Category Archives: Choice

Beer Styles, Choice, Labels, Names

Craft Breweries Don’t Need Your Wacky Advice Mr Robichaux

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Last month, the New York Times published two pieces focused on the craft brewing industry. The first by Julie Creswell was titled “Craft Breweries Struggle as Sales and Appetites Wane“, while the second by Mark Robichaux was titled “Wacky Labels and Silly Names Are Killing Craft Beer“. Both addressed the current challenges facing the industry. But that’s where the similarities ended. The piece by Ms. Creswell was carefully researched and littered with facts, while that by Mr. Robichaux was, to use his own words, just plain wacky.

In her article, Cresswell presents some of the hard facts regarding the challenges facing America’s craft brewing industry – declining sales, more brewery closings than openings, higher prices for key raw materials such as aluminum and hops, heightened competition, and shifting consumer tastes. The article had interviews with brewery owners, including Nico Freccia of 21st Amendment Brewery in San Francisco, CA and Kim Kavulak of Nebraska Brewing Company in La Vista, NE. In other words, it was a well-sourced piece of journalism.

The piece by Mark Robichaux is a different story. In Mr. Robichaux’s defense, however, it was presented as an “opinion piece”. The writer is clearly a beer drinker having “chased beer across continents and dive bars”. Although an opinion piece, Robichaux’s does identify some of the legitimate challenges facing the industry – declining sales, the impact of remote work, and changing consumer tastes.

But Mr. Robichaux is an optimist – a glass half full guy as he admits – and believes that it is the brewers themselves who hold the key to a bright and vibrant future. As he states, “there are a few simple steps the craft beer industry can take to immediately address its downturn”.

First, it must” abandon” its “obsession” with IPAs and “bring back the pilsner, the amber, the pale ale, or reinvent the lager”. While bemoaning the dominance of IPAs, Mr. Robichaux also takes a swipe at high ABV (Alcohol by Volume) beers. IPAs are very popular among craft beer drinkers, accounting for 49.4% of off-premise craft beer sales in 2024. Yes, that’s a lot of IPA and it does suggest that there is still plenty of consumer demand for this hop forward style. If, on the other hand, you don’t like IPAs, or want a break from them, there are plenty of other styles to choose from. Walk into most craft breweries and there is plenty of choice – Brown Ales, Lagers, Saisons, etc. I have never went to a craft brewery and felt that there were never enough non-IPAs from which to choose. So I’m not quite sure what Mr. Robichaux‘s beef is with IPAs.

Second, Mr. Robichaux lodges a complaint about the high alcohol by volume beers that some craft breweries produce. Well, if you don’t like them don’t drink them – it’s as simple as that as far as I am concerned. And, as with beer styles, there are plenty of lower ABV beers to choose from when you visit a craft brewery.

Goldwater Brewing in Scottsdale, AZ offer a variety of beer styles at different strengths

Third, Mr. Robichaux suggests that some craft brewers have gone too far with beer names and labels. The industry, he claims, “need smarter labels”. Beer names such as “Sour Me Unicorn Farts” and “Hopportunity Knocks” are a step too far for Mr. Robichaux. Beer labels should “tell drinkers what’s inside”, what the beer tastes likes, and whether the prospective buyer will like the beer or not. Yes, some of the beer labels can be a little over the top, especially those that veer towards the psychedelic. But I’ve never had any problem finding the information I need – brewery name, beer style, the ABV, and IBUs. As for what the beer tastes like. Well, that’s part of the fun of drinking craft beer – trying a beer you have never had before. and then forming your own opinion of it. We all have different palates after all, and a beer that Mr. Robichaux enjoys may be an anathema to me.

Most craft beers such as this Copper Ale from Quenched and Tempered Brewing Company in Toledo, OH provide information on ABV and IBUs.

Finally, Mr. Robichaux makes a plea for craft brewers to “ditch the tallboys and four-packs” and reinstate six-packs as the standard to-go offering in craft breweries. For those of you unfamiliar with tallboys, they are 16-ounce cans that are typically sold as four-packs. He claims, without any evidence I may add, that tallboy four packs represent a sleight of hand on the part of craft breweries as the contain less beer than six-packs (64 ounces vs 72 ounces) and therefore offer an “illusion of value”. On top of that Mr. Robichaux notes that by the time he is halfway through a tallboy it is warm and flat. I can’t say that this is a problem I, nor any of my tallboy drinking friends, have experienced. If you are concerned about it becoming too warm, stick the partially empty can into the refrigerator and grab it when your glass needs refilled. I hope Mr. Robichaux is decanting his tallboys into a glass and not drinking them straight from the can.

