Mark Stutrud commentary

[Dave M.]

This was in the Summit email news letter. A short recap of his keynote address at NHC, plus some other observations I thought were worth posting.

Brewing with passion
Hello Everyone –

Congratulations to the American Homebrewers Association's record breaking attendance at the National Homebrewing Conference in Bloomington, Minnesota! It was an honor for me to offer the keynote address to this passionate group of folks.

I focused on three themes during this address – "Deviancy, Enthusiasm and Advocacy".

It's very basic. I reminded the attendees what wonderful deviants they are – that they are not the typical beer drinkers in the U.S.A. I noted that their enthusiasm and passion fuels lively debate (and sometimes arguments) about beer styles and brands. Finally, I emphasized the vital role and responsibilities that they possess to be perpetual positive advocates for real beer.

Believe me, it's an ongoing challenge to be a positive advocate and to be perceived as positive. Recently, I was interviewed for an article on the trend toward highly hopped beer in a Minnesota business journal. This interview, comprised of two telephone calls, tallied about forty minutes. After considerable discussion with the writer, "my position" was simply distilled that "high IBU beers were a gimmick". The writer made his point. But here are some of the details that he omitted:

I did admit that I was somewhat entertained by the "one-upmanship" or the "battle of IBU's" between some small brewers across the country. I shared that I am perplexed that this escalation of IBU's may be independent of educating a beer drinker about style. (Are these brewers doing this just to do it?)

I realize that some brewers are satisfying the insatiable appetite of a "hophead". But where is this "obsession" going? Will the next obsession be malt? Yeast? It's already happening with alcohol levels.

I communicated to the writer that the character and flavor of beer is beautifully complex. I also stressed that I would not advocate reducing our enjoyment of beer to one component. The sole emphasis on IBU's does not fully illustrate the wonderful diversity and experience of hop characteristics. Piney, herbal, floral, citrus, earthy, fruity...

An IBU is just a number. We have a responsibility to our customers, and those not so educated about real beer, to be more descriptive. Moreover, most professional brewers agree that, as a sensory experience, it is difficult to perceive and discern IBU levels beyond 75. So, I suggested to the writer that the drinker must rely on his or her imagination to perceive a greater quality of experience of a high IBU beer.

Ahh, the writer heard my connection of imagery and marketing to sell beer. Something like "It's the water!" or the visual of hard-bodies in beer advertising. I'm sure that these comments lead the writer to conclude that I was reducing this issue to gimmickry.

There is one fact that I did not share with the writer. We have conducted lab analyses of some of these high IBU (100+) beers with our spectrophotometer and have discovered IBU levels as low as 66.

So, what does this mean? Possibly, the brewer is not quantifying and verifying the proclaimed characteristics of their beer. If this is the case, the focus on IBU's preempts quality assurance. It is also possible that marketing preempts quality assurance. If so, some of the small brewer's practices have evolved closer toward the marketing tactics of the large brewers.

I concluded my address to the homebrewers by reminding them of their responsibility to take the high road and to be positive advocates. It is the responsibility of everyone in the community of small brewers to foster a positive and honest beer culture.


Skoal!

[Drtanglebones]

Interesting. I like Mark, I think he has done an amazing amount of good for the craft beer industry in MN. And I kind of agree with him on the IBU stuff.

[Sixpack]

I need to send this dude an email. They need more hops in their beer, plus I have another topic to discuss with him about their beer selection. Dave knows what I'm talking about. This could be big!!