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There have been two major news stories involving the craft beer industry in the last week: Wicked Weed selling out to AB-InBev and Heineken buying Lagunitas outright (they previously had held a 50% share of the company). Now, I could write op-eds on my thoughts about each of these events, but I don’t really have anything to add to the discussion that hasn’t already been said. But in summary: I have never had any Wicked Weed beers, so I don’t feel like I’m going to be missing out on anything by not purchasing them in the future (I don’t purchase ABI-owned products anymore). I’m not crazy about a major macro brewery like Heineken buying a major craft brewer like Lagunitas, but Heineken doesn’t have the evil track record that ABI does. I won’t boycott Lagunitas, but I now lump them in with “Big Craft” brands like Yuengling, Samuel Adams, New Belgium etc. Those are all fine(ish) breweries, but not the kind I go out of my way to get. They’re something I’d order if there were no other craft choices available.
Not surprisingly, craft beer fanboys have been freaking out over these sales and have been announcing they’ll boycott these breweries. Their logic seems to be that smaller is better and bigger is worse, but why? Are we supposed to assume Heineken is going to start demanding Lagunitas use rice or corn in their stouts and IPAs? Probably not, although it is possible the recipes will be tweaked a bit in order to brew them on an even larger scale (Lagunitas is now available in many European countries thanks to Heineken).
And what about the claim that every other time a craft brewery has sold out to Big Beer, the “quality” has deteriorated? Now, that’s clearly an opinion, though some people say that like it’s a fact. If it is indeed a fact, how would you qualify that statement? By what metric would you measure the “quality” before and after the acquisition? What most people mean when they say “quality” is cachet.Image may be NSFW.
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Cachet is traditionally defined as a distinguishing mark of prestige (either figuratively or literally–>). You could also call it the je ne sais quoi factor. It’s something that you may not be able to put into words; something metaphysical perhaps. It’s more than just personal opinion or even the ability to back up an opinion with evidence – it’s that unmistakable feeling that you know something is great. Cachet is what makes Heinz ketchup taste better than the store brand, or what makes Advil work better than generic ibuprofen (even though in both of those examples the latter might literally be the former in different packaging). It’s why people will spend top dollar on designer clothes, luxury cars, anything from Sharper Image, etc. because those things all have a cachet factor that just seems to make them “better” than the cheaper alternatives. And in the world of beer, it’s why some people will pay exorbitant amounts of money and/or travel long distances just to buy a certain beer or visit a certain brewery because they’re chasing that cachet rush.
I used to be a cachet junkie. I once took the day off from work and drove 100 miles to get a bottle of Founders CBS. I even drove all the way from Albany to northern New Jersey to get a bottle of Firestone Walker Parabola. I spent probably $100 on beer and shipping expenses to trade with someone in Europe for Westvletern 12. At the time, all of these purchases were worth the money and effort (in retrospect… not so much). Though some of these beers were not quite the “nectar of the gods” I had been hoping for, I never felt I had gotten hosed.
Over time, cachet has diminished in value to me. I’ve come to appreciate virtually every beer style, so a really great-tasting pilsner will impress me as much as a double IPA. And it’s not that I’m a hypocrite, but when I see friends or strangers going on what can only be described as a 400-mile beer run, I’m overcome by a sense of confusion and pity. Really? Brewery X makes such fantastic beers than you’re compelled to spend an entire day on the road; use up a tank of gas; and drop all that cash just to try some beer because all the other beer nerds say it’s world class stuff?
Hey, I firmly believe you can’t argue taste, so if you find that that’s the best beer you’ve ever had in your life or that the trip was worth every penny, then I’m not going to tell you you’re wrong. However, I would argue that what makes it seem like the best-tasting stuff on Earth is the cachet value you’ve assigned to it. And the thing about cachet – especially in the beer world – is that it’s fleeting. You can prove this to yourself by thinking about what breweries you coveted just a few years ago versus the ones you covet now. Remember when Dogfish Head was the must-have brewery? Or was that Stone? Or Deschutes? Or Three Floyds? Or Founders? Or Cigar City? Or Ommegang? Or The Bruery? Etc.
I can recall certain beer nerds raving about one or more of those breweries as recently as five years ago. But if you ask them their opinion of these breweries today, their reaction will be somewhere between “meh” and “They’re still good, but I’m not in a rush to buy them anymore because Breweries X, Y and Z are soooo much better.” But what is it that causes breweries to lose some (if not all) of their cachet? They didn’t sell out to Big Beer (well, most of them haven’t). They didn’t radically change their recipes. In fact, they’ve been innovative and have released plenty of new products. So why aren’t you willing to stand in line for them now like you once did? Did you change or did the brewery change?
The opposite of cachet is stigma, which is essentially the same concept but with a negative connotation. Now that Lagunitas is owned outright by Heineken, there will be a stigma attached to their name as many whiny people on Twitter and various forums have already demonstrated. But stigma, just like cachet, is in the eye of the beholder. Craig Gravina and I have opined about this when other breweries sold out to Big Beer, but it’s worth repeating: Does Elysian or Goose Island taste bad now that they’re owned by Budweiser? If it’s being brewed by the same people using the same recipe and ingredients at the same brewery, then it’s completely reasonable to say the beer is the same and should taste the same. Yet if you browse through Untappd you’ll see plenty of people convinced a former favorite beer of theirs is now yucky because they can taste the stigma. NOTE: If it’s a different recipe being brewed by different people in a different location, then there certainly is some weight to the argument that it’s not the same.
Letting go of both stigma and cachet will really free your mind (and your wallet) as a beer drinker. I know it has for me. It’s why I can buy “mainstream” brands like Southern Tier or Oskar Blues or even PBR and genuinely enjoy them. Oh, I still really love hard-to-get products like Founders KBS, or a $20 Belgian, or an IPA smuggled in from Vermont; but each of them has a time and place. I just don’t feel compelled to drink those types of beers all the time. Beer drinkers who allow cachet, stigma, and even peer pressure, to dictate their purchases tend to be some of the crankiest, snobbish people I’ve ever met. What’s the point of drinking top shelf stuff if you’re genuinely annoyed at having to drink something else?
So the next time you rush to a bar or bottle shop because they just got something exclusive in, or you spend a lot of money on a trade, or drive to the next state to get beer you can’t get at home; ask yourself what is it you’re really enjoying – the beer or the cachet?