In closing, I’d suggest that Mr. Robichaux fails to give sufficient credit to craft brewers when it comes to business acumen. One of the hallmarks of the craft brewing industry is the ability of the brewers to respond to both existing and changing consumer preferences. I was reminded of that in a recent visit to Seek Beer Co. in San Diego, CA. When I was there Seek had about a dozen different beers on offer, including a Vienna Lager, a Coffee Stout, a Fruited Sour, a West Coast IPA, and a Hazy IPA. Yes, they brewed IPAs, but they brewed plenty of other good stuff as well. Second, all but one of the beers available (an Imperial CoffeeStout) had ABVs of under 7%. I asked owner Dave Ohmer about this, and he said that this simply reflected market demand. Higher ABV beers had not been selling fast enough. This preference for lower ABV beers (although many would consider 6.9% to be quite high; its relative guess) is consistent with a broad market shift towards lower alcohol beers that has been observed. My point here is that craft brewers don’t need Mr. Robichaux to tell them what beer to brew, what containers to put it in, or what labels they should put on their cans. They are quite capable of meeting the market where it’s at and brewing accordingly.

Dave Ohmer of Seek Beer Co. in San Diego, CA is cognizant of the types of beer that his customers want him to brew

Choice, Craft Beer

Craft Beer and The Paradox of Choice

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A recent article in the New York Times suggested the emergence of a new trend in the world of craft beer. In an industry where brewers have provided consumers with an almost endless choice of beer styles and variations thereof, Joshua Bernstein suggests that brewers and retailers are cutting back on the number of different beers they offer. As an example, Bernstein cites Suarez Family Brewery in Livingston, NY who used to offer its customers eight different beers. That was pre-COVID-19 pandemic. Post-pandemic they have shrunk that number to two craft beers. Indeed as I started writing this blog entry I visited the Suarez website and, sure enough two beers were available for taproom visitors to purchase – Qualify Pils and Hecto Hoppy Pale Ale. Retailers such as Whole Foods have also been reducing the number of different beers they offer customers, partly to be able to devote more shelf space to faster growing segments such as Ready-to-Drink cocktails.

In making the decision to produce only two beers, the owners of Suarez Family Brewery are partly inspired by “the model of traditional European taverns and breweries that serve only one or two beers at a time”. On two recent trips to Europe I experienced this phenomena. In Osnabrück, Germany I spent an evening in Rampendal Brewery where my choice of beers were a Dunkel, a Weizen, and a Helles Lager. At Brasserie du Molard, a nice little brewery in the heart of Geneva, Switzerland, I was similarly offered a choice of three beers – a Witbier, a Lager, and an Amber Ale.

Rampendahl Brewery in Osnabrück, Germany where my choice of beers were Dunkel, a Weizen, and a Helles Lager

Craft breweries who have opted to downsize (or who never upsized in the first place) offer a number of explanations. According to Dan Suarez of Suarez Family Brewery, too many beers on tap can cause customers “a lot of agony over choosing”. This is an interesting observation, and one supported by Barry Schwartz, a Professor Emeritus in Social Theory and Social Action at Swarthmore College. One of his areas of research, sitting at the intersection of psychology and economics, is consumer decision making. In 2004, Schwartz published a book titled “The Paradox of Choice”, which carried the subtitle “Why More is Less”. It is a fascinating read. The basic premise of Schwartz’s thesis is Americans have too many choices, whether that be when purchasing a breakfast cereal, a coffee maker, or an automobile. Intuitively, we think of choice as a good thing and more choice as better than less choice. Schwartz, however, suggests that while some choice is good, too much choice is bad. It is bad because it generates anxiety for the individual making the choice.

As noted by Schwartz (p. 5), “autonomy and freedom of choice are critical to our well being, and choice is critical to freedom and autonomy. Nonetheless, though modern Americans have more choice than any group of people ever has had before, and thus, presumably, more freedom and autonomy, we don’t seem to be benefiting from it psychologically”

We are victims of and suffering from what some have termed choice overload. Too much choice taxes our cognitive systems. We feel overwhelmed. We second-guess ourselves, wondering if we made the best decision. The more choices we have, the more likely we are to be less satisfied with the decision we make, perhaps even regretting it. Anyone who has stepped into a Home Depot and picked out a new paint color for their master bedroom will know what I mean. If a company offers a product (say a coffee maker) with a large number of feature variations and in a wide variety of styles/colors consumers may struggle to figure out which one is best for them. Choice overload can cause us to feel overwhelmed and even delay decision-making.

Interestingly (at least I find it interesting) the term choice overload was coined by Alvin Toffler in his 1970 book Future Shock. Not only did he coin it, but he predicted it. Looking to the future Toffler suggested “the people of the future may suffer not from an absence of choice, but from a “paralyzing surfeit of it.” (p. 264). While Toffler was primarily focused on information overload, his basic premise also applies to products.

