Relevant and irrelevant
New York’s ‘Hops Trail’ cuts roughly 100 miles across the central part of the state a string of picturesque hop houses (specialized barns) and features farms, historic estates, museums, a spa town, landmark tavern, breweries and (if you get there at the right time) a hop festival.
Members of the Northeast Hop Alliance understand that hops will ever be king again on central New York farms - and that brewers who want to make distinctively hoppy beers they will likely stick with Northwest hops. But it’s fair to hope that New York brewers will see the value of including homegrown hops in some of their beers.
In Farmhouse Ales, Phil Markowski writes about how brewers of bieres de garde in France promote the fact that most their ingredients come from France. The Appellation Controlee designation carries considerable weight with French consumers, in no small part because wineries have long emphasized the importance of terroir - a combination of soil, climate and topography that helps determine the quality of grapes.
In fact, French-grown barleys make terrific beers, but that may not make them as relevant to the French drinker as the fact they are French. The same could be true of New York hops in New York beers.
In contrast, The New York Times (free registration required) has a lengthy article about a new advertising campaign from Miller High Life that will lean heavily on nostalgia by using Miller’s “Girl in the Moon” first created in 1907. The story reports:
“From an image standpoint, we do want to bring it (High Life) up to higher-priced beer,” said Susan Hoffman, creative director at Wieden & Kennedy in Portland, Ore.
The tenor of the campaign, its storytelling elements and its focus on a female character are meant to increase the number of women who buy High Life, Hoffman said, as well as the number of younger consumers of either sex who drink it.
This campaign may turn out to be wildly successful, at least for a while, and I’m probably woefully wrong, but I don’t see how this will make High Life more relevant to consumers. Emphasize the flavor, the ingredients, the craft involved in brewing it if you want me to drink your beer, let alone pay more for it.
