The Fate of Beer at Starbucks

So what ever happened to the Grande Americana Double IPA with Extra Foam?

While not outright abandoning the idea altogether, Starbucks Coffee currently has made no announcements to expand its beer service beyond its two Seattle, WA, concept locations, 15the Ave Coffee & Tea, and Roy Street Coffee & Tea.

You may recall during the past two years that Starbucks underwent a sweeping Starbocalypse where a large portion of its over 7,000 locations were shut down in anticipation of the recession and upon a re-examining of a business model centered around canvassing every street corner with caffeine induced opportunities to purchase James Taylor albums and books chronicling fraudulent stories about war torn African children.

Evil Clowns

Starbucks execs also recognized an even greater threat to their $4.00 cup of coffee business; Yes, the $1.00 cup of coffee business. McDonalds began selling its McCafe, which not only was cheaper, but according to customers, also tasted better. This spelled trouble for our friend, the little mermaid coffee lady with two tails.

Annoying Clowns. Preferred by more Americans over James Taylor.

Problem: Solution. Beer: Beer.

So Starbucks did what we all do during difficult times; it turned to alcohol. In summer of 2009 plans were announced to launch beer and wine services beginning at the new 15th Ave Coffee & Tea concept coffee house, and to then expand into other locations. According to a November, 2009, news release that is still posted, 10 more concept locations were also lined up, all apparently planning to serve beer. And keep in mind, Beer was only slated for the concept locations, not the usual stamped locations bustling with aspiring novelists and soccermoms.

But like all decisions influenced by alcohol, the decision to serve beer might have been a little too optimistic. Now according to Starbucks, in what represents a step backwards, there are no "announcements" (as opposed to "plans") to expand beer service beyond the two concept locations nestled deep within Seattle. And within those two locations, Starbucks states that it focuses on serving Pacific Northwest regional brews. While the 15th Ave C & T website is silent on the beer menu, Roy Street's site shows that of the 8 Beers on the menu, there are 3 beers that could be considered local crafts. They are Snoqualmie Wildcat IPA, Steelhead Scotch Porter, and Full Sail Wassall.

Craft Beer, a Clown's Natural Enemy

Starbucks should do what Starbucks does best, sell a lifestyle. And by launching more concept locations that individually reflect the specifics of the regional markets, they will find overlaps in consumers' demand for good coffee and local craft beers. It all appeals to the younger artisan loving "Millenial" types who, loving all brands they find sincere, genuine and local, would appreciate the change from the one-size-fits-all stamp coffee locations. To attempt to serve Beer at its stamp locations would require location specific contingencies of which the energy needed to sort out would be better spent on just exploring concept locations. Of course, Starbucks is smart enough to know this already.

Besides, Ronald McDonald's European cousin (Ronaldo?) has been serving beer for quite some time now. McDonalds already has the knowhow for adding beer services to its stamp locations and could easily outdo Starbucks in that game winning on every front from logistics, legal, and marketing. But McDonald's is limited to serving regular common denominator beers with its regular common denominator menu.

Ronaldo McDonald, winner

What Starbucks can do that McDonalds just couldn't, is to offer region specific craft beers that appeal to those who like to fancy themselves as having discriminating tastes. This would be a huge opportunity for small craft brewers throughout the US because, as opposed to trying to pry into regular bars, restaurants, and groceries that are dominated by regular beer distribution issues, they would have a ready made market backed by a somewhat strong corporate player.

Brewers Take Note

It would be wise for craft brewers to pay close attention to Starbucks' plans because any concept location would likely have only a small menu offering of the craft beers. So it would pay off to get in especially early on any opportunity. According to Starbucks, the decision of what Beers to place on the menu rests with the concept locations' management, who, of course, rely on customer choice.

So cheers to Starbucks moving forward with its concept locations and cheers to the little, two-tailed, mermaid coffee lady. May she one day be a two-tailed, mermaid beer lady as well.

Science Never Lies

And remember, bathing suit season is just around the corner. Thank God for beer.

Terrapin Coffee Oatmeal Imperial Stout

Breakfast is Served

We all have our routines, especially in the morning. And Terrapin, by just adding the alcohol to the oatmeal and coffee, has gone ahead and eliminated one of the steps in my morning routine for me. Thank you and good morning.

Released every year in November, Terrapin teams with a Georgia coffee company named Jittery Joe’s to make the imperial stout as part of it’s “Monster Beer Tour”, a seasonal series which Terrapin unoriginally describes as “extreme”. And for a brewery whose major marketing thrust consists of lovable but not-so-subtle ganja references, you wouldn’t be surprised that the unofficial name of this brew is “Wake ‘N’ Bake”. For those of you who skipped college, or high school even, and don’t catch the meaning of wake and bake, it refers to the common practice of waking up (“wake”) and smokin’ the herb first thing (“the bake”) right before you start your long day of watching cartoons and smoking more weed more.

