BleedsDogFish
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On a recent tour of the Rogue Brewery, I challenged the bartender to recite the manifesto found on the website, and he knew most of it. This is an interesting read, I printed this and showed it to my Anheiser Bush rep(im a bartender). Thought if you haven't seen it you might like it!
Rogue Nation Manifesto
est. May 1996
I. We hold that beer is a superior beverage.
II. We hold that beer is worthy of passion.
III. We hold that beer enlivens spirits.
IV. We hold that beer is not an abstraction but a concrete reality which occured in the past, occurs in this living present and will occur in the future.
V. Beer is made from basic ingredients of water, malt, hops and yeast.
VI. Beer occurs as a result of a naturally occuring process which can be adapted and reproduced by anyone.
VII. Beer flavors occur as a result of radical discontinuity between the old existence of its ingredients and their new existence as beer.
VIII. Beer thus obtains widely varying degrees of complexity based on its ingredients and the brewing process.
IX. Some beer is produced and exchanged as a consumer good.
X. Some beer is produced but consumed in the home.
XI. Consumer tastes are widely varied.
XII. Those that produce beer for sale too often hold their profits in greater regard than their product.
XIII. Large scale brewers have ruined beer.
Article 13. A Brief History
13 a. Historically, large scale brewers, most especially in the United States of America, have had great pressure to capture significant market share.
13 b. Market pressures forced brewers to acquire consumers who had previously not purchased beer in large numbers.
13 c. Non-consumers of beer were queried and the largest complaints against beer were characteristic hop bitterness and caloric content.
13 d. Breweries discovered they could reach these consumers by reducing bitterness and caloric content of beer. Thus the birth of diet beers. Similar market pressures led to increased advertising and declaration by largescale brewers of their products as "premium." The result was simply that large breweries have been selling beer to people who didn’t want to buy it. And with enormous success. (History adapted from post by Glen Bleske and used without permission.)
XIV. Small scale brewing means the salvation of beer.
XV. Breweries of smaller than 100,000 bbl production annually do not compete with the large scale commercial breweries on a direct level.
XVI. Small scale breweries have made superior versions of this already superior beverage.
Article 16. A Polemic on Small Scale Brewing
16 a. Small breweries market to people who
1) Want to drink beer
2) Want a particular kind of beer
16 b. It is clear that small scale breweries reflect a marketing technique that does not generally seek to convert non beer drinkers to drinking beer. The product produced is therefore not altered from the basic ingredients of beer (see Article V) in order to produce a more readily consumed beverage.
16 c. Small scale brewers have proven to be one of the US’ fastest growing industries. This is clearly a reflection of people’s willingness to consume superior, untainted product. As example of this, breweries which began on a small scale such as Anchor or Sierra Nevada have enlarged to produce far more than 100,000 bbl/annually. However their products have not altered in style other than year to year changes in "special vintage" brews (namely their Christmas beers and barleywine styles). Obviously these are large commercial breweries, however they have not changed their taste or marketing tactics radically in order to acquire non beer-drinking consumers.
16 d. Large brewers have launched ad campaigns, new "styles" of beer, new "brewing methods" and worst of all, purchased smaller breweries and agreed to distribute their products nationwide. All these steps have been done in a not-so-subtle attempt to prevent market share from drifting to smaller brewers.
16 d(1). The purchase of smaller breweries in the name of "distribution" is a sham. These buyouts signal the death knell for pure beer products from brewing houses who have done so much for good taste. Celis (Miller), Red Hook (Bud), Leinenkugel (Miller...ok so Leinie’s flagship lager wasn’t particularly snappy). These are deals not just done to distribute the beer; obviously, since almost all brewers use the distribution systems that large brewers enable. But buying the company goes beyond distribution. In short order the small brewers will experience pressure from the larger controlling company to make more profits quickly and in order to do so, product costs will be trimmed. We would not be surprised to see a corn Celis White or rice WinterHook. If these seem to be paranoia, they are...but not wholly unjustified.
16 e. Thus buying local and regionally produced beers or beers from companies who are not owned by larger megabrewers is the only answer to prevent beer from becoming cheapened.
