Thursday 4 July 2013

The Rise of The Cuckoo (Part 2)

OK, that last post upset a few people, and some other people enjoyed it. It's fair to say that it was pretty broad-brushed, made some sweeping generalisations, and made uncomfortable reading for at least a few people that I know personally. So in the interests of balance, a clarification.

I'm not a huge fan of Ricky Gervais, but during one of his misanthropic rants about the nature of fame and celebrity a few years ago, he made the point that "wanting to be famous" isn't actually a career aspiration. He made the point that when you see (for example) George Clooney on the red carpet, waving, it's as a by-product of his work. He didn't work to get famous, he worked to become an actor - the fame is a by-product of his work.

The current explosion of interest in beer has led to a lot of people getting into the business, by whatever route. Some see it as an exciting career opportunity, a way to make their hobby their job. Others see it as a way of riding the new trend and making some money while it lasts. Others want to be part of the party, and just see what happens as a result. And you know what? That's fine by me, I'm happy that beer generally is finally getting the exposure that it deserves.

And I was somewhat misplaced in my singling out of cuckoo brewers as the target of my irritation. What I realised last night, in a flash of lupulin-inspired clarity after a series of somewhat disappointing beers, is - pay attention to this now - owning a brewery is no guarantee of good beer.

There, I've said it.

And you know what else I'm going to say?

That's what craft beer is all about.

Brewing is a craft, something diligently learned, endlessly studied, repeated until the actions are second nature, in a way that belies the years of effort taken to acquire it. A profound understanding of the process and how to make it go right. Making beer is easy, but making great beer is hard. The glass of beer that satisfies in an exceptional and yet undefinable way, that's the papped photo of George Clooney (your icon may vary), chiselled and dapper, breathtakingly handsome, waving to his fans on the red carpet, a single perfect moment crystallised by years of craft.

There's more to it than that. of course. Cuckoo brewers might actually turn up, brew their own recipe, dig out the mash tun, and genuinely rent the down time on a plant to brew their own beer. Sometimes they might collaborate with a technically skilled brewer to make a beer to their that the skilled brewer wouldn't ever think of making. Sometimes, they might contract a brewery to make a beer to recipe, but not actually get involved beyond that. And sometimes, an entrepreneur might contract a beer in a particular style with no more input than asking for a modern hop-heavy IPA.

So yeah, maybe you have a point. Maybe I would rather drink a well-made cuckoo-brewed beer than a badly-made nouveau-craft car-crash-in-a-glass

9 comments:

  1. Zak - both these posts together perfectly sum up everything that is poor about beer sometimes - and we can't help things like marketing over quality, as its a natural aspect of fashion-led (or trend-led, perhaps) markets like beer. The same thing is happening in food - BBQ joints and street food charging a lot of money for average food (not naming names). Have you been reading the Craft vs Crafty debate on the other side of the pond? I'm sure you've seen it, but there's some excellent arguments happening about the more cynical side of 'Marketed craft beer' without brewers such as Blue Moon et al...and we're already starting to see the odd 'crafty' brewery pop up over here now! Welcome back, btw.

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    1. Looking forward to seeing you next week mate.

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  2. Funnily enough, on the subject of repeated actions, we asked Stuart Ross from Magic Rock last week, as an aside, whether he thought he'd learned to brew by practicing for ten thousand hours. When he did the sums, he concluded he'd put in about eight thousand at Kelham Island alone.

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    1. That's very interesting, I didn't know about that, but it makes total sense.

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  3. Hours mean nothing, a brewer in a mega brewery can spend his whole life churning out bland beer, because he has to stick to the recipe. But take that brewer out, put him in a small micro and ask him to brew a great beer. 90% can't because they have no idea how to do it. because this is where the art comes in all the Mega Brewery brewers know the science of the back of the hand , you have to. But art that doesn't get taught on brewing Science University courses, because it can't. It's a blend of science and art and there are some who don't know the science but have the art and have got lucky...but at some stage these guys will hit a problem , because they don't know the science.
    So make of that what you will

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    1. I'll happily defer to your expertise Mike, and I agree that brewing, like cooking, is a blend of art and science. Good brewers aren't born that way, they are made.

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  4. Yep, I agree when doing tours of the Brewery and people ask me how do you come up with a new beer. The reply is , it's like being a chef who knows his ingredients and he knows which ones are going to compliment each other and which ones may cause a contrast and its the art of blending them together to achieve a good overall balance, without any particular flavour dominating to the detriment of the others

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  5. Zak, I like how this resolved by the end of part 2...

    I find it odd that people would have an issue with a good cuckoo brewery who in essence might rent the kit and possibly the license etc.. they may even contract it. They could be very experienced brewers themselves but not have the capital or even want to take the potentially crippling financial step, possibly irresponsibly.
    But all in all. The beer could be excellent.

    Yet preferable seems to be....

    This in contrast to someone with financial muscle ploughing money in to it and hiring a head brewer to create recipes and make his product...

    or again. People with no experience diving in feet first and making bad beer...


    But they own the brewery, which is the most important thing.

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  6. "And I was somewhat misplaced in my singling out of cuckoo brewers as the target of my irritation. What I realised last night, in a flash of lupulin-inspired clarity after a series of somewhat disappointing beers, is - pay attention to this now - owning a brewery is no guarantee of good beer.

    There, I've said it.

    And you know what else I'm going to say?

    That's what craft beer is all about."

    Zak, I really liked this point. As a homebrewer, I would love to own and operate a microbrewery, brewing great beer. However, that does not mean I could make a commercially viable brew, based on quality, no matter how many AG brews I have done at home. I have no romantic notions of what brewing on a larger than 5 gallon capacity holds. I have helped brew on a small commercial scale before(4bbl)including the dirty work & appreciate the hard work that goes into producing a (great) beer.
    I think we are going to see a shedding of breweries in the near future, based on the fact that the market is becoming saturated with new "craft" breweries popping up all over. I am not suggesting that there should just be a few but it is the motivation behind setting up a brewery that annoys the shit out of me. There is a lot of all surface but no substance bandwagon jumping going on and I feel that can only do good beer an injustice.
    I suppose time will tell.

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