Saving beer culture

Modern Brewery Age, Sept 8, 2003 by Peter V.K. Reid

Everybody loves beer, right? Would that it were so. As the beer industry waits for the demographic upsurge that promised greater beer consumption, there are fears that the anticipated tidal wave of new beer volume may not materialize.

For one thing, there are more beverage choices out there these days. Some consumers are being siphoned off by other drinks categories. The potential beer consumer faces a glut of alcoholic and non-alcoholic choices, from sweetened teas to malternatives to bottled water.

Health issues also play a part. Despite the proven health benefits of moderate consumption of beer, consumers may limit beer consumption due to its supposedly fattening properties. Michelob Ultra is a canny nod to these fears, but all beers can't be low carb.

Lastly, there are neo-prohibitionists, who would prefer a world without beer.

The dangers are clear when we look to European markets. Neo-prohibitionists seem to be a uniquely American problem, but proliferating beverage choice and health concerns are hitting European brewers hard.

Germany has always had an enviable beer culture. People have always consumed beer with every meal, including breakfast, and the market has been awash with interesting beers from regional and local breweries.

Now German beer consumption is declining as younger consumers look beyond traditional beers towards blended products (like the fruit juice and beer mix they call Radler). Health issues also seem to be playing a role, as younger consumers are less inclined to sit in beer halls all day downing liters of helles.

Britain and Ireland are facing similar issues. In fact, beer culture in all the great European bastions is under assault. Now, we in the American beer industry must also look to the battlements.

In America, our beer culture is based on remembered European traditions. But whatever beer culture we had was rudely destroyed by the prohibitionists in 1919.

In the post-WW II period, the danger became the growing homogeneity of beer. This trend has continued apace. And. as the IBU (International Bitterness Units) levels of mainstream beers drops to threshold levels, the difference between a malternative and a beer becomes ever less pronounced.

With the big old U.S. family breweries firmly in the homogenization camp, microbrewers became the grass-roots defenders of beer in the 1980s and 1990s. They sought to revive the traditional production methods and styles that were being lost. In the process, they have helped save an American beer culture that was in danger of vanishing.

The Association of Brewers, the Boulder, CO-based educational association, helped spread the good word about beer, but larger institutions in the industry were mainly silent.

In decades past, the defense of beer's role in American commercial culture was entrusted to the United States Brewers Association. Tiffs group created ads, placed public service announcements and even promoted cooking with beer.

When the USBA was dissolved amidst feuding interests and egos, each company focused on its own brands, and devil take the hindmost. No one took over the essential task of defending the interests of beer.

That is, until the National Beer Wholesalers Association stepped forward to take up the shield and cudgel.

NBWA first took over the legislative affairs part of the job. Through diligent effort over the course of a decade, the wholesalers association has become the face of beer in Washington.

Now, in the last couple of years, NBWA has started an ambitious mission to spread their pro-beer message to the populace at large. The NBWA web-site now includes definitions of arcane beer styles and recipes that incorporate beer. NBWA also holds receptions on Capitol Hill for eager and influential staffers.

NBWA has shown the way, stepping to the plate with the Association of Brewers and Brewers' Association of America. Now America's big brewers should join the fray against the homogenization and marginalization of beer.