Another Craft Beer Impostor Joins the Beer Wars
Henry Weinhard’s beer will soon join the ranks of other macro-brewed faux-craft beers like Shocktop and Blue Moon. The iconic brand from the Pacific Northwest is being relaunched by SABMiller as a national brand sold as affordable, uncomplicated craft beers.
The iconic Oregon brewery has been owned by SABMiller since 2003, and production of the beer has been handled in the Full Sail Brewing facilities for several years. SABMiller has announced that the brand will no longer be produced under contract with Full Sail and that three varieties of Henry Weinhard’s will be launched nationally this month.
The three varieties of beer, a lightly hopped IPA, an amber ale, and an American pale lager are described as “Rock-solid, uncomplicated beers that are textbook examples of Henry’s original motto: craft good ingredients into quality products.” They look to be toned-down versions of craft staples and an unexciting version of an unexciting style. All the while the marketed as real craft beer.
Craft beer fans know better though. Henry Weinhard’s is just another macro-brewed wolf in craft-brewed sheep’s wool. What’s even more insidious than the insincere PR and marketing is the motivations behind SABMiller’s new branding push: chain restaurants. According to New School Beer the brewing giant will begin franchising their Henry’s Tavern restaurant concept nationally.
There are a lot of implications in this news. Craft brewery Full Sail will surly feel the strain without the cash generated by the Weinhard’s brewing contract. The introduction of another faux-craft brand will no-doubt cause more consumer confusion and spread more misinformation about craft beer. The development of a chain of corporate brewpubs will threaten local proprietor-owned establishments. And I can only imagine that we will begin to hear more stories similar to this one as the Big Beer companies look to reverse the losses in sales and market share that they’ve seen due to craft beer’s rising popularity.
The beer wars look to be heating up, and we are all a part of it. Stay vigilant, educate those around you, support your local craft beer business, and drink local beer!
Source: The New School – Henry Weinhard’s No Longer to Be Brewed in Oregon via Beerpulse
We’ll see what they do… in OR Henry’s Tavern is a tourist spot and HW beer is stocked in the macro case (as is schocktop, BM seems to make it to the other part of the isle more often). They did a bland IPA a few years ago that did not go over well, and some kind of beery wheat that also fell flat. The old school/ beer-of-my-youth charm for people of a certain age (ours) is probably not enough to make me ever go out of my way to buy it again. If there was a cheap 22oz I might pick it up for old times sake…
Seems a little mean spirited to attack until they have done the things you accuse them of. And 3 other points: 1. Since when is CONTRACT BREWING something to be praised? You mourn the loss of the contract for poor “little” Full Sail. Give me a break. Many of us believe CONTRACT BREWING is a bigger problem than so called “faux” craft beers. 2. A national expansion of the Henry’s Tavern concept is a horrible idea? Never been, but if its to become a chain (and a 2nd location does not ,make a chain sir) that has anything to drink besides what Fridays and Chilis have…..I’m all for it. You act like a place like that would put the local brewpub out of business. Get real….and chill out at the same time. There is something to be said for bringing the macros down to a more “craft” level…. consistency….availability for two. 3. Not to be brewed in the Northwest. You loved it so much…buy the brand. Pretty tough to roll out any beer nationwide from the Northwest isn’t it? Sorry to rant but feel your headline is misleading,
I’d like to first reiterate the definition of “Craft Brewer” that we work under here at Beer of Tomorrow. It is the Brewer’s Association definition: Small, Independent, and Traditional. Small means less than 6 million barrels/year. I have no figures on what the HW production will be, so I won’t comment on that. Likewise, I have no information on the beer’s recipes so I can’t comment on if it meets the “traditional requirement of being 100% malt. Henry Weinhard’s is certainly NOT independent (defined as Less than 25% of the craft brewery is owned or controlled by an alcoholic beverage industry member who is not themselves a craft brewer) though. It isn’t even American-owned. From the Wikipedia page: “SABMiller is a British multinational brewing and beverage company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the world’s second-largest brewing company measured by revenues.” The new HW beers are being brewed at Miller breweries across the country. MACRO breweries.
Now, to cover your points:
1) I never praise contract brewing, I only state Full Sail will lose the revenue from their contract to brew HW, and that represents a challenge for a REAL craft brewery. (see this follow-up to the New School post)
2) I am fiercely against chain dining. A personal choice that I editorialize on the site. I believe in keeping as much money as possible in the community and supporting local businesses (especially when those businesses support the craft beer industry). I don’t want Macro-brewed beer on “craft’s level.” I find the availability and consistency of local/regional craft beer more than acceptable.
3) This is a difficult one to unpack, and, if I’m understanding your augment correctly, the topic might get its own post after LA Beer Week. But for the record I don’t love HW beer. I haven’t bought it since college and it hasn’t been a legitimate craft option in well over 10 years. I’m more concerned about Big Beer using it as a marketing tool to spread disinformation about their beer (that sounds a bit like propaganda actually).
