I was drinking a Budweiser in NY recently and someone who had a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale next to me at the bar engaged the conversation. He was on a mission to convince me to drink something more …”special”. Man I had an aluminum bottle, shiny Bud in NY, what else ?
His first argument was about local. He was drinking local because it’s important to support local communities. As much as I agree, his beer travelled 4000km from the West Coast to NY while my beer was brewed 20 miles away in Newark by local people, distributed by local people and ultimately sold by a local bartender… but I got it.
I support local. Just the idea makes me feel better. It’s fresher, it’s less energy consuming, it must have a taste of local and … I mean it make sense.
(we had more beers and a very good and passionate conversation…..)
It made me realize that the idea of local is not just geographically local , it’s a taste of proximity, of small, of handmade, of innocent. It’s an idea of slow, of imperfect, of human. It’s a comfort zone when it feels like everything goes too quick. It’s like a personal contribution to preventing a macro disaster. It’s a pledge to here and now.
And that’s a thing. Very emotional. Something to embrace.
For the Hispanic community a Corona, Dos Equis, Tecate or Victoria is a taste of home. For Bavarian, a weissbier or anything pure malt is a taste of home…. For all my Belgian friends in New Jersey there’s no such thing as a Jupiler. A taste of togetherness, a taste of nostalgy, a taste of home (anyone of us going to Belgium must come back with some cans of “Jup”.. and some chocolate).
ABInbev tag line used to be “the World Local brewer”. Heineken communicated a strong ambition to serve all local communities with a taste of Home in their 2018 annual shareholder meeting.
The good news is that beer is mostly local. The underestimated value of this incredible product makes it a local thing. Not like an Iphone that worth 1000$ a pound… beer is not worth travelling. Local beer is fresher because it’s younger. Local beer is better because it doesn’t spend much time on a boat. Now comes the real debate? Are people ready to have their German beer brewed in US? Local and fresher, or does it need to come from Munich to be real? Does it need to cross the Atlantic to bring a piece of Home ?
Looks like home is the new local…