16 f. Small breweries have not forgotten that brewing is about the beer and not just selling it to people who can’t appreciate it. Their efforts must never be forgotten and must ever be honored!
Rogue Nation Manifesto
est. May 1996
I. We hold that beer is a superior beverage.
II. We hold that beer is worthy of passion.
III. We hold that beer enlivens spirits.
IV. We hold that beer is not an abstraction but a concrete reality which occured in the past, occurs in this living present and will occur in the future.
V. Beer is made from basic ingredients of water, malt, hops and yeast.
VI. Beer occurs as a result of a naturally occuring process which can be adapted and reproduced by anyone.
VII. Beer flavors occur as a result of radical discontinuity between the old existence of its ingredients and their new existence as beer.
VIII. Beer thus obtains widely varying degrees of complexity based on its ingredients and the brewing process.
IX. Some beer is produced and exchanged as a consumer good.
X. Some beer is produced but consumed in the home.
XI. Consumer tastes are widely varied.
XII. Those that produce beer for sale too often hold their profits in greater regard than their product.
XIII. Large scale brewers have ruined beer.
Article 13. A Brief History
13 a. Historically, large scale brewers, most especially in the United States of America, have had great pressure to capture significant market share.
13 b. Market pressures forced brewers to acquire consumers who had previously not purchased beer in large numbers.
13 c. Non-consumers of beer were queried and the largest complaints against beer were characteristic hop bitterness and caloric content.
13 d. Breweries discovered they could reach these consumers by reducing bitterness and caloric content of beer. Thus the birth of diet beers. Similar market pressures led to increased advertising and declaration by largescale brewers of their products as "premium." The result was simply that large breweries have been selling beer to people who didn’t want to buy it. And with enormous success. (History adapted from post by Glen Bleske and used without permission.)
XIV. Small scale brewing means the salvation of beer.
XV. Breweries of smaller than 100,000 bbl production annually do not compete with the large scale commercial breweries on a direct level.
XVI. Small scale breweries have made superior versions of this already superior beverage.
Article 16. A Polemic on Small Scale Brewing
16 a. Small breweries market to people who
1) Want to drink beer
2) Want a particular kind of beer
16 b. It is clear that small scale breweries reflect a marketing technique that does not generally seek to convert non beer drinkers to drinking beer. The product produced is therefore not altered from the basic ingredients of beer (see Article V) in order to produce a more readily consumed beverage.
16 c. Small scale brewers have proven to be one of the US’ fastest growing industries. This is clearly a reflection of people’s willingness to consume superior, untainted product. As example of this, breweries which began on a small scale such as Anchor or Sierra Nevada have enlarged to produce far more than 100,000 bbl/annually. However their products have not altered in style other than year to year changes in "special vintage" brews (namely their Christmas beers and barleywine styles). Obviously these are large commercial breweries, however they have not changed their taste or marketing tactics radically in order to acquire non beer-drinking consumers.
16 d. Large brewers have launched ad campaigns, new "styles" of beer, new "brewing methods" and worst of all, purchased smaller breweries and agreed to distribute their products nationwide. All these steps have been done in a not-so-subtle attempt to prevent market share from drifting to smaller brewers.
16 d(1). The purchase of smaller breweries in the name of "distribution" is a sham. These buyouts signal the death knell for pure beer products from brewing houses who have done so much for good taste. Celis (Miller), Red Hook (Bud), Leinenkugel (Miller...ok so Leinie’s flagship lager wasn’t particularly snappy). These are deals not just done to distribute the beer; obviously, since almost all brewers use the distribution systems that large brewers enable. But buying the company goes beyond distribution. In short order the small brewers will experience pressure from the larger controlling company to make more profits quickly and in order to do so, product costs will be trimmed. We would not be surprised to see a corn Celis White or rice WinterHook. If these seem to be paranoia, they are...but not wholly unjustified.
16 e. Thus buying local and regionally produced beers or beers from companies who are not owned by larger megabrewers is the only answer to prevent beer from becoming cheapened.
16 f. Small breweries have not forgotten that brewing is about the beer and not just selling it to people who can’t appreciate it. Their efforts must never be forgotten and must ever be honored!