I really appreciate your comments, and I’m sorry that you found my headline misleading. I feel that the headline is not an exaggeration, but I probably could have done a better job of making the references (to the Beer Wars film and the topics it brings up) a little more literal. Such is the state of writing of the web these days… Misleading or not, a punchy headline gets eyes.
The future of beer in America hasn’t been written, and there are many ways it might play-out. The reality might be fewer over-all craft-brands with several large macro/craft hybrid brands dominating the market. Or it might be a return to a pre-prohibition model of local and regional breweries providing craft beer for every tap. We hope that the latter is the Beer of Tomorrow, and that is what we are working towards!
Anyways, don’t be sorry to rant! we encourage ranting here! Cheers!
Hi John,
Great response addressing the issues. Just to add my own opinion in here, even contract brewing on a craft level isn’t an issue in my mind. My business partner and I are trying to launch our craft brewery and we are, unfortunately, not sitting on a huge pile of money. Our first step to get investment and loans is to contract brew our batch at a local brewery. We are both in the brewery brewing the beer during brew day and spend every weekend going out to check on the beer to make sure it’s up to snuff. Our first batch met an unfortunate end, but we will try try again. Either way, we will have a brewery eventually. There are many different types of contract brewers, restaurants that just want to have a house brand, situations like Full Sail, gypsy brewing, our method, and alternating proprietorships. They each have their strengths and weaknesses. That being said, I don’t believe that our method of craft contracting our own recipe and being in the brewery during the brew day compromises the message of craft beer at all. We patronize our local brewery, fill up their empty tanks when they aren’t using it, and brew our own beer on a commercial level so that we can one day have our own space. Contract Brewing gets a bad rap because it’s a loaded term. In our business plan it makes the most business sense and is the most responsible thing for us to do.
Common Sense, the macro brewery in this article is rebranding HW so they can insert themselves into the craft brew scene. This is the same thing they did when they bought blue moon. There is no way for you to convince me that this is more beneficial than small batch contract brewing. Where is the argument there. Big business Macro Beer is losing money and is desperately trying to find ways to take the market away from the hard working craft micro breweries. They are losing money and and want to get it back. I doubt they would object to that statement. They want to insert themselves into the market with their own versions of “craft beer”, which are in my opinion, inferior. You cannot make high quality beer with a factory approach. It’s a living breathing product that is fragile and needs the care of a craft beer professional to make sure it makes it to the customer in its intended state. You cannot do this by saturating the market.
Common Sense, it sounds like you are coming at this from an industry perspective. Your comments lead me to believe that you have an opinion based on experience. Why the anonymity.
Keep up the good work Beer of Tomorrow.
Kip Barnes – Founder – Bierkast.com / Los Angeles Ale Works
What’s with the American objection to contract brewing? Without contract brewing, the craft beer scene in NZ wouldn’t be half as vibrant and Mikkeller wouldn’t exist, so no civet poop beer!
I was actually just discussing that with Kip. We both this it is a general mis-understanding of the term “contract brewing,” as it is a blanket-term that can cover many different scenarios (like those that Kip covered in his comment.) There is certainly a stigma associated with the term, but contract-brewing is important to the Beer of Tomorrow, and when done right there is nothing wrong with it.
my $0.02: a) thanks for the ‘heads-up’ – as a pre-Miller acquisition resident of PDX & a sometimes imbiber of HW back then as a gateway to ‘craft’, it is, indeed, vexing (to say the least) to lose another one to ‘kraft’.
b) and, while disappointing, i’m going ‘half full’ on these co-opting ‘losses’. branding investments, wider distribution & chain development of micro > macro brewed ‘kraft’ will, i’m convinced, act to further stimulate the interest in and accelerate the loss of market share by BMC to TRUE craft brewers. another gateway beer, like Blue Moon & Shocktop, will offer one more ‘baby step’ option for the not so adventurous on the path to craft beer enlightenment. macro ‘kraft’ beers certainly aren’t going to lure craft devotees so… i say, welcome them and brewers, continue to develop/hone your craft and make your best case for fresh and local; One Pint at a Time.
Thanks for your comments!
I’m not sure I 100% follow your second point. Are you saying that the faux-craft offerings from Big Beer (Shocktop, Blue Moon, and now Weinhard’s) are beneficial to the craft beer “movement” because they at least give otherwise “uneducated” consumers an alternative to American Adjunct Lager?
There has certainly been a case made for faux-craft offerings being an accessible “gateway” into true craft beers, but I am very weary of this argument.
I think it risks turning potential craft beer converts off and back towards “fizzy yellow beer” when they think “OK, I’ll give this ‘craft beer’ thing a shot; let me try a shocktop…” and then find it not to their taste and turn away from craft beer forever.
Shocktop and Blue Moon are a BAD examples of a Belgian Wit beers. I really hope that no one decides that they don’t like the style (or even worse: don’t like craft beer in general) after trying one of these faux-craft options.
