15-pack: Brew loyalty or race to the bottom for craft beer?

Jeff Baker | Free Press contributor

Show Caption Hide Caption Andrew Peterson talks malting in Vermont Listen to It's the Beer Talking episode 2.21 on June 13th for the full version of this interview with Andrew Peterson of Peterson Quality Malt.

There’s a phrase that has been bouncing down brewery and distributor hallways for the last couple of years that you may have heard: “Rotation Nation.” It’s often said with a dejected sigh and it refers to the phenomenon where bars will buy only one or two kegs of a certain beer and then move on to the next.



You can’t really blame the beer buyers for their barracuda syndrome (barracudas eat shiny fish, bar patrons like shiny, new beers). They’re just responding to the customers who come in day after day and ask, “what’s new?” If the bar doesn’t bring in bright-new-shiny beers, they run the risk of losing those customers.



This is a far cry from when craft beer began. Beer drinkers in the 1960s and '70s had a brand that they liked and stuck to it. They might try new releases, but typically they stayed with the same brewery over time. Brand loyalty, they called it.



So how did we get from tried-and-true to hey-what’s-new?

I think the very essence of what motivated the beginnings of the microbrew movement has lead to Rotation Nation at the tap room: a sense of adventure. Brewers in the late 1970s rebelled against what they saw as bland and sterile beer, and began crafting beers with a myriad of new flavors. Microbrewers gained a customer base which was ready to experiment with them, and they appreciated the radically new beer flavor palate in the 1980s and '90s. This, of course, eventually lead to the “Extreme Beer” period of the 2000s, when quite literally any ingredient could end up in beer. Craft beer drinkers wanted to embrace the freedom of variety and wanted to try them all.



Breweries tried to regain a sense of brand loyalty by introducing “variety packs.” If consumers were going to try new beers, at least they’d be from the same brewery. But variety packs only enhanced the need for rotation, teaching a whole new generation of consumers that they shouldn’t drink more than two or three of the same beer before moving on to the next.



At this point, it would be unfair if I didn’t say I’m guilty of rotating the wheel-of-beer, and in my former position as a buyer.



But now, my palate is exhausted. I’ve burned it with blistering hop bitterness, scorched it with spicy pepper concoctions, slaked it with fruit-infused sour beers and coated it with high-ABV cloying sippers. And I’m starting to realize that I’m not alone in my exhaustion.



I see one sign that makes me think Rotation Nation might be slowing down: the rise of the craft 15 pack. For most of craft beer history, microbrews weren’t offered in package configurations larger than 12 beers to a package. (Unless you bought a whole case of 24.) The macro breweries have been experimenting in the larger pack size for a long time now.



Founders Brewing (Michigan) has taken the market by storm with 15-packs of cans of “All Day” Session IPA while other craft breweries have been scrambling to catch up. Its popularity stems from its low per-beer cost to consumers, coupled with the market’s new affinity for lower-ABV, less-bitter hoppy beers. New Belgium, 21st Amendment, Golden Road and Southern Tier have all recently released 15-pack options. Locally, Long Trail (Bridgewater Corners, VT) has decided to be the first player in the eighteen-pack of a new beer called “Trail Hopper.”



As beer drinkers start to take advantage of the price savings of grabbing a 15-pack, I think they may become more accustomed to drinking the same beer more regularly. I mean, shoot! -- you’re gonna have 15 of the same beer in your fridge! It's hard to fit in more variety (unless you have a dedicated beer fridge, as I know some of you do). Breweries may start to gain more brand loyalty as drinkers pump the brakes on rotation nation and reach for 15-packs.



Not everyone sees the 15-pack as a positive for craft beer. In early May, BrewBound, an online beer news site, reported that Boston Beer Company CEO Jim Koch sees 15-packs as fuel for a race to the bottom. He thinks the package will put “downward pressure on price” of craft beer and will ultimately reduce brewery revenues. This is a sentiment I’ve heard echoed by at least two mid-sized regional breweries in the northeast.



Will 15-packs save the craft beer world from the breakneck speed of Rotation Nation? Or will they lead craft breweries into pricing wars typically reserved for macro breweries? As with most trends, I think this one may be a double-edged sword. We’ll have to wait to see which side is sharper.

Jeff S. Baker II is the Curator of the Curriculum for Farrell Distributing. You can find him on Twitter and Instagram @aPhilosophyOf. Jeff co-hosts the “It’s the Beer Talking” podcast found on iTunes and Soundcloud. More info at www.burlingtonfreepress.com/news/podcasts​