And keep in mind, Athens, Georgia, the location of Terrapin Brewing Co, is a college town/party epicenter. Know thy market. But the “Wake ‘N’ Bake” reference is only found on the website and nowhere on the bottle, at least not in my next-door market of Alabama. Perhaps marketing and sales at Terrapin knew it was too much of a commercial risk to essentially have the word “duuuuude” placed on their six-packs across America. So they decided to pipe it down a bit.

The Sticky Icky

So Terrapin adds the oat flakes, the pale, chocolate, and black malts, along with Chinook and Northern Brewer hops (collectively known as the “Bake” part), and the jittery guys add the grinds (the “Wake” part).

Crack it open and it pours thick and creamy like chocolate milk. A quick thin filmy light tan-white head of foam appears and begins to bubble out into little patches revealing an oily darkness beneath.

The aroma is certainly a roasted espresso coffee along with dark chocolate. I’m reminded of those tiny chocolate covered coffee beans that a friend used to hand out while studying for law school exams (yeah, that’s right. We were hardcore back then). In fact, for the most proximate smell, go to the grocery. Select some dark coffee beans. Place them in the grinder and press start. Dump some Hershey’s chocolate syrup from aisle 7 into the machine. Lean over it and inhale. That’s what this beer is on the nose. Delicious and awakening. And as much as I try to, I can’t pull out any hops from the aroma. Only coffee and chocolate.

Flavor is big. This is an imperial, after all. Along the thick, oily, and rich texture a sweet malty chocolate and a smokiness persist through first, what I want to say is the “oaty” presence, quickly followed by second, the dark and dry malt flavors. Though the pungent Chinook does not immediately break through, the aftertaste is all bitterness adding the appropriate balance. While flavor is not completely uniform from start to finish, this beer was not meant to be too complex. The finish that lingers is all beer, but begs to be washed back with a glass of milk.

Now, we know that the particular coffee blend used for the stout is a “premium” blend of 1 to 2 South American and African bean selections, but what we don’t know is the precise caffeine amount, say in milligrams, that each 12 once bottle contains. Though considering that this Imperial is an imperial of 8%, there is substantially more Bake than there is Wake.

The Stats

ABV: 8.6% or 8.1% depending whether you ask the website or the bottle, respectively.

IBU: 50, which is the absolute high end of the typical stout bitterness range, fitting for an Imperial.

Hops: Chinook, Northern Brewer.

Sales are Down but way Up

According to the Brewers Association, sales of domestic craft beer rose from 2008 to 2009 by an increased sales volume of 7.2% and by a dollar amount of 10.3% while beer sales as a whole declined by 2.2%, including a 9.8% drop in import volume sales. This drop in beer sales has not been felt since the mid 1950s. For some quick stats see the Brewers Association Fact Sheet.

2009 also saw an increase in the amount of craft brewers from 2008's 1,485 to 1,542. That's an extra 57 craft breweries. Whether those 57 are only just opened on the books or if they're fully operational and getting to market is not known. For those of you who love pie, these graphics break it down.

Anhueser-Busch and MillerCoors who represent 80% of the market were down 2.1% and 1.9% respectively. These large brewers are not worried, however, because they wisely increased prices and cut costs during 2009 to offset these expected declines.

Yeungling and Boston Beer Co 2009 sales caused them to both outgrow their Craft Brewers status which is partly defined as brewing less than 2 million barrels a year (1 barrel = 31 gallons). New brewery O'Fallon Brewery of St. Louis had a 36% increase of sales. Being a start-up, O'Fallon had plenty of room to grow and relied on outsourced contract brewing to meet demand (as opposed to the established Boston Beer Co. that only increased by 2%). Still, O'Fallon admits it had a higher target than 36%.

Other Sources: Here, Here, and Here.

Looking for a Brewfest?

One of the many many long lists of Beer Festivals throughout the world (and USA) by date. Commit it to memory.

River City Brewery Festival 2010. Get There.

On March 13, Memphis is again hosting its River City Brewery Festival at Handy Park to benefit St. Jude's Research Hospital. Our Alabama own Olde Towne Brewing Co will be there, along with some of my personal favorites like Abita and New Belgian Brewing.

Let us know if you go. We'd be glad to post some pics and hear some good stories about it. Tickets at the link.

I'd Drink It.

Some kids daydream what it's like to fly in a spaceship, or live underwater, or about winning the big game. On my spare time I daydream about the beers that haven't been made yet that I would want to drink. And by "spare time" I mean "office hours." And seeing as how the home brewing equipment is a bit dusty theses days (the shame), I can only plan ahead by designing the labels for the beers that I hope to get around to brewing.

So in honor of St. Patrick's Day I designed this label, and it's actually the bottleneck label, not the body label.

