UPDATE: I agree that ‘advocate’ was too strong, not the right word. ‘Condone’ is probably the right word so I’ve replaced it.
Condone – Verb: Accept and allow (behavior that is considered morally wrong or offensive) to continue.
(Paso Robles, CA) – A Beer Advocate user (and astute Beernews reader) brought up an interesting point about yesterday’s Firestone Walker XV press release. In journalism speak, I definitely “buried the lede” (or lead).
Past year’s anniversary ales from Firestone have changed the perception of beer. These higher alcohol complex blends are more akin to wine than beer. Like wine, the anniversary beers are vintage releases that can be laid down and aged for years with the flavor profile slowly changing. The secondary market for these beers is similar to wine, with bottles that originally sold for around $20 now fetching upwards of $100 each.
“Who’d have thought a bottle of beer would be valued at $100 plus. It is an affirmation that there is real passion for beer out there,” said David Walker, Co-Owner of Firestone Walker.
Though Firestone Walker isn’t explicitly condoning the resale of its beers in the second market, it kind of is implicitly condoning it by promoting success in the secondary market as a selling point for XV Anniversary Ale.
In nearly four years of covering the craft beer beat, I’ve actually never seen a brewery make a statement like this before.
via Firestone Walker XV to be shipped to all of FW’s markets in 2011 | Beernews.org.
While I think it’s an interesting allusion to make, I believe it’s nothing more than that. It is a measure of success. I assume that Firestone Walker, like most any brewery, believes that they dislike the secondary market and that it is implied these days. It’s been beaten to death. Let’s not cast him in a negative light because he DIDN’T say he disliked something. That seems silly.
I applaud the comment. Maybe we’re finally seeing evidence of a brewer who understands that limited release beers are far underpriced. This is a business and eventually brewers will start to realize that maybe giving profits away to savvy retailers and those in the secondary market isn’t the best way to go. The increase in demand and below market pricing are eventually going to cause a rift.
He merely is using the secondary market anecdotally to comment on how rareish beers are seeing the same passion as only wine used to. Far from advocacy.
I guess unless any mention of secondary markets( or Ebay) must be followed by a canned publicist written statement about how the brewery only supports traditional means of distribution.
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Vinnie from Russian River has made similar statements in the past. It’s not really even close to advocacy, it’s just acknowledgement that they are flattered that their creation is being sold for that much. The remaining emotions that they tend to share include things like “anger” and “disgust.”
I think it’s more like ‘look, we are just like wine!’ which is something craft brewers have been saying for a long time. Pair us with food, hoard us, trade us with your friends, camp out in the rain to get us….
Cilurzo’s comments can be seen here though I have a feeling these aren’t the comments that Chris is alluding to: http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/food/beers-black-market/2011/09/01/gIQAsL0D7J_story.html
One can play devil’s advocate here and I suppose I did just that by raising the question with the post.
At a time when it’s becoming increasingly popular to sell beers on eBay, breweries are outright declaring that these beers should not be re-sold in the aftermarket and enlisting help in identifying these sales (see Russian River & Stone). Given the sensitive nature of the subject with other breweries, I scratch my head as to why this would be mentioned at all in a brewery press release. Surely, there must be at least a dozen other ways to illustrate that this is beer is wine-like.
I still think there is something to be said for implicit advocacy here even though it is most likely not the brewery’s intention. If Russian River, Stone, The Lost Abbey, Three Floyds & others all sent out press releases saying “Hey, our beers are so damn good that people will pay $100 for a bottle of them!” what would be the result?
More people than ever selling beer on eBay.
Advocacy probably isn’t the right term. Negligence perhaps? (In relation to how other breweries market such beers).
This is in response to Mr Thorpe… Thus does not by any means show that limited release beers are underpriced, beer is no different than anything else, there is a price point for everyone, I believe one example would be skimming the cream ( a widely used marketing strategy) where you introduce
a product at a very high price point and sell as much as you can, then lower the price and sell some more and so on. Also we see what happens on eBay with beer with many hyped up other limited release products, for example when tickle me Elmo and the ps3 were released a few years ago and were going for 2-300 and 1000-1500 each respectively. Does that mean Martel should’ve sold all tme,s for 300 bucks and Sony sell the ps3 for 1500, I think not! The percentage of these products, inc beer, that get sold on eBay is very small and IMO in the case of beer, it is good for the industry bc it is almost exclusively being bought by someone who wouldn’t have the opportunity to otherwise, EVER. Or you could go on a beer trading forum and trade away beers often worth even more than you would pay on eBay just to get them. eBay helps expand the reach of craft beer just like trading. What’s the difference between asking for 100 bucks worth of beer for something with a retail a retail worth of 20 bucks or selling it on eBay for 100?
The brewers can solve this problem by anticipating the demand and meeting it. or at least coming *far* closer than they are. Sometimes I think they are supplying as a means to create their own hype. Underpriced? So they instead raise their prices and the world’s top beers are now only available for the extremely wealthy. Sounds like wine, and the last thing beer needs to be is like wine.
I don’t necessarily believe that the “ebay” rule is strictly for limited release. I’d say it’s more for the difficulty to acquire a certain beer. We all saw what happened with the CBS release which was far from limited at over 10k bottles. But with all the hype around it the prices on ebay skyrocketed. I personally would never pay 250$ for a bottle of beer (much like some of the ones i’ve seen on ebay) although some people out there will. This doesn’t necessarily mean that beer is worth that much, just that it is worth that much to a select few people. I think people put too much emphasis on ebay pricing of beers and take that as gospel. I think if breweries start charging 100$/ bottle of a limited release they won’t be selling too many of them unless the beer is outstanding. Also, if you’re against ebay, then i guess you’re against trading as well. Seeing as you’re basically saying that you’d rather have another breweries beer over the one you have. I can’t imagine too many breweries would be thrilled to hear that. I say, you bought the beer, you can do whatever you wish with it. If people are willing to pay you 150$ for a beer you paid 20$ for you’d be stupid not to.
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