The Paradox of Choice by Barry Schwartz

In their 1998 Annual Report, the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas provided data on the overwhelming number of choices facing consumers. They did so by comparing the early 1970s to the late 1990s. For example, in the early 1970s Colgate offered consumers the choice of two different toothpastes. By the late 1990s consumers could choose from 17 different toothpastes. Over the same period, the number of television screen sizes increased from 5 to 15, McDonalds’ menu items from 13 to 43, and Frito Lay chip varieties from 10 to 78.

What about beer? In same report the Dallas Fed reported the number of SKUs (aka Stock Keeping Units) for a variety of retail items. An SKU code is a “unique code consisting of letters and numbers that identify characteristics about each product, such as manufacturer, brand, style, color, and size.” For example, if a manufacturer introduces a new product (e.g., a new breakfast cereal) or the same product in a different size (e.g., 36oz in addition to 24oz) it is assigned its own unique SKU. Between 1980 and 1998, the number of SKU codes for beer increased from 25 to 187. This was, of course, before the craft beer revolution went into overdrive. Between 2008 and 2015, the number of craft beer SKUs increased from 2,274 to 7,400. While the number of craft beer SKUs have dropped in recent years, the amount of choice availability to craft beer drinkers remains extensive.

The increasing number of craft breweries (there are now over 9,000 in the United States) and SKUs definitely give the craft beer drinker more choice. But is it too much? Carlos Brito seems to think so. In 2016 interview, the then CEO of Anheuser Busch suggested that craft beer consumers were “tired of choice”. Hardly a surprising statement from the man whose company was seeing their market share being eroded by increasing consumer demand for craft beer. As Bob Pease, President and CEO of the Brewers Association suggested, “It’s a hypothesis being willed into existence for the greater good of one brewery.”

Most craft beer drinkers disagree with Mr. Brito’s assessment. Indeed, a survey conducted in the same year found that 58% of craft beer drinkers craved even more flavor options than were available to them at that time. A 2013 study examining the behaviors of craft beer drinkers noted that a large number of craft beer drinkers “find satisfaction in discovering new beers and breweries” For such drinkers, “loyalty to one brewery will be difficult . . . if new products are not constantly being offered.” This is why most craft breweries offer patrons to opportunity to try five or six of its beers by purchasing a flight. The growth of beer tourism is another indicator that craft beer drinkers yearn choice. A 2016 study by Jennifer Francioni and Erick T. Byrd found that the main reason individuals engage in beer tourism is to taste new beer.

A flight of beer at Ill Mannered Brewing Company in Powell, OH

An interesting exception to choice overload are individuals who consider themselves to be ‘experts’ with regard to the product they are choosing. A 2014 paper by Alexander Chernev and his colleagues note that “it has been shown that for consumers who are unfamiliar with the product category, choices from larger assortments are more likely to lead to choice deferral and weaker preferences for the selected alternative than choices from smaller assortments. In contrast, for expert consumers, the impact of assortment size is reversed, leading to greater likelihood of choice deferral and weaker preferences for the chosen alternative in the context of smaller rather than larger assortments”. In other words, people with product knowledge may have a tougher time choosing when they have a smaller number of options from which to choose.

Choice abounds at Yellow Springs Brewery in Yellow Springs, OH

The extent to which craft beer drinkers are ‘experts’ when it comes to the product they consume can, I am sure, be debated. Some craft beer drinkers are undoubtedly more knowledgeable than others. Indeed, in the aforementioned 2013 study of the behaviors of craft beer drinkers, the authors identify four types of craft beer drinkers – enthusiasts, explorers, loyalists, and novices. Of the four types, enthusiasts are the most knowledgeable craft beer drinkers, priding “themselves on trying all the different beers from different breweries and seek to acquire knowledge about how the beer is made and the ingredients that are used in the process.” I know a lot of people who drink craft beer on a regular basis. Most of them, I would consider fairly knowledgeable. And if not knowledgeable, then certainly very interested in the product and sampling ones they have not tried before.

The examples of breweries cutting back on the number of beers they brew in the New York Times article are small in number, anecdotal even. I seriously question how widespread this phenomenon is. I visit a lot of breweries throughout the year. I can’t recall one that I have visited in the last twelve months that has what I would consider a small number of beers on tap. Indeed, one of the most popular craft beer bars in Toledo, OH (where I live) is an establishment called The Casual Pint. It regularly has at least 25 different beers on draft. It is a very popular venue for local craft beer drinkers. No one I see in there looks particularly stressed or anxious when they are selecting which beer to purchase. In all honesty, most seem quite happy and relaxed and, if anything, appear to find the extensive beer list as a benefit and not a burden.

Further Reading:

Chernev, Alexander, Ulf Bockenholt, and Joseph Goodman. 2015. Choice Overload: A Conceptual Review and Meta-Analysis. 2015 Journal of Consumer Psychology, Volume 25, Issue 2, pp. 333–358.

Schwartz, Barry. 2004. The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less. HarperCollins Publishers.