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Value Proposition Controls - Necessary vs. Maximum Quality
POSTED BY Sam Holloway ON Mon, 01/30/2017 - 19:41

I've hear Kurt Widmer say many times: "Never put out a beer you aren't proud of." While all of us can agree on this sage advice, what about the other end of the spectrum? Is there a risk to putting out a beer we are too proud of? Every craft beer business should have a minimum quality standard (and that minimum is already pretty high quality!). But we need to be careful about exceeding the quality standard that consumers understand. I recall a triple dry hopped beer that one CAS member brewery said people loved, but that beer cost so much money they had to dial back the recipe the following season. Guess what, it was still dry hopped 3 times, but with far less ingredient usage. Consumers still loved it and now the brewery was happy with the profit margin. What advice do you have to control the cost side of the beers in your portfolio? Please share!