McSorely's ain't Budweiser

As the above visual aide clearly demonstrates. McSorely's is not owned or brewed by Anhueser Busch.

Confusion arises when reading on the packaging of McSorely's Irish Pale Ale that this beer is brewed in Latrobe, PA, the legendary location associated with the somewhat legendary beer (for some reason) Rolling Rock Old #33.

As many of us know, Rolling Rock was sold off to A-B, which promptly shut the brewery down, and killing a small part of Pennsylvania's soul with it. As for the brewery, once bought out, it and the production plant was closed.

searching for the appropriate image, I just Googled "closed plant".

So McSorley's is actually an Ale House located in NYC. Excuse me. It's an Ye Olde Tymey Ale House apparently. McSorley contract brews with The Lion Brewery which uses the old Latrobe brewery in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania (thereby resuscitating a small part of PA's soul.)

aaaaaahhh.

In what some would describe as a dastardly beer plot, Anhueser Busch likes to sneak onto the shelves a few Beer products that mimic the look and feel of domestic microbrews and craft beers. When it can't outright buy a competitor it sends in a Stealth Beer to take aim and fire. Though these beers don't announce that they're manufactured from A-B knowing that their target market would scoff unless protected by anonymity, they still posses all the subtlety of a 25 year old trying to blend in at a high school party. A-B comes up with beers like Land Shark Lager from the "Margaritaville Brewing Co." Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight. Look, I can't say just what the hell Jimmy Buffet has been doing with himself for the past two and a half decades, but it sure as hell ain't wearing rubber boots while leaning over a brewing vat trying to get the perfect original gravity reading.

McSorely's and Lion Brewing Co need to understand that their target market has become highly weary of A-B microstealths and that the word "Latrobe" placed on the package needs to be as fully explained as possible.

Gooder Good People Brewing Co Pale Ale

Ordering a draft beer at ROJO! cantina of the Highland area in Birmingham, AL, can be a gamble. But not the fun pissing away chips at a crowded craps table type of gambling. More like the sad type of gambling where you're slouched at a slot machine with your last Newport hanging out of the corner of your mouth knowing that once you're down to your last nickel the aging waitress in the short dress won't bring you any more complimentary Bud Lite.

"this time is it, I can feel i... damn... this time is it, I can feel i... damn..."

The gamble comes at Rojo because more times than not ordering a draft beer gets me something either warm, flat, metallic, or oily or chewy, and so forth, instead of anything proper. It could be caused by a number of things; dirty tap lines, warmed beer, soapy glasses. I don't know exactly, but it happens. A lot. And my point is not to pick on Rojo, as these problems are sadly shared across the town with other bars/restaurants.

My point to is to illustrate the fortune that came my way when last night while at Rojo. I ordered a local draft Pale Ale brewed less than a mile away at the Good People Brewery. You see, another sad fact of the local draft service is that locally brewed draft suffers from quality control, not from lack of care or professionalism (I like to think), but because the new guys, as a consequence of their newyness, have a harder time getting their quality control systems in place (I like to think). Good People, for all their effort, creates excellent and fun beers that are undermined by the poor tap maintenance of, well, whoever (distributors, bartenders, managers, and the brewers. It's a team effort to screw things up sometimes). This is important to Good People, as their product can only be found on draft.

But such was not the case on this fateful Thursday night at Rojo.

The sweet bartender of beer righteousness poured the best Good People Pale Ale I've ever had. A draft! and a locally brewed draft at that. I double downed on black and won. Crisp and effervescent and at that perfect not too cold temperature but just cold enough to last the entire beer. The nose was toasty and floral, but faint. Like a Pale Ale. The body was properly lighter than the usual Good People thick chewiness. Then that taste. Nothing too unique or "in your face" about it, but not lacking in flavor by any means. Like a Pale Ale. The toasty malt was just enough to step in front of whatever flavoring hops were there. Just well balanced, and though I want to say simple, that makes it seem plain, and that's not fair to this beer.

It's just that with so many brewers these days trying to "push the extremes" of beer flavors, we as drinkers end up surrounded by "extreme" pale ales, when by definition, such a beer ought to be mild (when compared to cousins IPAs, APAs, ESBs, etc). And the Good People Pale Ale is just that; mild, as well as unassuming. You can drink it without really having to think about it, but not in the Bud-Lite-glued-to-my-hand-all-afternoon way of not having to think about. But rather in the true session beer sense of not having to think about it.

Think about it. According to Good People Brewing Co, the Pale Ale has an original gravity of 1.054 and a IBU of 36. I can guesstimate an ABV of approximately 5%, so paired with that relatively low bittering amount of 36 IBU, this is quite the session beer. Enjoy one right after the other. And so here is the part of this article where I appropriately sum things up with my gambling metaphor by declaring that the Good People Pale Ale is a sure bet... when served from a proper draft.