Quality is not an act, it is a habit..

When Coors expanded into South Texas in the mid-1970s, the brewery required each distributor to refrigerate their warehouse and, at a minimum, insulate or refrigerate every delivery truck.  Coors was delivered to each warehouse from Colorado on refrigerated trucks or heavily insulated railcars.  The beer was immediately put into the cold storage warehouse.

In those days, for Coors, it was all about quality, and nothing less. The beer had to be in a temperature controlled environment and constantly rotated.  Out of date beer was to be picked up immediately and destroyed.  No questions asked.

With the exception of one retailer, this stringent code of quality control was not an issue when we opened the San Antonio operation.  That retailer, Hipp’s Bubble Room, a small hole-in-the-wall restaurant/bar located in the shadow of the Pearl Brewery that featured Pearl draft, took exception to Coors QA demands. Hipp’s put his weekly order of five cases in the un-air conditioned metal storage building behind his bar.  Needless to say during Texas summers, the temperature in that building was excessive.  Attempts were made by many Coors management visits to convince the owner to store the beer inside the bar, but he refused.  Coors, having no other choice, stopped selling beer to Hipp’s.  Consumer demand forced the owner to get Coors from the bar next door, Little Hipps, owned by his son.  Neither Coors nor Hipp’s relented and Coors continued to stand by its quality standards, even if it meant losing a good account.

Recent visits and discussions with multiple beer distributors have revealed that their number-one issue is with the quality of the new craft beers.  Without exception, multiple issues have arisen concerning the acquisition of a new brewer, quickly followed by quality issues.  The story is the same: One batch of beer was good; the next batch was off-taste.  In almost every case, the wholesaler soon discontinued these brands.  Like Coors in the mid-1970s, they had no choice.

Charlie Papazian, former head of the Brewers Association, wrote a commentary last month in the New Brewer, stated that a major issue for beer is quality. His solution, however, was to create a mandate that all crafts be shipped, stored, and sold cold.  No more retail warm-shelf placements.  Papazian, further advocated for reduction of redundancy in major brands, thus providing cold-space openings for crafts.  By getting the retailer to so, it would enhance the consumer’s experience with fresh craft beer and, thus, in-turn, grow the segment.  What would a cold box look like if all the Bud Light, Miller Lite, and Coors Light packages were on the warm shelf, replaced by crafts in the cold box?  Where would imports go?

Craft brewers continue to make access into the marketplace, and franchise laws are top issues for this middle tier.  Wholesalers continue to push back with QA issues.  Perhaps, if crafts put a priority on QA over access to market it would not have become the issue it is today.  High quality beer is much easier to sell, (e.g. New Belgium or Boston Beer), if the consumer knows the beer they are purchasing is the freshest possible. Fresh beer leads to repeat buyers.

Charlie Papazian’s ideal retail setting is not going to happen anytime soon, however, increasing quality for crafts should be the industries’ priority if crafts are to continue to grow.

Quality is not an act; it is a habit.

Beer Fodder;  cp-article