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11-02-2013, 11:20
Visit the Boak and Bailey's Beer Blog site (http://boakandbailey.com/2013/02/what-is-beer-innovation/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=what-is-beer-innovation)
Boak and Bailey's Beer Blog (http://boakandbailey.com)
http://boakandbailey.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/tomorrowsworld.jpg
Dave ‘Hardknott’ Bailey recently wrote a blog post asking the question ‘What is beer innovation?’ (http://hardknott.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/what-is-beer-innovation.html) It’s a subject that’s interested us for a while, partly because we find the suggestion that ‘it’s all been done before’ a bit depressing (http://boakandbailey.com/2012/06/are-attempts-to-innovate-futile/), so we thought we’d indulge in some pondering on the subject.
1. Innovation has to mean more than ‘doing something mad’. As Alan has said before, a beer 23 times more salt than malt would be completely new (http://beerblog.genx40.com/archive/2011/august/aftertesting#comment284942), but would also (probably) be horrible. Sellotaping a toaster to the bonnet is not innovation in car design. Having said that, in any field, you probably have to produce a lot of stinkers on the road to a modern classic (http://hardknott.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/what-is-beer-innovation.html?showComment=1359369526270#c1483974 905452537425).
2. Innovation doesn’t need to be noisy and obnoxious. Golden ale, which emerged as an identifiable niche in the UK market in the late nineteen-eighties and early nineties, seems like a no-brainer with hindsight, but, until then, British beers that were anything other than black or brown were rare.
3. Doing something ‘old hat’ in a new time, place or context, can seem innovative. Hoegaarden, first brewed in the sixties, was an attempt to recreate the beer of Pierre Celis’s youth, but, when it hit Britain twenty years later, it blew people’s minds. What’s that phrase you see in secondhand shops? ‘New to you.’ Attempts to recreate Devon White Ale (http://www.penpontbrewery.co.uk/brewing-cornish-devon-white-ale/) or Grätzer (http://barclayperkins.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/gratzer-comes-alive.html) might yield similar results, especially once they’ve been tweaked for a modern palate and production methods.
4. Small mutations make something new. The crime novel has been with us for a long time and yet, somehow, small tweaks to the formula keep it going strong. In beer, a new hop variety or tiny development in technique can create something that’s new enough to keep the drinker (or, at least, the beer geek) interested.
5. True innovation defies categorisation, for a while at least. If you can create a beer which gets itself listed under ‘other’ (http://boakandbailey.com/2012/06/brewing-without-reference-styles/), which breaks the classification system at your local beer retailer, and which is the only one of its type, then you might have done something innovative.
6. Innovation will probably be greeted with anger and/or utter disdain. To some, with a particular idea of classical perfection, what is new will always seem wrong — discordant, ugly or perverse. Or even just silly. But your kids are gonna love it. (http://youtu.be/S1i5coU-0_Q)
7. If we could tell you what the next innovation in brewing would be, we’d be millionaires. Or not, but you take our point.
More... (http://boakandbailey.com/2013/02/what-is-beer-innovation/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=what-is-beer-innovation)
Boak and Bailey's Beer Blog (http://boakandbailey.com)
http://boakandbailey.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/tomorrowsworld.jpg
Dave ‘Hardknott’ Bailey recently wrote a blog post asking the question ‘What is beer innovation?’ (http://hardknott.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/what-is-beer-innovation.html) It’s a subject that’s interested us for a while, partly because we find the suggestion that ‘it’s all been done before’ a bit depressing (http://boakandbailey.com/2012/06/are-attempts-to-innovate-futile/), so we thought we’d indulge in some pondering on the subject.
1. Innovation has to mean more than ‘doing something mad’. As Alan has said before, a beer 23 times more salt than malt would be completely new (http://beerblog.genx40.com/archive/2011/august/aftertesting#comment284942), but would also (probably) be horrible. Sellotaping a toaster to the bonnet is not innovation in car design. Having said that, in any field, you probably have to produce a lot of stinkers on the road to a modern classic (http://hardknott.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/what-is-beer-innovation.html?showComment=1359369526270#c1483974 905452537425).
2. Innovation doesn’t need to be noisy and obnoxious. Golden ale, which emerged as an identifiable niche in the UK market in the late nineteen-eighties and early nineties, seems like a no-brainer with hindsight, but, until then, British beers that were anything other than black or brown were rare.
3. Doing something ‘old hat’ in a new time, place or context, can seem innovative. Hoegaarden, first brewed in the sixties, was an attempt to recreate the beer of Pierre Celis’s youth, but, when it hit Britain twenty years later, it blew people’s minds. What’s that phrase you see in secondhand shops? ‘New to you.’ Attempts to recreate Devon White Ale (http://www.penpontbrewery.co.uk/brewing-cornish-devon-white-ale/) or Grätzer (http://barclayperkins.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/gratzer-comes-alive.html) might yield similar results, especially once they’ve been tweaked for a modern palate and production methods.
4. Small mutations make something new. The crime novel has been with us for a long time and yet, somehow, small tweaks to the formula keep it going strong. In beer, a new hop variety or tiny development in technique can create something that’s new enough to keep the drinker (or, at least, the beer geek) interested.
5. True innovation defies categorisation, for a while at least. If you can create a beer which gets itself listed under ‘other’ (http://boakandbailey.com/2012/06/brewing-without-reference-styles/), which breaks the classification system at your local beer retailer, and which is the only one of its type, then you might have done something innovative.
6. Innovation will probably be greeted with anger and/or utter disdain. To some, with a particular idea of classical perfection, what is new will always seem wrong — discordant, ugly or perverse. Or even just silly. But your kids are gonna love it. (http://youtu.be/S1i5coU-0_Q)
7. If we could tell you what the next innovation in brewing would be, we’d be millionaires. Or not, but you take our point.
More... (http://boakandbailey.com/2013/02/what-is-beer-innovation/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=what-is-beer-innovation)