“Bierbusiness” by Conrad Seidl and Werner Beutelmeyer: book review
It was just as well that in the momentous year 2016, when SABMiller finally disappeared in AB-InBev’s embrace and the world’s major brewer snapped up a string of craft breweries, the Austrian beer writer Conrad Seidl and the market researcher Werner Beutelmeyer got together again and did a market survey among beer industry stakeholders in Germany, Austria and Switzerland to find out what the industry thinks.
Not only is their survey most timely and free of charge (you only need to buy the book), its findings are also robust.
Addressing about 12,000 people, over 3,000 returned the lengthy questionnaire. While brewmasters, journalists, politicians, sommeliers, publicans, beverage producers, suppliers and retailers were the most obvious targets, one third of the respondents were consumers, equally split between women and men.
Having conducted a similar survey in 1997, the 2016 findings are very revealing not least by comparison. When it comes to consumer motivations, the survey underlines – if you did not know it already – that beer drinkers continue to be a funny contradictory lot. Although they value regionality over ecology, habits over curiosity, they still like to try a craft beer, the authors say.
Since 2016 was also the year German brewers celebrated the 500th anniversary of the Purity Law, they may be interested to learn that nearly three in four respondents said that the purity law was no guarantee that the beer tastes nice.
Among brewmasters, there seems to be widespread agreement that styles like IPA, Pale Ale, alcohol-free wheat beer, and barrel-aged beers will play a greater role in the future.
That there is cloud hanging over the whole industry was driven home by the politicians’ responses. Irrespective of their party affiliation, those consulted said that they expect alcohol policies to turn much more restrictive in the years to come. One in three replied that children (like in England) should not be admitted to pubs (a clash with Germany’s and Austria’s beer cultures) while one in two advocated a general increase of the legal drinking age to 18 years.
What makes for fascinating reading are the several interviews with industry personalities, eg brewmasters, retailers and publicans that form the closing chapters.
There is only one reservation: the book is in German. If you don’t read German, tough. Perhaps it’s an idea to include a summary in English when the book is up for a re-edition.
“Bierbusiness: Was die Branche denkt”, by Werner Beutelmeyer and Conrad Seidl is published by medianet, Vienna, at EUR 24.90.
