Beer Awards Bug Me

It seems I complain about beer awards at least once a year, but for good reason.  My big problem with them isn’t that they exist or that I don’t agree with the results (though I usually don’t), but that beer marketers grab onto these prizes as if their lives depend on them.  Since the Canadian Brewing Awards happened just over a week ago, I’ve received numerous press releases and been subjected to approximately six billion Facebook and Twitter posts celebrating medals.  Our savvy readership surely sees through these awards for the fluff they really are, but what about the unsuspecting public?  Moosehead shouldn’t be allowed to have two of the top lagers in Canada; somebody at CAMRA needs to start a campaign about this (sarcasm).

beer drinking champion

This is my award, I win!

But Chris, why are you being so mean to the beer awards?  Let me state that I have a lot of respect for the CBAs, held this year in Victoria, BC for the first time.  It seems like a great party/conference for brewers and beer industry professionals.  I have no doubt that they use qualified BJCP tasters who conduct blind tastings with all sorts of integrity.  Again, my problem with these awards is that they are misleadingly used by marketers to sway public opinion.  I mean, just look at the winners in the eight lager categories this year, does that seem right to you?

Let’s get into the nitty gritty, lifted in part from last year’s rant:

  1. Brewers pay to enter - An entry usually costs $100 per beer.  This means that only brewers willing to pay up (say $500 to a $1000 per product line per event) are actually judged.
  2. Who actually entered?  – Almost no beer awards list all of the entrants in each category, only the winners.  The gold medal for best IPA doesn’t mean much if only a handful of beers were actually entered.  This past year, the BC Beer Awards listed the number of entrants per category, a big step forward, but they still wouldn’t tell me everyone who entered.
  3. There are too many categories - Most events have 30+ categories.  The CBAs had 38 categories, that’s 114 medallists.  BANANAS!  Consider that breweries are more likely to enter if they think they can win and that awards events have an economic interest in soliciting as many entries as possible.  Making everyone a winner seems like a pretty good deal for all involved.  Again, I like that the BC Beer Awards only had fourteen categories.
  4. Beer is judged on style, not taste - If a beer most closely matches the style guidelines of its designation, it wins gold in that category.  Maybe this is the only way to judge beer, but I’d much prefer an award based on taste.  A lesser tasting beer that is very exemplary of a style beats a very good tasting beer, wtf?
  5. What beer was actually served? - Breweries are responsible for sending in their own products.  There’s no way to tell if what won is actually what you can expect on the shelf.  I sincerely doubt the Moosehead that won this year is going to taste like what I can buy at the store.  If you were a brewer, wouldn’t you put a little extra love into your awards batch?
  6. There are a lot of awards -  There are so many awards events and so many categories that everyone wins, rendering the whole idea of awards pretty useless. It’s like primary school sports day all over again, here’s your (Pabst) blue ribbon!

Let’s look at some of this year’s results:

  • I can only really speak to BC beers, which I try all of.
  • Gold medallist Barking Squirrel Amber Lager is not a good beer at all.  I only ever drank it because they sent me free ones.  The lager categories mostly make me sad.
  • Lord of the Hops beat Fat Tug and Red Racer for NA IPA, that’s assuming the latter two were entered, who knows?  Lord of the Hops is good beer that I like pouring into my face, but is it even top five in BC?
  • Red Racer ESB is the best amber in Canada yay!  Wait, what?
  • Was Steamworks Pilsner, allegedly best beer in all of BC, entered?  If so, why no win?
  • The Light and Gluten-free categories make me want to shoot myself in the face with a bow and arrow, which would be really hard to do, but I would still do it because that’s how the existence of these categories makes me feel.
  • Awards I really agree with and enjoy seeing, gold for Central City Imperial IPA and for Yaletown Oud Bruin.
  • Does Dieu du Ciel enter?
  • Okay, I love Powell Street, but Old Jalopy is the best Pale Ale and beer in Canada?

