In the middle of a
big shop, I have been stood in the beer aisle of the local Tesco Extra for over
five minutes. For a good while my partner and I have dissected every bottle on
the end shelves. Here, the bottles are more variable and much more colourful.
There are also many new editions to the choice that previously stood here
during previous shops.
Once every single new choice and discontinued product
from this area has been discussed, a small orange box containing four 330ml
cans of Thornbridge’s Jaipur are placed in the basket before the shop
continues. Rarely do any of my supermarket beer purchases include more than one
of the same beer (unless a family party or Christian holiday is coming up) but
this time it feels necessary. It feels inclusive. It feels like the result of a
week of good marketing.
Where are the UK hype beers?
Some time ago, and I
apologise to the author for not being able to recall exactly who it was, a
British beer writer asked What - or where - were the British hype beers? Whilst
the American market has numerous queue-inducing releases and Belgium has
beers "exclusive" to monasteries or lambics with annual international
dedicated days, the UK beer scene seemed devoid of yearly vaunted nonsense,
especially with the Rainbow Project coming to an end and Unhuman Cannonballs
still being sat on bottle shop shelves this year.
It has often been
said on this blog that the British beer scene is unique and should be treated
as so, rather than trying to capitalise on advertising ideas that work in
completely different markets. We'll find a very British way of ballyhoo-ing
beers - and so we have if you look at the recent trend of the more casual beer
enthusiast.
If I didn’t lurk
around numerous social media platforms to get a wide scope of industry chat
then I may have missed the big British beer defining moment of 2018 that was
not to be missed: the changing of the Tesco guard.
It has been almost
two years since I last wrote about the introduction of a greater range to the UK's largest supermarket chain and the enthusiasm has more than doubled this
time. This time an overhaul of choices in the beer aisle would see the
inclusion of 440ml cans, milkshake stouts and b for the first time. The
excitement was intense. Miles were travelled and multiple stores vetted - one
mentioning that they had visited fifteen different stores in search of the new
beers in the first couple of days - with people boasting about the shelves they
had cleared of cans they had never tasted before. The search for newly canned Jaipur earned its own hashtag. The complaints from those that felt they had
missed out rang loudly across social media supermarket support teams.
Just like last time,
I sat back observing this hysteria as perplexed as before. The difference this
year is that, rather than overly criticise, I tried to consider why British
beer drinkers are so enamoured by supermarket beer.
How Much?
The conversations
about the evils of supermarkets selling goods from small independent breweries
has continued for many years. I expected much of the same this time but the
discussion had shifted. The impact on various businesses within the industry
from this increased availability wasn't discussed as much as before. Instead,
satisfaction over the on shelf bargains people were purchasing was the
focus.
It is easy for some
to ignore that for many pricing is a key factor in all acquisitions, alcoholic
or not. Whilst discussions on fair pricing is a must in order to keep the
industry alive, whilst the bargains are available then the people will make
their choices based on fiscality rather than morality. When exclusive annual
releases at £20 a pop are released, there will be a large proportion of
drinkers who cannot justify the outlay, meaning that they cannot join in the
online hullabaloo. When the beer everybody is drinking is £3 then it at a price
point where most can get involved.
Of course,
supermarket beer prices have also long been attributed to pub closures and the
price difference will be used to justify buying these beers in large volumes.
In this sense I consider a post I wrote last year - It's Cheaper Down the Pub -
and the comparisons I made to bottle and can drinking then. My local sells
Thornbirdge Jaipur for £3.40 a pint on cask. Tesco sells four cans at 330ml for
£6. The liquid price equivalent would bring that cask beer in at four cans for
£7.92 or the supermarket cans in at £2.58 a pint. There is a difference, though
whether that is fair based on dispense method and service is
questionable.
