TOPIC:

After the latest round of complaints that Ireland's big brewers are engaging in anti-competitive practices against the smaller ones, I asked what the industry would like to happen. It's all very well to point out a problem, but to fix it you need to propose a change to the rules that will actually work.

In an article on The Journal yesterday[/url:1kq4j13w], White Hag has made a suggestion: a quota for bar taps. This would require pubs to carry a certain percentage of independent beers in the line-up. No number is suggested, though the figure of 30% is mentioned.

30 is the percentage of Irish music that radio stations are [i:1kq4j13w]supposed[/i:1kq4j13w] to play: from a quick reading around, it seems to be a voluntary code of practice, though one that's widely ignored, with some stations playing less than 3% Irish. If you were going to do something similar for beer, and make it meaningful, it would have to be a strict rule and enforced.

What does anyone else think? Is it something Beoir should get behind? And how exactly should it work?

Well, it would have to be legislated for, otherwise the publicans/macros would simply ignore it.

A crazy idea would be to approach Diageo and get them to put their money where their mouth is regarding the Open Gate Brewery. We've heard enough from them about promoting Irish craft and I think it's time that they are told to piss or get off the pot.

What do you mean? They do usually have a guest beer at Open Gate, and pretty much always have a couple at events.

"TheBeerNut":kx0apazd wrote: What do you mean? They do usually have a guest beer at Open Gate, and pretty much always have a couple at events.[/quote:kx0apazd]
Yes, but move that on to having their sales team promote local craft to their accounts, on a "rising tide floats all boats" kinda thing. I know this won't happen because they've put a lot of money into faux craft.

A quota would never work and would never be enforced. Consider an "old man bar" or any shithole bar where you know before you walk in that it's never gonna have any craft beer. If they're obliged to stock craft beer there'd be 2 scenarios, either no brewery will bother supplying them, because the outlay is too much, or worse, the bar gets a few taps in and nobody buys any pints leaving the taps to run dry and the breweries having wasted a few hundred quid installing them.

You'd end up with Remit Beer, a new low-alcohol style brewed to be the cheapest and plainest beer on the bar.