"Scott T. Jensen" > wrote in message
...

> It might however spur (the breweries) to seek out better distributors and
retailers.
> It might also spur these distributors and retailers to improve to keep
these
> microbreweries as clients and providers.

Once again, it comes down to sales volume and market forces. Unfortunately,
craftbrewing comprises only 3% of the US beer market (see
http://www.beertown.org/craftbrewing/statistics.html ). I would expect to
find most distributors and retailers not interested in spending a lot of
time, energy, or money on what happens to the craftbrews, when they can more
effectively spend time, energy, and money on the 86% that comprises the
megaswill market segment.

> 1) The smaller the business, the more important each customer is to them.
>
> 2) For the non-chain, non-supermarket liquor stores, the IHBC seal of
> approval would likely give them an edge over these mega-stores that
they'll
> very likely view as a good way to be competitive with them. If the IHBC
> were to come about, I could easily see small IHBC-approved liquor stores
> heavily advertising this fact.
>
> 3) The mega-stores intensely monitor their sales. Sales fluctuations of
> even the smallest amounts are closely scrutinized as they should be. You
> want to catch trends at the start and not after it's too late. And this
> means both good and bad trends. For the good trends, you want to maximize
> the opportunity as much as you can.
>
> Given the above...
>
> If small liquor stores promoted their IHBC stamp of approval and a small
> fraction of beer consumers (the beer connoisseurs) were to change their
> purchasing habits because of this, the small liquor stores would see an
> important improvement in revenue and the mega-stores would notice an
> unwanted downward movement in sales. The mega-stores might then seek IHBC
> approval to hopefully regain those lost consumers as well as stop any
> further loss of them. The end result could be vastly improvement handling
> of all beers by distributors and small and mega stores.

Most liquor stores (even the small ones) still depend on the mainstream
market to make the majority of their sales (see my first comment above). I
don't know about where you live, but in Southeast Michigan, I don't find any
stores that specialize in micrbrews ONLY.

> > Being a homebrew judge, I would venture that the difference
> > between the "special batches" and the "standard batches"
> > would be little to none, with the little differences being minor
> > flaws that would escape the palate of the average consumer.
>
> I can definitely see this for home-brewed beers. However, those are not
the
> beers I'd want my beer contest to evaluate.

However, the judging process is the same for both. All beers (homebrewed
and commercial) are judged by:

A) how closely they meet style guidelines (does it taste like a Pale Ale,
or more like an Amber Ale?), and
B) are there any flaws in the beer (are there "bad" flavors that should not
be there, and detract from the overall enjoyment of the beer?).

How would you have the beers judged? Unless you have a standard set of
guidelines to measure the beers against (and a group of trained and
experienced individuals to judge them), the contest would just devolve into
a debate of "I like this one the best", without any solid rationale as to
why.

Kevin