Demise of brewing’s grey accountants
The strangle hold of the bland and the tasteless is starting to weaken, replaced by an increasing number of flavour-packed beers that deliver real taste.
The well-known pioneers of this revolution, alongside Innis & Gunn, are brewers such as Sam Adams, Sierra Nevada, Lagunitas, Brooklyn, BrewDog, Thornbridge and Camden Town. All brilliant brewers who place flavour at the heart of what they do. The result is that drinkers in their home markets and around the world have taken to their beers in their millions. Brilliant.
And across the globe thousands of small scale craft brewers are starting up, fuelling this growing, dynamic market place. I can’t remember a time in my 30 year (holy crap where did time go!!) career in this industry when I felt so optimistic for the future of beer.
Of course as this new wave of unashamedly flavour-packed beer grows in popularity, some of the companies that brew it will become ‘big’. So does big mean bad?
Well in the past it has.
And this is because when beer companies became big, accountants who liked the colour grey and the taste of beige would complain to brewers that their ingredients seemed to be needlessly expensive. That their processes should be more efficient. And that ‘focus groups’ told them that people preferred less flavour in their beer, which just happened to be cheaper to make.
And so it was that flavour went down and profits went up, and these ‘accountant led’ brewers grew and grew. And in the absence of global social media drinkers didn’t know any better.
And so does this mean that we are forever locked in a cycle of beer starting out tasting brilliant and then its flavour being ‘chipped away’ by grey suited accountants? I don’t believe so.
You see the amazing thing that defines this new breed of brewer is their company culture, their brewing ethos. It’s the reason their beers taste the way they do. Founders of craft beer companies are flavour obsessed, me especially.
As we have grown our reputation and buying power has increased, and so we have been able to buy even better ingredients, invest in better equipment, employ people who are even more skilled at getting the flavours we want into our beer. In fact, I can honestly say that our beers have become better every year we have grown. Our latest beer, Espresso Barleywine, sold out in Sweden in just two days last year. I think that speaks volumes.
And since I am the boss, I get to pick accountants who are fun, lively, colourful and every bit as passionate about flavour as me.
And that is what defines this new breed of Beer Company. For as long as people who share this attitude are running the companies, brewing the beers, obsessing about the malt and hops, the times and temperatures of the brewing process, then the future is bright.
We would rather add a little bit to the selling price of our beer than change the way it tastes for the sake of profit.
The other side of the coin is the drinker of course. And thanks to global social media word is spreading about this new found choice, what’s good and what’s not, the different styles of beer available, the stories behind them and reasons to try them.
And if a brewer tried to dull down its beers for the sake of profit it would be all over social media – you see nowadays there really is no hiding place from drinker’s opinions.
What we have today is a revolution fuelled by passion, flavour, enjoyment, engagement and a two-way dialogue between brewers and drinkers. Very hard to deal with when you drive a grey Volvo and like playing with calculators.
And so let’s raise a glass to the colourless, disengaged accountants of the past and wish them well in their journey towards colourful flavour-packed beer. If you spot one, buy them a glass of your favourite.
Persuade them to take the red pill. In the words of Morpheus:
“You take the blue pill, the story ends. You wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.”
Dougal Sharp, founder, Innis & Gunn