Category: Uncategorized

Again With The Beer Price Points And Cost Inputs

Friday’s interesting discussion has spun-off other posts. Stan has posted twice to develop some ideas from the comments and Greg supports the valuation of the premium in beer, suggesting I may be a wee bit of the cheeky contrarian in this – which is of course in part true, but I prefer “The Inquisatron” as that is what the logo on my green cape reads. One other place the post has been followed up is in this very good discussion at ratebeer mainly drawing off of this comment by Tomme Arthur of Lost Abbey. This ratebeer-er of the Chama River Brewing of New Mexico, codename “erway”…unless his name really is erway – Stan?, makes some excellent observations about packaging and storage time:

The bottles add to the value of the beer in many customers minds. Maybe not to yours, but those 375s that Vinnie is using just look cool. JP is not going through the same aging that RR and LA beers are. They are a great product and cheers to Ron for getting his process down so well, but he can produce a lot more of the vaste majority of his beer than Tomme or Vinnie can of theirs.

…and I think he posted it about five minutes ago. This internet thing may have a future.

Anyway, that is exactly the sort of detail we drinkers need more information about. I am not the slightest bit interested in being a ticker of beer, claiming that I have had 2,376 different beers while lowly you has had only “experienced” 1,932 (both consuming most in one ounce portions for efficiency’s sake). No, I want to know the why and how decisions are made and why they are decisions that deserve the premium I will be asked to pay. That was one of the things that popped into my mind when I read this from Tomme Arthur:

I needed to purchase glass for our Older Viscosity. The bill for the glass was 8K. This beer will retail for $10 per 375 ml cork finished bottle. It certainly is expensive. Yet, the bottle costs almost $2 for the glass, cork, hood and wire and label. That’s before we even put an ounce of the 12.5% ABV 8 months in a new boubon barrel beer in the bottle. I think it’s too cheap given the amount of effort to produce this.

For me that is a stunningly refreshing disclosure even if “effort” alone, though a great thing, has to be well placed in any enterprise – effort in itself is not cause enough for reward as many folks with dead end jobs will tell you. No, I want to know even more than that. Would it offend to ask that the costs of aging be quantified. Is it possible that, as it was with most things, that I be offered the storage opportunity (and the responsibility bear the resulting cost) by selling me a demi-firkin young just as I can buy my bottle of vintage port young for decades of home aging? And was I really aware that 20% of a beer’s cost might be the bit I throw away, the wrapper? Why is that a good decision when almost twice as much bourbon barrel aged high test ale can be bought from a brewer like Weyerbacher? Sure the corked bottles “just look cool” but if you can cut a buck off the cost of a unit of the fluid by putting it in the 22 oz bomber, please do. Why not give me a choice and treat that premium packaging of a corked bottle as a special edition just as you would with a little wooden crate?

This has nothing to do with Lost Abbey whose fine brews are simply geographically beyond my reach and jurisdictionally beyond postal sampling, seeing as I live in Canada and our wonderful residual blue laws. And, of course, many craft brewers certainly do give packaging alternative, even though I still wait for the invention of the quarter-gallon growler. But if I had more of an idea of the options in this aspect of what goes into putting the bottle on my table, I would be able to make better informed decisions and support brewers whose decision making meets my needs. Why can’t more craft brewers be a little more unlike other producers of goods, take the risk of opening the books and put as much information out into the public sphere – as a great brewer like Tomme Arthur has here and on his blog and as a brewer likeSmuttynose puts on its website. It has nothing to do with checking with a brewer drives a Rolls. Simply put: better informed drinkers are more loyal drinkers as far as I am concerned.

Does such information matter to you? What do you want to know about your beer?

[And… original comments!]

Stan Hieronymus – October 28, 2007 2:39 PM

http://www.appellationbeer.com/blog

Alan – Have I mentioned that I’m wondering if your little “Are you human?” questions know me. Friday “journalist” was one of my words and later our daughter’s name came up.

So far no “erway” though. But, to answer your question, that is his surname.

And, last I knew, you could get Port Brewing’s Old Viscosity at beerbistro.

Alan – October 28, 2007 2:55 PM

Excellent. I will have to check next time I am in downtown Toronto but, unfortunately, that may be many a moon from now. I am in Michigan in two weeks and need to hunt out some beer shops there for the 24 hours I have at my disposal for Mid-west beer shopping this year.

Alan – October 29, 2007 10:35 AM

<i>…I love the information on the Smuttynose website. But for a brewer to give full disclosure of their costs could really hurt their business…</i><p>Great comments! You know what my immediate reaction to this line I am quoting is? If that were true, then I think brewing is not an art at all. If it is the individual expression of the brewer that is in there that makes these new high end brews worthy, then it would not matter if they list costs and ingredients because, as I understand the beer=art argument, it is all about technique. <p>I could sit and watch Picasso paint but that would not make me Picasso.

