The Bar Towel

Well, it seems I've not much to do this weekend but post my thoughts here. Anyway, just throwing out a few ideas and seeing if there is any interest.

I've only really been exploring the world of beer now for about five months. I've always enjoyed good beer, but never was really into it as a hobby/passion. What happened five months ago? Michael Jackson! I picked up his guide to great beer and I was hooked. I had never realized that there were quite so many varieties of styles and flavours available.

Which leads me to my point. We've been discussing the availability of good beer here in Ontario, both in the LCBO and pubs, and there seems to be this conscensus that the general public is ignorant when it comes to beer. Molsons and Labatts have done a great job. Nevertheless, whenever I talk to my friends and collegues about beer--good beer--there always seems to be an interest. Even those people who claim they don't like beer are intrigued when I start to mention the many different styles available, especially fruit beer. The interest is out there. How else would you explain the popularity of Guinness, Hoegaarden, and . . . Stella (Not that Stella is a particularly good beer, but, like Corona, it seems to have legs).

We need to educate people and promote our passion. For self-interest alone, it seems worthwhile. The more people demand good beer, the more readily it will be available. Do we really want to leave all the marketing to the big breweries?

Does anyone have any ideas on how to get our word out more effectively?

Cheers, Joe

PS The website is a great start. Thanks Cass.

Don't forget that the most popular imports - Guinness, Hoegaarden, Newcastle, etc. are made by big brewers with big budgets. May explain their relative popularity.

I certainly agree. And, no doubt, this accounts for the popularity of Stella and Corona as well.

However, I think there is something more basic here. I think there is a genuine desire for quality products, and this desire gets funnelled into these brands--though Hoegaarden, Guinness, and Newcastle are, in my opinion, quality products. They are seen as alternatives to the big boys. What we need to do is present more alternatives. Can we compete with the big breweries? Not directly, but we can fight a rearguard action. I think that's my point of discussion, how can we do this?

Another side to this debate, I think, is that there is a certain amount of pretention involved in all this, especially in the Stella and Corona crowd. Can we use that to our advantage? Could you imagine if some obscure micro became the beer-of-choice or perhaps a style, say bitter.