Who's Afraid of BMC?: Garrett Oliver (of Brooklyn Brewery) speaks out.

[Kevin Dean]

Having read this article I'm reminded of a similar spirit in another industry: software.

I've been beginning to notice similarities between the hombrewing community and the Free Software community which I am also a part of. Essentially, it comes down to sticking up for what you value, and consider "good" rather than making a product that is popular.

Not only has Free Software grown, some could argue that it's thrived. Budweiser is pouring millions of dollars into advertising... Craftbrewers don't spend much, but their product is coveted.

It's a damn proud moment when you can sit back and say to yourself "I make a product so good I don't have to advertise it and I gain market share."

It also means there are smart people out there who love things because they're more than "popular".

Viva Libre!

 

[Bosh]

I like that you've brought that aspect (the expanding market) into this, and I think in fact we're seeing now something that happened in the wine market - only in reverse.

I believe wine consumption in the US had been mostly flat until a) associated health benefits were reported, and b) winemakers created a lower-price, less snooty market.

Well I don't think that the market will expand all that much in the sense that people will drink more beer, but I think that it will expand in the sense of people willing to pay more money for the same amount of beer. Part of this will be beer drinkers realizing there's beer that tastes good, part will be the crappier and more expensive imports being squeezed out of the market, hopefully a bit will be American craft beers getting exported more than they have been, maybe a bit of it will be people realizing that they can get awesome beer for the price of very mediocre wine and some of it will be the modest growth in the previously pretty much non-existant market for very expensive beer (high alcohol aged beers, I know I'd pay a lot for some aged very tasty Imperial Stout if there were any place to buy it in Korea, I'd sure as hell would rather have that than champagne for a special occasion).

Oh and question for people in the know: I know that barley prices are going up but aren't corn prices going up even faster? Won't that hurt the big breweries that use a lot of corn syrup in their beers?

 

[Dude]

Oh and question for people in the know: I know that barley prices are going up but aren't corn prices going up even faster? Won't that hurt the big breweries that use a lot of corn syrup in their beers?

Then they'll use rice. They will always find a way.