Still, looking at
some of the other beers newly available and bringing them into price
equivalents means that, based on their Tesco price, by the pint the following beers
are:
Thornbridge Jaipur -
£2.58 a pint
Wild Card King of
Hearts - £3.10 a pint
Vocation Love &
Hate - £3.87 a pint
Fourpure Treeline -
£4.30 a pint
Perhaps those beers
feel cheaper than the local specialised bottle shop. I'm not sure they are
overtly cheaper than drinking in the pub, depending on your geographical
location. The value of the supermarket shelf can be exaggerated for me.
The Commodity Product
Not to keep referring
back to that post from 2016 but so little has changed since then that this post is rendered pointless. Speaking on an old experience of Ossett Brewery's Treacle
Stout, I explained that I can't quite understand the need to clear shelves of
beer just because it is there.
That is, for my sins,
to keep myself within the industry bubble and deny the common treatment of beer
as a basic commodity. There are many newcomers to the concept of drinking
different and better beer who don't view it as a special treat worth chasing
rainbows for. I've often dismissed fridge filling as I don't do it myself. Many
do.
In fact, pictures of
full fridges are some of the more common brouhaha images on beer social media.
It is cooler to have your white electronics packed with the latest 4 for £6
offer than it is to have bottles of Foú Fonne.
However, the packed
fridge is for those who are used to having a beer to casually reach for during
Gogglebox or the Champions League. A can or two of something tasty fits the
bill. The "cleared the shelves" attitude may have confused me last
time, but now I see the through the hubris for what it is.
Quantity not Quality
Amongst the many
trends to come from the latest big shop choice increase is the case of inconsistency,
seen most in Vocation Brewery's Love & Hate. This New England IPA seems to
have suffered on the canning line with clear oxidisation happening far too
frequently in batches.
Surprisingly, this
hasn't put people off but led to an additional side-quest to the supermarket
hunt. "I've got one of the good
ones." "Looks like I've been unlucky and had an oxidised one." “I've
bought three so far, one good, two bad - will buy more and report back..."
I want to dismiss it
as baffling but the purpose here is to try and understand. I would
personally prefer to spend £6 on a beer I know to be good than buy two cans of
a beer known to play Russian Roulette with quality. The concept of turning beer
purchasing into a pack of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans is a new one to me
but that is how the British are approaching it.
For what it is worth,
I have tried the Love & Hate. It wasn't oxidised. It tasted like a lot of
the disappointing attempts at the style I've had from British breweries,
lacking the soft pillow mouthfeel of those more reminiscent of the American
versions, and also lacking the stone fruit juiciness of the more exceptional
incarnations from over here. It was just okay. Does that mean I will return to
it just because it was £3? Absolutely not, especially now I know there's a good chance I'll get an oxidised mess. For others, the perception of
value changes how forgiving they are to the brewer.
There's a concept that works...
The fact that I am
touching base with this topic just 23 months later shows that the supermarket purchasing
teams have become a little wiser to beer trends. The overhaul of the beer aisle
options in all the major supermarkets now come in cycles. They have noticed the
initial weeks and months of beer hunting, shelf clearing and fridge filling.
Eventually this boisterous behaviour will fade and the sales will slow. It is
then time to hit reset so the games can begin again
Here I am, sat
writing this with a can of Thornbirdge Jaipur next to me. It tastes like it
does from every vessel, though with the bitterness slightly amplified by the
freshness. It is good but it will also sate my desire for this beer for the
evening. That box of four will take me weeks to complete. If they are replaced
with the same beer it will only be because I enjoyed them. My fridge will still
remain a place for out-of-date yoghurts and six variants of mustard.
But that is just how
I function, speaking as somebody who has never queued for a fresh release, made
a pilgrimage just to collect beer or attended a Zwanze Day event. That doesn't
mean that those trends don't exist. If the UK was looking for its own take on
overwrought beer lust then it may have found it in the beer aisle.
The majority of the
comments I refer to have appeared on private Facebook forums and therefore I
have been unable to link to them.
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