You know I like Andy Crouch. I like Andy. He and I agree on so many things that I can't believe it. Then he goes and writes this and I get all pffttwzzatchamacallit!!!
With all of this said, many great breweries, including Dogfish Head, started on an extremely small scale and there are many nanos that make quality beers. But as with many homebrews, there is no replacing professionally brewed beers. The introduction of fresh, energized talent into the craft brewing scene is certainly exciting. I’m just not sold on the concept or products the nanos represent just yet. Getting into the craft brewing business should be hard and not every homebrewer has what it takes to go pro. It’s a good thing that dreams don’t always come true.
I have to be honest. I think that being a good craft brewer is about as rare as being a baker that hasn't gone out of business for, say, five years. It's not that I can't place them on a pedestal so much as I have way more respect than pedestal makers. Why? Because throughout history and across the nations brewing is an incredibly common occupation. And it should be. The tools are commonplace, the skills are fairly reasonably earned and the output should be modestly priced.
But don't get me wrong - Andy makes good observations. Like these:
- "One New England nano has released as few as three dozen bottles per batch... with prices exceeding twenty bucks a bottle." This is insane. Anyone who bought one of these is a fool. Pretty hard to find a beer that is over ten bucks that should make you question your values even if you go and buy the bottle because of those values of yours - but buying one of a home brewer with attitude for that price is nuts.
- "Often big, boozy or hop bomb in character, these Pollock-esque offerings provide not ready for prime-time players plenty of cover to hide brewing flaws..." is a very good idea but the same applies to craft brewers generally. There is no cheaper fix for a bad brewer than a lot of this and then a lot of that. And it's not just the bad brewers. As if Dogfish hasn't made a bad beer. Or any number of other good brewers. As we all know, there are more than our fair share of bad beers out there.
- "...as craft beer drinkers become more savvy, poorly produced beers from any brewery can give craft beer everywhere a bad name...." Again, well observed but also universally applicable. It doesn't matter the scale of the joint - if it sucks it sucks. If craft beer fans had any sense of themselves, we would riot in the streets over this - stop making indulgent overpriced beer. But we fret about things giving "craft beer everywhere a bad name" instead. Why? What other purchase in my life gets that treatment?
What have we learned? It's not whether something is nano therefore neato or its nano therefore dangerous. It's whether the beer is tasty good value. Give me a sub-buck Utica Club any day over a questionable, overpriced corked bomber of some guys idea of precious nectar. It is only, after all, beer for frig's sake. You want brain surgery or rocket science get into brain surgery or rocket science where, at least in the first case, we can all agree really don't want the nano approach.
Comments
JayZeis - December 29, 2010 10:28 PM
I totally agree with the second and third bullets (well the first as well). I have come to really appreciate the basic brews the past few months. There are many ok beers that are masked with exotic ingrediants. I'll take a great, basic pale ale or even a great basic porter (and I am not completely fond of porters) to check on the brewers skill.
Andy Crouch - December 29, 2010 11:38 PM
Was a bit limited in the piece, not only by word count, but also because I didn't want to call out individual brewers without being able to go into detail. Suffice it to say, I find that my criticisms apply to a greater percentage of nanos than to larger craft operations. I have been impressed with the beers of very, very few nanos. And while I am also underwhelmed by a lot of the beer produced by larger operations (look for that piece in the next BA Mag), I think nanos suffer from these problems to a much greater degree.
Cheers (as always),
Andy
Alan - December 30, 2010 12:23 AM
And always, you are kind to respond with thoughtfulness. I find it stunning, utterly stunning, that anyone would find a new unproven brewery of any size deems itself worthy of asking us to pay that much for a new beer - so maybe we are in agreement in the sense that a track record is required before you should even imagine putting any sort of price sticker shock near your beer. The vast majority of bad overpriced beer I have been stuck with in the last couple of years reeks of that sort of presumption.
One of the things, by comparison, that I am always impressed by the new small brewers of Quebec is the modest price they ask for their brews. Are they "nano"? Probably not but I think if you live and are trying to make a go in a community that is foodie as well as self-sustained, well and frankly, you have to prove yourself. We should all live by that ethic.
Andy Crouch - December 30, 2010 9:27 AM
Alan we are, of course, once again of a single mind. That perhaps is the heart of my concern and skepticism. I have over the past year and a half had quite a few nano-produced beers and I have been largely unimpressed, both in terms of quality, flavor, art, and price. It does not at all surprise me, however, that American (mainly; meaning US, for our touchy Canadian brothers) consumers (beer nerds) are driving this trend.
With all of this said, there are several nanos making high-quality, well-priced beer. I cannot highly enough recommend Rising Tide Brewing of Portland, which focuses on a single, high quality, and well-priced ale. Whether this is a viable business model remains to be seen but it has my business when I find it.
Cheers,
Andy
Jonathan Baker - December 31, 2010 10:34 AM
Good thoughts on both sides. While it would be nice to have each new beer launched (including those produced by nanos) bump of the average for craft beer in general, I don't know if I would give up the low barriers to entry for this. I believe that capitalism will sort out the good beer from the bad beer over time. It might take a little longer than we like. And as long as we don't go and interfere with something like Prohibition again (speaking from the US perspective), we should be fine.