{"id":21038,"date":"2018-09-12T14:48:51","date_gmt":"2018-09-12T21:48:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/?p=21038"},"modified":"2018-09-12T14:48:51","modified_gmt":"2018-09-12T21:48:51","slug":"california-craft-beer-summit-recap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/2018\/09\/12\/california-craft-beer-summit-recap\/","title":{"rendered":"California Craft Beer Summit: Recap"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Sacramento-based California Craft Brewers Association (CCBA) throws the annual California Craft Beer Summit each year as \u201ctwo full days of education, networking and trade shows for brewers, retailers, distributors, craft beer lovers, and homebrewers.\u201d It\u2019s basically a homegrown mini-Great American Beer Festival, where industry professionals can rub elbows with other Golden State big boys like Sierra Nevada and Firestone Walker. It concludes with the West Coast\u2019s largest beer festival, featuring more than 160 California-based craft breweries.<\/p>\n

The CCBA has been around since 1989 \u2014 yes, it shares a birthday with Taylor Swift \u2014 and their primary function is \u201cto monitor legislative activity at the state Capitol and provide a single and coherent political voice representing the interests of all of California\u2019s craft breweries.\u201d (Thus, the home base in our state capital; it\u2019s easier to make a fuss when you\u2019re literally standing outside lawmakers\u2019 doors.)<\/p>\n

Walking into the Convention Center on day one of the Summit was basically a homecoming. I was barely inside before the Pizza Port gang strolled by, followed by a gaggle of Karl Straussians and a delegation from Second Chance. But San Diegans weren\u2019t just in attendance; several smartypants from down south led talks and participated in panels throughout the Summit, including Mark Weslar (Chief Marketing Officer at Karl Strauss), Travis Smith (co-founder\/brewmaster at Societe Brewing Company), Greg Koch (co-founder of Stone Brewing), and Chris Sarette (Chief Financial Officer at Modern Times Beer).<\/p>\n

\u201cI think, with not just a false sense of pride, we can look at San Diego and go \u2018we have a pretty superior craft brewing scene,\u2019\u201d commented Koch to me when we sat down before his keynote address. \u201cThere\u2019s no question about it \u2014 you can see the influence of San Diego all over the world.\u201d Weslar agrees. \u201cWe offer other markets a glimpse of how developed craft can get when the consumer wants it and there is a local industry quenching that thirst.\u201d<\/p>\n

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CCBA Executive Director Tom McCormick and Stone Brewery co-founder Greg Koch<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Areas of San Diego-led expertise ranged from sour beer program maintenance (Smith) to balancing controlled brewery growth with revenue over time (Sarette), but additional topics from fellow speakers included how to safely \u2014 and legally \u2014 introduce cannabis into a brewing program, the history of ancient Nordic beer styles, and how to expand a sensory program as part of a brewery\u2019s quality assurance team. (Pro tip: you should probably not put weed in your beer quite yet.)<\/p>\n

Bart Watson, chief economist for the Brewers Association, laid out the facts of the state of California beer in the opening session. Turns out, as a state we\u2019re pretty neck-and-neck with national craft beer trends, with San Diego and other saturated areas like the Bay Area edging ahead when it comes to breweries per capita. \u201cThere\u2019s still, insanely, room for growth,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

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Jamie Lee pouring beer by The Hop Concept<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

That statistical opportunity comes with a caveat. Across the nation \u2014 and San Diego is no exception \u2014 local is dominating over regional and national growth. Not necessarily local beer, just local. \u201cYou\u2019re not in the beer business. You\u2019re in the beverage alcohol business,\u201d Watson pointed out. Beer is forever battling wine and spirits, but has historically had a competitive edge by emphasizing hyperlocality in a way that wine and spirits haven\u2019t in the past. That\u2019s poised to change.<\/p>\n

Take North Park for example. It\u2019s one of the most craft beer saturated destinations in San Diego, but it\u2019s also home to one distillery (619 Spirits), a cider house (Bivouac Ciderworks), and an urban winery (N\u00e9gociant Winery), likely with more on the way. This \u201cbeverage creep\u201d promises to put a squeeze on breweries.<\/p>\n

Watson\u2019s suggestion spells bad news for hazebros. \u201cDon\u2019t think about what the trend is. Think about what you\u2019re going to do well with and how you can stand out. Chasing these style trends is going to be a losing battle for all but a few breweries.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a way, Karl Strauss is one of those few breweries. During Weslar\u2019s presentation, he revealed that two beers that didn\u2019t exist two years ago \u2014 Aurora Hoppyalis IPA and Follow the Sun Pilsner \u2014 now make up 40% of their sales. Of course, these aren\u2019t wildly niche styles, but to launch such successful interruptions into the current hop mob isn\u2019t an easy feat.<\/p>\n

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Sour Barrel Managers Q&A Panel with Travis Smith from Societe Brewing Company<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Modern Times\u2019 approach is a little different. They emphasize a multifaceted approach to remain both \u201ctrendy\u201d as well as approachable to a variety of beer drinkers at different price points. Sarette explained to me their focus on chains and grocery stores (a major space long dominated by macro beers) came late in the game, but \u201cwe\u2019re now seeing huge dividends.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is followed by concentrating on retail via multiple strategically located outlets (Point Loma, Portland, Los Angeles, and soon Encinitas, Anaheim, and Santa Barbara) as well as a \u201csmaller but still meaningful\u201d aspect: The League of Partygoers and Elegant People, Modern Times\u2019 membership program with exclusive access to certain beers and merchandise.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the day, it\u2019s a relationship business,\u201d Sarette remarked. Focusing on personnel, placing skilled people in the right markets, and nurturing distributor relationships has given them an edge, but \u201cwe haven\u2019t done anything extraordinary.” When I ask him what they\u2019re doing right, he boils it down to one major factor. \u201cFirst and foremost, the answer has to be beer quality.\u201d<\/p>\n

By the end of the Summit, I realized that Watson\u2019s prediction of \u201cmore competition, more chaos\u201d is likely to be true. But I think there\u2019s sufficient evidence to hope that San Diego will remain on the cutting edge of beer innovation. And if there\u2019s anyone with a ten thousand foot view of the industry and where it\u2019s headed, it\u2019s Koch. I asked him how to stay true to oneself while remaining flexible in an ever-evolving industry. His thoughts? Remain open to inspiration from any source available.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter I was the business ten years, I was pretty certain I knew what was going on \u2014 that I knew what could be done and couldn\u2019t be done, that I had tried pretty much everything. Now, at 22 years into the business, I\u2019m quite certain that I have no idea what\u2019s going on, that I haven\u2019t tried anywhere near what\u2019s possible, and that I will never conceive of or fully understand the possibilities. And that is a wonderful point of discovery and opportunity for participation.\u201d<\/p>\n

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California Craft Beer Summit Festival<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Sacramento-based California Craft Brewers Association (CCBA) throws the annual California Craft Beer Summit each year as \u201ctwo full days of education, networking and trade shows for brewers, retailers, distributors, craft beer lovers, and homebrewers.\u201d It\u2019s basically a homegrown mini-Great American Beer Festival, where industry professionals can rub elbows with other Golden State big boys […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":21040,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[368,1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-21038","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-beer-news","8":"category-san-diego-beer-beverage-news","9":"entry"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/2018-California-Craft-Beer-Summit-Festival-in-Sacramento1-e1536785106837.jpg?fit=766%2C639&ssl=1","wps_subtitle":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdtr4y-5tk","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21038"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21038\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}