Beer school

Modern Brewery Age, March 13, 1995 by Jack Kenny

Education of wholesalers and retailers is key to moving specialty beer

Brewers of fine beer love to talk about it. And that's a good thing, because if they didn't talk nobody would buy their beer.

Educating wholesalers, retailers and consumers about beer is an essential part of the beer business. Day after day, the beer teachers are astonished at how much and how little people know. They are astonished at the breadth of knowledge among some consumers, and they are equally astounded at the lack of knowledge among those who should know the most. Here's what they're saying:

* "People really don't know much about beer."

* "The distributors are the weak link in the education chain. They're less enthusiastic about beer than the consumers are."

* "Retailers are excellent storekeepers, but they don't know about beer."

* "Consumers know almost as much as we know, or more."

* "Education is a long, slow process."

For decades, one beer style ruled. The only education available was in the mechanics. Big brewers taught a few basics to wholesalers, who in turn taught retailers: "Here's how to price them, here's how to display them, here's how to tap a keg and keep your draft system clean, here's how to wash a beer glass. Now, how many cases would you like?"

Then we had a beer revolution, and in its wake, the landscape is changed. Full-bodied, deeply-flavored brews can be found everywhere, even in the portfolios of the major commercial brewers. Including brewpubs, more than 500 breweries are active in the United States today. The numbers of beers available are uncountable, produced in every traditional style and quite a few new ones.

Now we even have beer geeks, ordinary people off the street who can tell you how yeast propagates and at what point the aromatic hops are added. But the specialty beer market remains small, and most Americans don't buy unusual beers unless they have a reason to do so. The impetus to purchase, therefore, can come only from knowledge.

Todays' retailer is faced with the twin challenges of meeting customer demand and wrestling with limited space on the shelves and in the coolers. "Why should I stock this beer? Who's going to drink it? What kind of beer is it? How can I answer my customers' questions about beer? Will I make more money selling this?"

Clearly the explosion of specialty beers, both domestic and imported, has opened the door to both new business opportunity and to educational needs. The burden of supplying that education falls on the brewers and the importers, and on the wholesalers.

"The education process is one of our biggest ongoing battles. We do it every way possible, and you can imagine what we're up against," says wholesaler John Hicks, director of marketing for Northern Virginia Beverage, in Springfield, VA. "retailers and consumers have various levels of interest and education, and we have to go from a very low grade-school approach to a sophisticated program."

Cast of Thousands

Beer education is now an industry that involves suppliers, distributors, retailers and consumers, and incorporates published materials, videos, organized seminars and workshops, tastings, beer dinners and other social events and even festivals.

"We try very hard to talk directly to the consumer, as well as to the wholesaler and retailer," says Wendy Littlefield, partner in Vanberg & DeWulf with her husband, Don Feinberg. "We have 25 beers, each tinier than the next, and God help the average person who is trying to learn about them, which they have to do to sell them effectively." Vanberg & DeWulf imports specialty beers from Belgium and French Flanders, including Duvel, Saison Dupont, Affligem and Castelain.

Like many of their counterparts, Littlefield and Feinberg take their knowledge to the streets. "We have to go into the market and find out what happens to our products, and also those of our competitors," says Littlefield. "We hold training sessions and tastings of beers. We conduct beer dinners. We taste through our line of beers and talk about them. And sometimes when we're far away, we do phone tastings.'

"We get 10-20 calls a day from people who tell us they had this really good Belgian beer, made by monks at a tasting, and where can they get it," says Steve Hindy, president of Brooklyn Brewing Co. and Craft Brewers Guild, which distributes Brooklyn and other specialty brands in New York. "We take the time to find out where they live and refer them to a retailer in their area."

The influx of consumer phone calls, plus the fact that in New York beer is not sold in liquor stores but in grocery stores, has spurred Hindy to commission a book, The Craft Brewers Guild Guide to Good Beer in New York. Written by author Tim Harper, it will be a guide book to the "100 best restaurants and bars in the metropolitan area for specialty beer, and the 100 best retail stores."

Hindy himself has written a beer guide for retailers, "a compendium of thumbnail sketches of all 67 breweries we represent and 200 brands we sell," says Hindy. "We give this little booklet to our retailer, and we tell them, 'Look, when someone comes in and they want that funny beer that has raspberries in it, give them this book and let them look for it. If you don't have it, take their money and order the beer and we'll get it for you next week.' Some retailers are into this, and they've learned to use the book."