It seems to me there are more people who would love to support small breweries than there are small breweries looking for support. This doesn’t apply to breweries who already have public faces–bigger, well established microbreweries (Rogue, Dogfish, Pyramid), breweries with a pub (Steamworks, even RedHook pre-buyout). But I have tried hard to visit small breweries whenever I am in a new town and many of those I’ve inquired about their beers never write me back, or do so months later. I realize having a brewery is hard work, but customer service is important too. It seems to me getting beer to as many customers as possible is more important in a business model than making a very expensive product that will appeal to only few people in your area. I even think your expensive bottle idea would work if coupled with marketing and wide-range delivery/stocking.

I think a lot of local breweries would win many converts and word of mouth if only people could taste their beer once. I have seen such conversion with something like Fin du Monde. Even the opening of a good beerpub allows people to try beer they would have never tried. Microbrews have a product that sells itself (hello! Tasty! Alcoholic!). If microbreweries would take advantage of that I think they would be more financially supported.

So I agree with Brian that customer outreach and education is more important. He’s totally right–most people probably don’t even know what a pilsner is, but they’d be able to see the difference between a maco and micro version.

imho…prohibition did more damage to the beer industry than anything else, and we’re just now seeing the resurgence of beers as they used to be. but I guess that’s another topic entirely.

Our dialog might go a little further if I let you in on my goal. The bottom line is that I’m trying to come up with a revenue solution for small breweries. If running a small brewery was lucrative (say as lucrative as running a small winery) then I assume there would be more small breweries. I want more small breweries so that local beer cultures become more varied, complex, and interesting. (More to drink, more to write about.)

I live in Long Island where I can hop in my car and within an hour be sipping a locally produced wine from any one of Long Island’s thirty some odd wineries. (How many wineries are on Long Island, Lenn?) There are only five breweries on Long Island (not counting Brooklyn). In ten years I want to see that number double. To do that more money needs to be thrown at beer. If that means exploiting the vanity of would-be beer snobs, then I think the price is worth it.

Expensive bottles of beer have a good profit to cost ratio for the producer assuming the expensive bottles can be sold. To sell them, they must be of the highest quality and be labeled informatively. As a beer evangelist, I’ll do my best to help the breweries sell their expensive beer, but I need a little help from them in the form of helpful labels. The real flaw in my argument (which I assume someone will spot eventually) is that the cost for producing a consistent quality expensive beer might narrow that profit to cost ratio and thus eliminate the financial incentive for producing a high end product.

The other problem with my argument is Southampton Publick House. Phil Markowski has been making high end beers in corked bottles for years, but it appears that Southampton’s success is coming in the mass production and marketing of moderately priced ales and lagers in crown capped bottles.

So maybe all we have learned is that there is a beer writer on Long Island who is willing to pay $20 for a bottle of beer and he doesn’t want to be the only penguin jumping off the ice shelf into the stormy sea.

If beer manufacturers make beer this expensive, it may make beer drinking more “respected.” On that I agree. It will also mean that beer drinking will have annoying beer snobs in the same way wine does (ie people more interesting in being seen owning, drinking and knowing things about the beverage, but not actually passionate about how they taste). I mean take the example of a cork–corks aren’t the best technology for saving beverages. If there weren’t so many wine snobs, wine producers could use screw tops or better yet bag in box. But they know no one will buy it even though it is better, because it doesn’t look like an expensive wine. I’d rather taste the best possible beverage than make it appear I am drinking the most expensive possible one. And I think with elevated prices for no reason comes this sort of snobbery.

I am all for breweries coming up with as many diverse batches as possible, but I would rather they spend the time and money on how the beer tastes than on packaging and marketing.