I understand your recalcitrance. No doubt many others in ‘the movement’ feel the same way. And, to be fair, I did say I was ‘half-full’ not ‘all in’ in my view of kraft as a potential path to craft.
There are indeed PLENTY of potential ‘potholes’, ‘roadside hazards’, and poorly marked ‘exits’ to be navigated by potential craft converts. Some will be get ‘lost’ and ‘turn back’.
That’s why it’s critical for the craft community to continue to reach out and help these folks find their way by helping them ‘navigate’ One Pint at a Time thru tastings, Bring a Buddy specials, food/beer pairings, community events/support outreach and… for brewers to continue to hone their craft and make the best case possible for charting a direct path to craft w/o any kraft detours. Na zdravi!
I think the biggest problem with faux-craft beers is that they are trying to appeal to so many people with their “rock-solid, uncomplicated beers,” essentially catering to the lowest common denominator, rather than actually putting together a bold and innovative product that would make a good “gateway” beer for former macro-beer drinkers. Henry Weinhard’s is planning an IPA that “has eased up on the hoppiness” and an amber that is “easy to drink.” These aren’t going to show the average consumer what they are really missing were they to drink craft beer!
If you really want to try to win craft beer drinkers who enjoy full-flavored beers, this isn’t the way to do it – you just aren’t going to get that market-share back with weak beers. I totally agree with John that faux-craft may turn people off who are interested in craft beer and are hustled by Big Beer’s marketing machine thinking faux-craft is craft. Before I got into beer, the first time I had a Blue Moon (thinking that choice was better than your average Coors/Miller/Bud/etc), I was disappointed. The first time I had a Hangar 24 Orange Wheat, I was amazed! I had no idea beer could have such flavor!
The thing that really gets me, more than anything, is the BS entities Big Beer creates to slap on the label so you don’t really know what beer behemoth it comes from. Blue Moon Brewing Company? Please. I very much enjoy that at least Untappd tells us the truth.
The point about the shady entities is a great one. the faux-craft would reek of deception as much as it does to me if BMC was forthcoming with the truth about who owns the brands and where it was made.
That scene is the Beer Wars film where Anat goes and tries to find the fake brewery is a great demonstation of this!
Julie, BMC isn’t co-opting craft w/ kraft to win craft beer converts, IMHO. I think they’re just trying to ‘stop the bleeding’ (multiple YOY share loss to craft) AND ‘milk’ the marked up price point they’ll be asking for kraft to buttress their net sales rev losses.
They KNOW they’re not going to woo micro drinkers back to macros. It’s gonna take a LOT more than an ‘artfully crafted’ label/commercial to do that, it’s gonna take GR8 beer and their misplaced profit motivation isn’t going to allow that.
The only way craft loses to kraft is if the ‘local’ craft artisan get’s lazy, sloppy, or complacent. Na zdravi!
Good points. I can’t find the source now, but I saw an interview with a AB-Inbev exec who said they were far more interested in expanding their brand in developing markets (Brazil in particular) than “fighting” craft beer. Their ROI on developing overseas markets is much larger. I worry about what happens when they decide to REALLY go after the craft industry.
Nothing to ‘fear’ here > Leveraging the best in marketing and retailing skill/muscle developed in the Lite Beer ‘wars’ and applied to Kraft placement w/ attractive pricing STILL isn’t going to compensate for quality/character sacrificed for profit maximization.
THIS ‘war’ we win as ‘local insurgents’ cuz we know the people & the landscape (our communities). Plus, we must POUND BMC for vacuuming money out of our communities and shipping it to Belgium & South Africa. All craft needs to do is continue to expand, brew exceptional beers, get/stay involved locally, and encourage our existing supporters to share their love of fresh and local; One Pint at a Time.
I think my biggest problem is the underhandedness with which they are marketing their faux-craft beers. You walk into any BevMo and ShockTop and Blue Moon are smack dab in the middle (and properly at eye level) in the craft beer section.
I guess that’s where we go back to the conversation with Greg Koch – we need to be craft beer educators! That is why sites like these are so important in the movement!!
Cheers!
can we start calling the fake craft beers “crafties”? or “krafties” if you prefer..
i’m ‘old school’ (and/or just plain ‘old’) and partial to applying the KISS principle. Let’s just call a ‘spade a spade’ and call ‘em ‘krap’.
besides, while ‘crafties’ / ‘krafties’ (aka ‘crafty’) does correctly imply a (well-earned in the case of BMC) negative connotation:
craft·y (kr f t ). adj. craft·i·er, craft·i·est. 1. Skilled in or marked by underhandedness, deviousness, or deception
I don’t want that mega-brew ‘stink’ ANYWHERE near true artisan’s (http://www.imbibemagazine.com/American-Craft-Beer-Brewers) labor’s of love (bad enuf, as Julie points out, that by virtue of their distributor ‘muscle’ they’re gonna elbow their way onto the craft shelves). ‘Krap’ is ‘krap’, Let’s not elevate it, even by snark.