I will probably be stoned to death for even suggesting anything slightly negative about Powell Street, nano darlings of Vancouver.  (Another thing that’s bothering me is how effusively positive BC beer commentary is right now.  I mean, everything can’t be great and people need to hear the truth to improve, but that’s another post.)  Like I said, I love Powell Street.  I love how they built their small brewery in their spare time with their bare hands, just because they wanted to.  I really like their beer too, but I’m going to go ahead and say that I don’t think Old Jalopy is in the upper echelon of beers.  I’ve had it when it’s been really good and I’ve had it when it’s been merely average and I like to put it in my face, but it’s not even top twenty in BC for me, much less Canada.

But that’s how beer awards work.  On that day, Old Jalopy was judged to have been the closest to a described style.  You know what?  Somebody had to win, and I’m glad it was Powell Street. They work hard and they brew good beer, hopefully this award will propel them higher.

That being said, nobody, not marketers, not brewers, and especially not the drinking public, should put too much stock in beer awards.

Cheers.

Chris

VCBW Tickets On Sale Today

The 4th annual Vancouver Craft Beer Week is happening May 31 to June 8th this year and tickets go on sale today at noon.  Judging by the Facebook Page, this year’s week has a casino theme, confirming the rumours the signature beer festival is going to be held at the River Rock Casino.  When the new site goes up, we’ll be able to see the full list of events/venues and be able to buy tickets.  Most events won’t sell out right away, but the Alibi Room‘s Hoppapalooza will sell out immediately.  Beer nerds should be ready to go right at noon if they want in on this, the undisputed king of VCBW events.  I build the internet for a living, so I expect to get mine and I’ll see the rest of you fast-clickers there.

Vancouver Craft Beer Week 2013

Cheers,

Chris

Granville Island Cloak and Dagger Cascadian Dark Ale

I was informed today that Granville Island Brewing will soon be launching a new beer in their “small batch black notebook series”, which means brewed by Vern Lambourne on Granville Island.  This beer will be called Cloak and Dagger Cascadian Dark Ale, a name I was intrigued to learn of considering the past furor with Steamworks over the term Cascadia.

cloak and dagger cascadian dark ale

Since the whole cascadia affair blew up last year, I haven’t noticed any new beers coming out using cascadia in either the brand name or descriptor.  As we know, Steamworks has a trademark on Cascadia Cream Ale, which they feel means that no other brewery can use Cascadia as part of their beer brand name.  However, I spoke to Steamworks president Walter Cosman, who let me know that Steamworks had no problem with breweries using cascadian as a style descriptor.  He also indicated that the trademark and it’s protection had a lot to do with fending off the big boys, like Molson.

Interesting that now Molson backed Granville Island is the first brewery to come out and use the descriptor cascadian dark ale on the bottle.  As far as I know, this is cool with Steamworks, but then Molson is the big enemy.  It’ll be worth watching this situation to see if there’s any reaction from Steamworks; do they dare tangle with the legal might of Molson?

More importantly, I hope Cloak and Dagger is really good and that lots of people drink it.  Last year’s version was quite good.  Notably, it was just called Cascadian Dark Ale, whereas this year it has a brand name.

Cheers,

Chris

Change is in the works at Dead Frog

Dead Frog is a misunderstood brewery.  Over their seven year existence they have released many different beers, and have received significant PR, but they have never managed to break into BC’s craft beer scene.  Whether their inability to establish themselves as recognized beer artisans stems from their historically mediocre product line, or the fact that they produce a variant of much hated citrus forward macro lager, doesn’t matter all that much.  Unfortunately for Dead Frog, the craft beer community has never embraced them with open arms. But on the other hand, craft beer fanatics may also feel that Dead Frog has never fully embraced them.  But the past doesn’t matter when change is in the works.

