Reflections of a Beer Guy

A short time ago, I found myself on a beer junket. My travels took to me to the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia. As I was flying into Kelowna (for the first time), I marvelled at the incredible beauty and then immediately started to wonder about the centuries of glaciers that carved out this magnificent valley. I had the opportunity to tour the Okanagan Springs Brewery with Master Brewer, Stefan Tobler. Great brewery, great beer! The next day as I boarded the plane to Calgary for my next stop on the beer training agenda, I was hit with an epiphany.

I have had an incredible experience with beer and my love and passion for this great social drink has taken me from one coast to the other. I started to jot down cities that I've had the pleasure of conducting beer events in and the list was plentiful and expansive. Some of my favourite memories include a trip to St. John's in the dead of winter, where you could not see the houses because of the snow drifts - this little venture to the Rock also revealed that Canadian Tire money was legal tender on George St. Afterall, you can use the funny money to pick up sundries to keep the establishment running. Another recent trip took me to the Mondiale de la Biere in Montreal - something every beer lover should attend. It was an incredible experience to say the least with over 500 hundred beers available from 40 some odd brewers. Included in my 3 days, was also a tour of the Canada Malting Plant and a personalized tour of the Unibroue brewery in Chambly.

Several months ago, I had the pleasure of hosting a beer dinner on behalf of Microsoft down at the Steam Whistle Brewery in Toronto. During a break in the agenda, one of the speakers from Microsoft asked me whether I ever get tired of doing these kind of events.

Are you kidding? Think of this - I get to travel the country, meet all sorts of new and interesting folks, enjoy a great meal along with fantastic beer all the while being allowed the opportunity to share my passion for beer. This can't possibly be tiring.

I love what I do and more importantly, I love helping others to gain a finer understanding of beer and all that surrounds it.

In the coming months, I will be introducing Prud'homme Beer Certification, Canada's first certification program in beer (similar to a sommelier in wine). You can read about it on this site or pick up a copy of TAPS magazine for more information.

As the most interesting man in the world says - 'Stay Thirsty My Friends'

Gimme a Break!!!

I like to think of myself as pretty open minded. I never tell anyone that beers are substandard because we all have the right to make decisions based on our personal preferences and overall knowledge of the styles that turn our cranks. Sometimes, a light beer hits the spot and other times, we need something with more flavour, aftertaste and overall complexity.

I am however, starting to draw the line on my open mindedness when it comes to beer advertising and marketing. One thing that drives me crazy is the assumption some brewers make; that beer drinkers are not intelligent, sophisticated consumers and that we are driven by our primal urges to get sauced.

Case in point - SAB Miller, the second largest brewer in the world has seen fit in the last two years to bring us some of the most humiliating ads that I've heard in a long time. These are radio campaigns that appeal to our lack of knowledge and basic need for a cold, refreshing beverage. Last year, we heard two separate ads for MGD (one female voice and one male) that started out very robotic and ended up very sexy. The message was that by 'cold filtering' 4 times, it created an outstanding product. In fact, the voice told us that "the third time cold filtering yields a beer of remarkable golden distinction". A couple of points need to be clarified - first of all, all beer is cold filtered - this is nothing special, no one 'warm filters'. Secondly, filtration does not add colour or create body - it actually removes it.

Now, in the past few weeks, I've been so lucky to find out that Miller is now being one of the most 'innovative' brewers by bringing us a 'environmentally friendly, recyclable' MGD plastic bottle. Well, well, well....a plastic bottle. They've been using PET bottles in Eastern Europe for well over a decade and aren't we as a society trying to get away from recyclable plastic. There are many different business that are outlawing plastic water bottles. And by the way, plastic is not the best container for beer as it loses carbonation and transfers unwanted plastic flavours into the beer.

So much for the rant. There are many brewers out there that have intelligent, canny advertisements that peak our interest and tickle our funny bone. Some of my favourites these days are:

• The Most Interesting Man in the World campaign by Dos Equis -
• Enjoy Responsibly by Corona
• the Moosehead ad last year where the girl gets the beer and the guys on the boat are left wanting
• any Stella Artois ad - always cool and very sassy
• the Heineken ad where the boys let out a squeal of delight to the walk-in closet rife with beer
• the new Steam Whistle ad - with the ever increasing sound of beers being uncapped which turns into a train coming over the tracks - clickety clack

Let's all raise a glass to those beer producers who make us smile and appreciate the creativity of their advertising.

And boo to all those who think we are just a bunch of idiots.