SF Beer Week 2013

Every year, Northern California residents look forward to (over) a week of beer debauchery. Simply known as SF Beer Week, any brewery or bar worth a damn residing in NorCal will host a range of events every night. Food pairings, beer dinners, tap takeovers, etc. Throw in a few festivals and you have the makings for an awesome week of beer drinking.

I was lucky enough to attend the Opening Gala at the Concourse Exhibition Center in SF and the Double IPA Festival in Hayward as a representative for the Cicerone program.

With 50+ breweries pouring their beers with unlimited tastings... I highly suggest dropping the $75 for tickets to the Opening Gala.

Lagunitas Sucks on Cask at Mars Bar

The Obvious big names in craft beer were represented. Sierra Nevada had their Barrel Aged Big Foot Barley Wine, Russian River was pouring Pliny The Younger, and Lagunitas had 3 beers pouring and a cask of Lagunitas Sucks across the street at Mars Bar & Restaurant. 

Lots of smaller up-and-coming breweries were in attendance and pouring some excellent brews. Heretic, Track 7, Knee Deep, Iron Springs, Berryessa, Ruhstaller, etc. all had staff on hand answering questions about their beers. My favorite new beer experience was American Wild #2 by Mill Valley Beerworks (Dark Strong Ale aged in wine barrels). 

It wasn't all drinking, however. A few Certified Cicerone® joined Master Cicerone® Nicole Erny at a booth where we asked questions regarding the program and passed out literature/pamphlets for both cicerone.org and beersavvy.com (a new website that provides an interactive e-lesson for people interested in the Certified Beer Server exam). 

Being the only booth not providing beer, we did manager to provide some sensory intake in a different way. Using jelly beans, we demonstrated the difference between taste and aroma and how together they create flavor. Although the occasional visitors was a little too deep into their beer drinking to appreciate our lesson in sensory analysis, overall it went over very well. 

The following day I joined Nicole once again in Hayward, CA for the DIPA Festival. Once again we used our jelly bean experiment. Reactions at this event were less predictable and but we had plenty of interested people at the booth. When we weren't talking to people about the program we were able to try some great beers by Russian River, Port Brewing, Tioga-Seqouia, and many others. 

 

After a few days off from the festivities I returned to the Bay Area with my lovely girlfriend Tamara  to celebrate a friend's Birthday. We stopped by the SOMA StrEAT Food Park where 101 North Brewing, 21st Amendment, and Lagunitas were pouring beers. A cold beer, nice weather, and a falafal wrap from one of the local food trucks made for a great end to Beer Week 2013.

 

The Greatness of Inefficiency

Craft brewing is good for America.

Simple enough statement and with a variety of arguments to support it. I, however, am really just interested in one aspect of these possible debates. What has become glaringly obvious to me is that the the big beer brands may employ a large number of citizens, but perhaps many less than the average consumer might expect or at least in the roles you would imagine them in.

On my way to visit my beautiful girlfriend who is attending culinary school in Napa Valley, I pass the Budweiser plant in Fairfield, CA. On one such trip I had some time to kill so i decided I would check out the facilities.

After an hour tour (30 minutes of which consisted of a mid-90s video preaching the greatness of Bud), I left the plant suprised at how few people I saw. This facility is humongous. Absolutely gigantic and running 24 / 7. Yet... I can honestly say I only saw about 20 people working, 10 of which were actually on the production side. Just large empty rooms the size of a football field and the occasional cart driving by.

I was told that one of their fermenters would hold enough beer for 1 person to have a pint every hour nonstop for 60 years... and they had dozens of those fermenters all full.

So how can a place turn out that much beer with so few people?

Automation.

Every process was run from a control panel or from a separate room on a computer screen. Long gone is the need to have a human being operate one section of production. Now it is just robots on auto-pilot.

In all fairness companies like AB/Inbev, SAB, etc employ many many people. However, I think its safe  to say most of those are on the distribution and marketing side of the business.

Craft brewers, on the other hand, may not have the budget to do big ad campaigns or hire a fleet of trucks to deliver product. They do, however, have a much more hands on brewing process. Stone Brewing in San Diego, for example, is growing rapidly and if you look on their careers page of their website you will see they are always hiring on the production side. As market share for craft beer increases breweries like Stone also gain leverage on distributors and help pay their salaries.

Also consider that big companies buy up rivals and consolidate production to their automated facilities resulting in many jobs being lost.

The fact is that the more small breweries that cant afford automated systems pop up, the more jobs are created. It is their inefficiency that helps create jobs.

Something to keep in mind when you buy your next beer. I personally like the idea that a few people somewhere down the line had something to do with the tasty brew I am drinking. 

Other interesting tidbits:
- When I got the tour guide to break from her scripted responses (she confirmed that she has a script), she confessed that Sierra Nevada is her favorite Brewery
- Canning line employees, although few, are union and receive $30 an hour with triple time during   holidays
- The Fairfield plant is one of the smaller facilities used by AB/Inbev (the one in St. Louis is much bigger)
- The tour guide and video we watched attempted to touch on historic elements of the brand without ever once actually mentioning the Busch families German heritage. I felt like it was an attempt to keep the All-American vibe going.