Brewaucracy

SOBA has been trucking along without my involvement (other than the odd press comment, and buttinski-type annoying input) for nearly a year. It has grown and flourished under a new committee made up of some great people, old hands and newcomers alike. The man with whom all bucks must inevitably stop,  Geoff Griggs, and his executive right and left hands Ian Caig (Secretary – my old job, and no simple task), and Rob Owen (Treasurer) are bringing order and stability to the daily function of SOBA administration.

The organisation continues to grow, with our 400th member being signed up in April. Interestingly, the email to say this had happened came through during Marchfest in Nelson, where a team of SOBA stalwarts were signing up members “offline”, so 400 may have come around sooner than we thought!

One of the goals shared by all the original founding SOBA people, as we fomented rebellion around a noisy wooden table at the “old” Malthouse on Willis Street in Wellington, was that we wanted to fight a positive campaign. We were realists as well as idealists. We all knew it’s hard to praise the good without sometimes calling into question the qualities of the bad. We also knew that, when small batch craft beer was being maligned by mass market bullies, that we’d have to stand up and fight in the corner of the little guys, and that this can sometimes get ugly. The Radler issue* is an example of this. Even so, as I have always said, we are not anti big brewer, we are simply pro good beer. It doesn’t matter to us who produces it.

Where was I? Oh yes, being positive… I was reading Pete Brown’s piece on CAMRA and the sense of entitlement they seem to hold. I resigned from CAMRA last year with more than a pang of regret at leaving this well meaning group who have achieved more over their lifetime than any other consumer organisation I can think of. My reasons were varied, but were mainly as follows.

Firstly, they are all about regulation. Those who know me know that I’m a fairly passionate libertarian. The “left” and the “right” both annoy me in equal amounts. I just want people to be left alone to do whatever they want to do, with the government limited to protecting me from initiation of force from them, and them from me. CAMRA seem to see the government as a solution to almost everything these days. Yet, like goldfish with three second memories, they fail to notice that many of the problems which they campaign against are a result of “well intentioned” government legislation. This is known as the law of unintended consequences, and the more you want the government to fight your battles for you using the big stick of legislation, the more unintended consequences you will see. Sometimes they are worse than the original problem.

Secondly, there was the insularity I noticed in their publications. Every other article seemed to be about the governance of the organisation – AGMs, branch meetings, policy, etc. All these are important things. A society can’t exist without them. The problem is, reading about them doesn’t do a thing to promote real ale, which is, after all, the core function of CAMRA. I can’t see any of it firing people up to get down to their local and demand real ale.

Finally, the infighting, bickering, and passive-aggressive “I think you’ll find” supercilliousness of the letters page in their publications just turned me right off. If this was representative of their membership, I just didn’t want to be one of them. I felt terrible when I realised that, and I want to make it clear that I do NOT think CAMRA members are generally like that. One of the best times in my life was at a CAMRA beer festival in Margate in 2008 (Planet Thanet – amazing time). I met some great CAMRA members, all of whom made excellent ambassadors for the organisation. These people are just gold, but they never seem represented in CAMRA publications. What does come across in spades is the old “beards and sandals” stereotype I thought CAMRA were trying to break.

Pete’s blog post made me realise that I hadn’t made the wrong choice. I still support CAMRA’s goals, if not the methods they might use to achieve them. It also made me think about some of our original goals for SOBA, and reinforced my commitment to those goals.

I know some people who joined SOBA “for discounts”. Sure, they ideologically identify with promoting good beer, and do a bit of promotion themselves. When House opened here in Hamilton though, these people riled me a little. The first reaction wasn’t to be impressed at a bar selling relatively low margin product at a very competitive price because they loved good beer. It wasn’t to be happy that the quality of the food was really high, the atmosphere was great, and the staff were friendly. It also wasn’t to appreciate the variety of interesting NZ craft beer in the fridge. Did they realise how tricky this was to pull off in conservative “give us a Waikato thanks mate” Hamilton? Nope. They first asked “do we get a discount”?. After that, they proceeded to complain that the beer range wasn’t as exciting as it could be, that the coffee was pretty ordinary, or that there wasn’t a bottle of “X Fabulous Belgian Ale” in the fridge. This behaviour is not limited to Hamiltonians, or even SOBA members, but it still bugs me. Hell, I’ve caught myself doing it before, and that bugs me even more!

Reality check: Part of the fight to raise awareness of craft beer means realising the limitations of the playing field we are on. Owning a bar doesn’t mean “you can put whatever you like on”. You have to consider qualities which craft beer can often make difficult like shelf life, consistency, and the margin you can make on the volume you expect to sell. We SOBA people might think we’re doing really well finishing an entire keg of Three Boys IPA in a night. Guess what? In that time, the bar has sold four kegs of Waikato at twice the margin per pint. Remind me again why you’d stock craft beer if you owned a bar?

Now, I’m painting a really bleak picture here to make a point. Sure there’s the other side of the argument that “generic” bars come and go all the time. Beer can be, and is becoming, a serious point of difference amongst bar owners. They’re running on low margins in order to guarantee customer loyalty and long term survival. My point stands though. Don’t dwell on any perceived negatives. Accentuate the positive!

Does that mean that constructive feedback isn’t welcome? Hell no. I have a friend who doesn’t like the coffee at House. Instead of whinging about it, he’s mentioned to the manager that he knows a guy who runs barista training sessions, and attempted to make something happen there. That’s a great thing to do. The simple rule I follow in these situations is “don’t bitch about something unless you can suggest a way to fix it”.

Also, promote the spread of craft beer. If a bar opens with one craft beer tap on, don’t whinge that they only have the one tap. Get in there and drink that tap dry! Talk to the bar staff. Tell them how much you love that Epic Pale Ale, but have they also considered stocking a nice stout on tap? Make sure you thank them for any steps in the right direction. Also, remember that your comments and feedback will only be taken seriously if they are backed up by spending. Just because you aked for it isn’t enough. If it goes on, and nobody drinks it, guess what will happen? Get your mates in!

I’ve probably ranted enough. I blame Pete! Good on him though. It’s no good assuming that just because you agree with the goals of an organisation, that there’s no need to keep focus on doing things right.

* For those interested, the Radler case is far from over. DB are simply prolonging things as long as possible by taking issue with every legal point involved. It’s like one of those parliament TV sessions where nobody gets to say anything over the constant points of order. Realistic timeframe for an update: August. We at SOBA are very optimistic about the outcome.