some gets creamed off for someone some place else.
And macrobreweries are almost always going to be greener than micros -- wastage of water and energy costs Wall Street money and is therefore not acceptable for beer factories. If the environmental impact of your beer is important to you, grow and brew your own or STFU.
Pok - April 6, 2010 11:48 PM
The notion of local food (which includes beer and other potables) is a good one. Choosing an authentic local product does contribute to sustaining your own community's economy and it probably, in the majority of cases, lessens the environmental impacts of your choice.
Beer Nut: I think your objection may be too harsh. Yes some (or all) profits may flow to non-local investors but one can argue that a trickle of wealth will flow to local employees, suppliers, contractors, tax collectors, shopkeepers, etc. that would not if the less than local option were chosen.
All that being said, I would no more buy a local beer that tasted like piss than a domestic car that has a tendency to sit in the driveway in need of repair while it prematurely rusts away.
The Beer Nut - April 7, 2010 4:18 AM
Pok, the raw economics and environmental impact means always buy from the local macro: it employs more people and takes better care of its resources. Which is why I said above it's the principle that matters to me, not the raw cash.
Quality being equal, that is, which it rarely is.
Pok - April 7, 2010 9:30 AM
It would be interesting to have a local macro where I live. Consider the workforce required to grow, malt, culture, brew, deliver and reuse bottles of local beer if my City were to become loyal patrons of a local product. Hundreds - maybe even one thousand people engaged in the business of keeping the local citizenry in beer with the prospect of export to towns nearby down the 401. What an opportunity!
Knut - April 7, 2010 9:30 AM
I'd say this is another beer made up by the marketing men rather than the brewers at Coors. Being a ticker, I'd try it once, but I would not go out of my way. At least not to Colorado. Across the street, perhaps.
Bill (It's Pub Night) - April 7, 2010 5:39 PM
Obviously this beer isn't going to impress snobs like us. But it's good that the big boys are thinking along these lines. Is a local Coors as good for Colorado as New Belgium? No. Is it better for Colorado than non-local Coors? Yes.
The Beer Nut - April 7, 2010 6:54 PM
Pok, if that local macro made mostly crappy beer, was owned by a multinational company headquartered abroad and had spent years shutting down small locally-owned competitors to achieve unassailable full-spectrum dominance, would you still loyally fly the flag for them?
Pok - April 7, 2010 8:43 PM
Nope.
jerc - April 9, 2010 9:39 AM
"And macrobreweries are almost always going to be greener than micros -- wastage of water and energy costs Wall Street money and is therefore not acceptable for beer factories. If the environmental impact of your beer is important to you, grow and brew your own or STFU."
So Coors who have been repeatedly fined by the EPA for spills and contaminating the local groundwater are more environmentally friendly than New Belgium who are generating power from their wastewater and cleaning it up before it even hits the Colorado water system?
Your argument about investors may in fact work in reverse - investors may not allow macros to make the environmentally conscious decision if it costs more...
New Belgium or say Sierra Nevada are much better examples of "local" in my opinion, mind you both are now medium to large regional craft brewers as opposed to "micros" now as well.
Buying "local" is a means to an end, not an end unto itself. What does buying local accomplish? Is it more environmentally friendly? Does it stimulate the local economy? Does it taste better?