Alan – October 29, 2007 1:14 PM

Another discussion has started at Beer Advocate.

Alan – October 29, 2007 8:25 PM

And Tomme has followed up at the BA with a longish comment that is well worth reading.

Keith Brainard – October 30, 2007 9:06 AM

http://www.brainardbrewing.com

I was more referring to the totality of costs, way beyond just the ingredients. Part of the cost of beer is the malt and hops and other raw materials. But there are also costs such as energy, rent, salaries, insurance, etc. etc. All of these are part of the cost of the beer (or any product) in some way.

I totally agree that brewing is an art. Even for more common beers, the brewing of those beers is at least part art. This is part of the reason that we can have homebrew clone recipes and it doesn’t erode sales of the brewers of the original beer. Echoing your Picasso sentiment, just because I have a step-by-step of how to make a particular beer doesn’t mean I can make it just like the original brewer.

Stan Hieronymus – October 30, 2007 10:45 AM

http://www.appellationbeer.com/blog

Hi Alan –

In your reply to Tomme’s post at BA you wrote: “What I was responding to was the commentary triggered by Lew, Stan and Stephen discussing your beers as well as others in the new price range and how the market should bear whatever the consumer will pay.”

I will admit that the two threads have reached the length I’m not going to scour them for the phrase that the <i>market should bear whatever the consumer will pay.</i>

I’m pretty sure I never wrote that. I think there are some beers we should pay more. A lot of the $7-$8 6 packs and some of the higher priced beers. Not because that is what the consumer will pay, but because it is a fair price.

And I agree there are beers that are not worth the price on the bottle. A lot of these are in $6-$12 large format bottles. They may be justified based on the amount of ingredients, labor and time involved but you can’t taste the difference. Or worse, you can and it is bad.

I think we should pay for the difference we can taste, but there isn’t a formula we can plug a bunch of numbers in to and come out with the proper price. Part of it is personal – like if I’m saving up $60 to buy a pretty bottle of vodka.

Alan – October 30, 2007 10:58 AM

It’s not so much what you said as what you three, in the early posts that triggered all this, did not yet get the opportunity to elaborate – which I was merely helping with!

I think we have sussed out that there is a definite price sensitivity to craft beer and the new range of prices does have to justify itself, not just be subject to pure market force. If you want my 20 bucks for a single bottle, I want more back story than a nice corked presentation. Consumer oriented brewers will have the story because it will be true.

The Red Sox Make My Life Better

Not that things are bad but if it weren’t for the Red Sox I wouldn’t have met the nice people from Albany attending a wedding at our hotel’s bar on Saturday night. I wouldn’t have been able to watch them checking the scores inning by inning as they dashed in, a little less stable from their free bar each time they popped around the corner and a little more happy when they were told how the lead was stretching over the Indians. Last night it was quieter, drifting in the dark, listening to Joe Castiglione‘s squeaky twang of a voice shout with excitement when Lofton was held up at third:

But Lugo was rescued by one of Cleveland’s mistakes, a mistake by Skinner. Franklin Gutiérrez slapped a grounder over third base and off the photographer’s box along the left-field line. The ball caromed into shallow left field, where Manny Ramírez ambled after it. Skinner waved Lofton around third, but after Lofton reached the base, Skinner put up his hands and stopped him. Ramírez was still a few steps away from the ball. Skinner actually tried to wave Lofton home again, but it was too late. Lofton, who stared at Skinner, was anchored to third.

So noting, The New York Times seems a little snarky this morning, implying somehow that such things are cheap, perhaps suggesting that to comeback in this way is not to come back against the Yankees. Tell that to the man from Albany who I suspect, again but a little hungover this time, pumped his fist and shouted “YES!!”

Travelling South With My Simmering Economic Rage

I am not really helping things. But you know I have been driving into the US on a regular basis for years. Yet still I intend to shop.

Canada’s loonie has been at or above par with the American dollar for weeks, which has sparked outrage among shoppers frustrated by the fact goods still cost substantially more in Canada than comparable items in the U.S. Fuelled by the strong currency, 3.5 million Canadians travelled to the U.S. in August, Statistics Canada said this week. The Canadian dollar closed at US$1.0355 on Friday, the highest level in 33 years.