I had a chance to sit down with Derrick Smith and Chris Landsman of Dead Frog Brewery this week. We chatted about what Dead Frog has been up to and what they have planned for the future. They were even generous enough to share some of the new brews that they’ve been working on. I gained a new perspective on Langley’s only brewery while chatting with Derrick and Chris. The team at Dead Frog know that craft beer drinkers love to hate light lime lager; they know their beer line up may not have been up to par in the past, and they are fully aware they have very little craft beer street cred these days. But the story doesn’t end there. Dead Frog is making some changes – they care about their beer, a lot, and they are working hard to re-invent themselves.

Here are a few things that many beer drinkers in BC may not know about Dead Frog:

  • They have a lot of new beers in the works, and some of their more recent seasonal releases have shown dramatic improvement.
  • Dead Frog has a rock star Brewmaster, literally (former drummer for Deja Voodoo), with an impressive pedigree including stints at Quebec’s famed Dieu du Çiel and Vancouver’s much loved Dix. Brewmaster Tony Dewald has been given carte blanche to create beer that he loves, and beer drinkers can expect a noticeable product improvement in the near future. An Imperial Stout, a Northwest Style Red Ale and possibly a Vienna lager will be hitting the market soon. I expect their riff on an imperial stout will be well received by many beer lovers – it is a well brewed beer.
  • They want to build a better relationship with the Vancouver craft beer community. Derrick and Chris know that this will take patience and hard work, but they seem to be embracing the challenge.
  • Dead Frog is going to ditch their clear bottles, opting for the much preferred brown bottle.

Their appearance on CBC’s The Big Decision certainly caused concern about the viability of their business, and the fact that they began contract brewing for Steamworks didn’t help ease this concern. But having chatted with ownership and management, it appears that their business is doing just fine. Keep in mind that reality TV is not objective. It is entertainment driven and sometimes the truth just isn’t exciting enough.

Dead Frog still has a long way to go. But having tasted some of their upcoming releases, which were noticeably better than previous offerings, and seeing their drive to improve first hand, I think they have a real chance at turning things around. So far they are doing the right things and I wish them great success.

Cheers,
Erik

People Think We Are a Brewery

It’s weird, but we get a lot of email from people who think we are a brewery.  It just happened again today:

I recently bought 6 stanley park noble pilsners.
Most of the bottles have whitish debris or flakes in the bottom.  I unfortunately drank most of one before my wife pointed out the yuck in the bottle.
For your info.  I assume i just send them back to the lcb.
Thought you would like to know.

This is most of what we get, complaints about the beer.  We also get a lot of inquires about availability, opening hours, and surprisingly many job applications.  I usually respond informing people that we are just a blog and that they are probably looking for the brewery, then I point them to the brewery website.  Most people, especially the job applicants, are a bit embarrassed, but appreciate the note.

Stanley Park beer is not brewed here, definitely not since 1897

Stanley Park beer is not brewed here, definitely not since 1897

How are these people finding us and not what they’re actually looking for?  It’s the Google.  They are searching for these breweries, usually with an extra adjective or keyword, that we’ve written abut in the past.  For some reason, we’re beating the actual breweries at internet.  We most commonly hear from people looking for Stanley Park and Bowen Island breweries, specifically coming from these posts:

It’s weird, these brands (because they aren’t really breweries) are backed by substantial businesses, and yet their customers are contacting us directly.  Why aren’t people going right to the source?  I have one theory, and it’s that these brands are so inauthentic that it’s nearly impossible for them to build legitimate online communities.

Stanley Park is brewed by Turning Point on Annacis Island (right by the sewage treatment plant) and Bowen Island is brewed by KB Brewing in Kamloops.  Both advertise heritage and try to capitalize on iconic BC locations, but both are relatively new brands in their current form.  While you can trick people into thinking your beer is brewed somewhere it’s not, you can’t trick people into caring enough to talk about it online.

In the interest of both improving beer in BC and in not having to reply to anymore of these misdirected emails, we at this blog would be happy to talk to the marketing people at either of these companies with some internet tips.  Why talk to us?  Because we’re already ranked higher on the internet.

Cheers,

Chris