BeerAdvocate's Misguided Question

This morning, BeerAdvocate tweeted that they were soliciting comments to this hypothesis:

From what the bro and I have been reading, it appears that most people feel that special release beer events have gone too far. Generally speaking, these special release day beers gain an insane amount of hype, get put on eBay before they're even released, bad distribution systems are put in place, people are waiting in lines for many hours/traveling from afar in hopes to get their hands on a bottle or taste, hoarders/campers are an issue, many walk away disappointed, etc, etc, etc. There are exceptions of course ...

So assuming that most think they've gone to far, what are some solutions? (Examples from some of the exceptions perhaps?)

In the eight plus years I've had a login at BA, I've commented on exactly four threads. So I didn't take it very seriously when Todd wrote not to post if you disagreed with the "general consensus." So I commented. And my comment was deleted. D'oh! Now I know. Anyway, since BA is clearly not the forum for dissent, I'll use my own. Here's what I wrote, and I offer it partly as Beeronomics bait.

I disagree that this is a problem. The issue is one of demand outstripping supply. If breweries wanted to put the supply and demand into equilibrium, they would either produce more beer or raise the prices. An example: for the first three years of production, Deschutes enjoyed the intense scramble for Abyss. Last year, they produced far more Abyss than in previous years. The result? Bottles are still available, months later, at local grocery stores. They'll sell the full run, but the scramble is no longer mad.

Breweries have to be a little careful not to abuse what is actually a wonderful manifestation--a constantly-growing interest in intense, specialty craft beers. If they make it too difficult or too expensive for consumers to buy their beer, they risk alienating them. But one of the main goals is to create exactly the fervent interest these specialty releases produce. The market is self-correcting, and to the extent there is a problem, it will resolve itself--to the detriment or benefit of individual breweries. In this balancing act, smart breweries will use specialty releases to bring attention to their products, which will in turn boost sales on regular releases--the bread and butter of most breweries.

Your thoughts?

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Immature Markets and Rating Sites

My RateBeer post yesterday produced some great comments, including a link by an anonymous poster to this thread over at BeerAdvocate. In it, a member posted an email exchange he had with Cigar City Brewing in which a slightly snippy customer's email devolved into this final response by the owner:

I think you'll be happier buying your beer from Redhook or someone similar. Their customer service tastes so awesome! I am choosing to take the business path that is much less traveled and sincerely say, Dennis I do not want your business. And I encourage you not to do business with me.

In the day comments were open, the thread got 184 comments. To the question who was the bigger jerk, responses were running just about even. And here is the problem. When a public discussion breaks out about whether or not you are a jerk, as a business owner, you've already lost the battle.

To me, the whole thing is further evidence of an immature market (the point I was making when I highlighted Cigar City's stout, identified by RateBeer as America's best beer). It's the kind of thing a brewery might have done in Portland in about 1990. Now breweries are practiced at handling criticism and actively engage on the blogs, Twitter, and Facebook. I can't imagine that kind of incident happening here.

A second theme in those comments was the value of ratings sites. One view:

Beer and pub ratings are silly, are they not?

Another:

I don't think they are silly at all. ... They also open people's eyes to a world of beer they might not know of. In your case get people to hunt down fresh cask beer.

My opinion? RateBeer's a little silly, but BeerAdvocate is a great resource. In terms of the ratings, I find BA quite useful. Many a time I have stood in front of the coolers at Belmont Station and looked at a beer on BA. Particularly when I'm looking at a new brewery, I find the ratings useful in identifying which beer to buy. When I was at EastBurn recently, I looked up a beer on their taplist. BA is also a great resource for news and general brewery information. I go there regularly.

Ultimately, a ratings site is only as good as its raters. The folks writing about Northwest beer on the site are quite reliable. You can click on names and see how they've rated beers you like and see where their biases are. I haven't given a shout-out to BeerAdvocate before, but I should. Good work, gents!

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