If we have outrage, I think we also need a list of our demands. I want cheaper hamburger helper. I never buy it but it is one of those things that is 79 cents in the US and 2.29 here. And..ummm…better slow cooked meats, that goes without saying. Next – cheaper tees and hoodies. Have you seen a Steve and Barry’s or even a decent Champs? Cheaper hoodies with better stuff on them. I can’t find anything with a reference to CFL teams or, say, Saskatoon or even Moncton but if I drive into northern New York, plenty of cool stuff. And cheap furniture stores that sell stuff that looks like it wasn’t built with the crap they build rental apartment kitchen cupboards with. Did I mention slow cooked meat…ok…yup…

Friday Bullets For The Membership Drive

So by now I expect you all have given to the NCPR membership drive. I listen to the station in the car, at work and as my wake-up call. I own a banjo and a mandolin because of the show “String Fever” that plays bluegrass. What other station responds to requests for ska? You’d be more like me if you listened too. And isn’t that what it’s all about? Give to NCPR and get yourself pickin’.

  • Apparently 55-70% of Canadians really can’t be bothered with anything anymore:

    The Angus Reid Strategies poll, exclusive to the Star, found 42 per cent were dissatisfied with the Conservative government’s proposals on the environment, while 28 per cent said they were satisfied. The remainder had no opinion. When asked about the Tories’ proposal to stay in Afghanistan until 2011, 40 per cent said they were dissatisfied and 29 per cent said they were satisfied. And while 33 per cent were not happy with the government’s plans for federal-provincial relations – which include restricting federal spending in areas of provincial jurisdiction – the poll found 30 per cent were satisfied.

    You know, if I were the guy who stands a very good chance of being Canada’s only repeat PM never to get a majority, I’d admit to myself that the polls are not going to get better and just go nutty, moving the secret plans for 2009 ahead…just to see. It’s not like things on the other side could get worse…could they?

  • Friday. The day before the fall trip to Syracuse. Another opportunity to figure out how the heck to get from the part of town with the hotels to the part of town with the bit with Clark’s. Sadly, and like Glasgow oddly enough, Syracuse is chopped up by superhighways, interstates that you may notice in this photo. There appears to be a plan to make a better pedestrian route. The current way feels sorta like one of the darker scenes from Blade Runner right now. Anyway, it will be interesting to see how many Buffalonians travel the couple of hours east to take in the game. Last time we went, Wyoming was represented by a couple of guys with goofy bison hats.
  • Science now has proven I am not a boomer.
  • I mentioned in June that Major League Baseball was trying to claim copyright over players’ names and stats. They lost (or rather the companies that bought the rights from MLB) lost:

    Last year the company won a decision by U.S. District Judge Mary Ann Medler, who held that Missouri state law on players’ publicity rights was trumped by a general national policy favoring the full and free exchange of ideas. The appeals court agreed, in an opinion by Judge Morris Arnold, saying the First Amendment right to free speech supersedes state law protecting celebrities’ right to control their likenesses – the “right of publicity.”

  • I really hope that the end result is not that magic is phony.
  • There is a good article in the New Yorker that John G. pointed me to which sets out the recent history of edgy pop music based on the premise that Arcade Fire is kinda dull. A good read but no mention of the impending fourth wave of ska.

Hooked On Salmon Oil?

I noticed I was somewhere less than bummed out and slightly to the right of bubbly the other day and I tried to think of all the things I have been doing or not been doing and I came to a very weird thought – I’d run out of salmon pills. So I look it up and…:

The brain is remarkably fatty: In fact, this organ is 60% fat and needs Omega-3s to function properly. Now researchers have discovered a link between mood disorders and the presence of low concentrations of Omega-3 fatty acids in the body. Apparently, Omega-3s help regulate mental health problems because they enhance the ability of brain-cell receptors to comprehend mood-related signals from other neurons in the brain. In other words, the Omega-3s are believed to help keep the brain’s entire traffic pattern of thoughts, reactions, and reflexes running smoothly and efficiently.

Am I addicted to a fish? If you are going to be addicted to something, is a fish so bad? I remember hearing that much of Germany was mildly stoned on St. Johns wort.

And what if they stopped making salmon oil pills – would I have to take up fishing to deal with my dirty little secret? Will it all come tumbling down one day when I am found on the job site with a couple of cans of sardines hidden in my desk as an emergency back up, thrown upon the trash heap of life, just another fiddiction statistic?

Group Project: The Chretien Book And Its Timing

I am now seriously considering taking down the Paul Martin posters in the rec room:

On the eve of Parliament’s re-opening, former prime minister Jean Chrétien has driven a new wedge into the federal Liberal Party with his indictment of Paul Martin as having blood on his hands over the deployment of Canadian troops in Afghanistan. Mr. Chrétien makes the charge in the just-published second volume of his memoirs, stating that because his successor “took too long to make up his mind” about what should be done with Canadian troops stationed in and around the Afghan capital of Kabul, “our soldiers were … sent south again to battle the Taliban in the killing fields around Kandahar.”

That is really odd but, given the recent Mulroney book, the sort of thing we have come to expect. On a more fun yet devious level, this is clearly another ploy by Prime Minister Stephen Harper to drive a wedge in Liberal ranks. While it is unclear exactly how a wedge can be driven in something [Ed.: insert your analogy here – I recommend something scattered like or soft a gooey like a lump of butter] the effect on tomorrow’s speech from the throne is going to be dramatic/non-existent. I really enjoy these acts of maneuvering for control…much more fun than actually governing and being governed. The more the merrier.

Your job: compare and contrast.

Canada Particularly More Free Than Syracuse Today

Flipping around the channels last night after the Red Sox creamed the Indians, I saw an item on Syracuse channel 5 news that was fairly shocking: City workers were fired for living outside of City limits. Here is the story in the Post-Standard:

Eight of the 12 Syracuse city workers who were suspended Wednesday on suspicion that they were violating the city’s residency requirement were fired today after they failed to persuade city officials that they lived in within Syracuse’s borders. Three of the 12 retired, according to city Director of Personnel Donald Thompson. The 12th worker convinced the city that he did live in Syracuse. He will return to work Monday, Thompson said. A 13th worker, Eric Weber, who had been the director of the Lakefront Development Corp., was fired Wednesday. Unlike the other workers, Weber was not entitled to a hearing on his residency because he is a mayoral appointment, according to the city.

I can’t claim in any way to understand why residency is required in Syracuse. What is startling to me is how this is something that has been determined to be unconstitutional in Canada…and unconstitutional based on the “liberty” right in our Charter of Rights, a protection that has often been described as the poorer cousin to the liberty available under the constitution of the United States.

It goes back to our old pal autonomous decision making. Canada’s Supreme Court has held a number of times in a number of contexts that the right to liberty enshrined in s. 7 of the Charter protects within its ambit the right to an irreducible sphere of personal autonomy wherein individuals may make inherently private choices free from state interference. OK, I quoted that. But notice some of those words: “irreducible”, “inherently”, “free”. Good words and words that show there are bits of life that the government simply cannot govern. Within these few areas, the individual is sovereign. One of the most important statements in forming this aspect of the liberty Canadians enjoy was the 1997 Godbout ruling about where city workers near Montreal could live. In that ruling, Justice LaForest stated at paragraphs 66 and 67:

…I took the view in B. (R.) that parental decisions respecting the medical care provided to their children fall within this narrow class of inherently personal matters. In my view, choosing where to establish one’s home is, likewise, a quintessentially private decision going to the very heart of personal or individual autonomy.

The soundness of this position can be appreciated most readily, I think, by reflecting upon some of the intensely personal considerations that often inform an individual’s decision as to where to live. Some people choose to establish their home in a particular area because of its nearness to their place of work, while others might prefer a different neighbourhood because it is closer to the countryside, to the commercial district, to a particular religious institution with which they are affiliated, or to a medical centre whose services they require. Similarly, some people may, for reasons dearly important to them, value the historical significance or cultural make-up of a given locale, others again may want to ensure that they are physically proximate to family or to close friends, while others still might decide to reside in a particular place in order to minimize their cost of living, to care for an ailing relative or, as in the case at bar, to maintain a personal relationship. In my opinion, factors such as these vividly reflect the idea that choosing where to live is a fundamentally personal endeavour, implicating the very essence of what each individual values in ordering his or her private affairs; that is, the kinds of considerations I have mentioned here serve to highlight the inherently private character of deciding where to maintain one’s home. In my view, the state ought not to be permitted to interfere in this private decision-making process, absent compelling reasons for doing so.

So, since Godbout, it has been clear that the wholesale rounding up of auslanders from the suburbs is something beyond the jurisdiction and capacity of our municipalities and other levels of government. It appears that the land of the free has yet to catch up to us in this aspect of our relative liberty.

Ontario Election 2007: Harper Loses

Let me be the first to point out that, once again, my votes did not carry the day so I can assert the ability to spot a very bad stretch when I see one. And, just so I can also be among the first to point it out, between the massive win in Newfoundland yesterday for an anti-Harper Tory and today’s ditching of any vestige of a right wing agenda in Ontario, I see the message this week for the Prime Minister is not good.

If there were any chance that a leader – through some miracle, mystery or intrigue – might arise within the Liberal Party of Canada who grasps the responsibility of the demands of the nation as opposed to continuing the recent history of party obsession with in-fighting and pop causes, this might be the beginning of a golden era for them and the beginning of the end of that bit of history started by the splitting of the Tories which will end, as these things do, in ugly dismembered fashion.

But that leader is not there. What strange times.