In the olden days, there was just black coffee and white coffee, the only difference being whether you added milk or not. People were used to it, few had tried anything different, and it was all going along fine.
Then someone, probably in Melbourne, imported the idea from Europe of putting more time and money into the product and making a new kind of coffee. At first it was seen as kind of a yuppie (‘90s hipster) thing to drink this new version when there were cheaper brews that everyone was used to seeing on every corner.
But gradually more and more fancy coffee places started cropping up. First in the cities and then through the country. These shops brought with them new words like “latte” and “piccolo”, new jobs like baristas, and even a new cuisine that went well with this new form of coffee.
Despite all the changes, people became used to it. Within a decade nearly everyone embraced the new language, accepted the new price and all for one simple reason: new coffee tasted better. (You will still come across the occasional person, usually a white male Boomer, who declares “instant coffee has done me well up until now – no need to change!”)
That was all 25 years ago. Now we’re seeing the same process playing out with Australia’s growing craft beer scene. In case you missed it, we’ve moved from the stage where craft beer is seen as an expensive hipster hobby, to being mainstream.
A recent report suggests that the while the Australian beer consumption is at an all time low, the craft beer scene is the only sector showing significant growth (10% last year). And a survey from online beer retailer Beercartel also shows 50% of their sales are beers that the customer hasn’t tried before. That means either the number of brewers, or the number of customers, or both, is on the rise.
Your beer nerd mate isn’t the only one who has noticed either. Over the past two years we have seen major brewers like Lion (owners of Carlton and Tooheys) launch beers such as Furphy and White Rabbit to capitalise on the craft market, while VB owners AB InBev purchased South Australia’s Pirate Life. Plus 49 new breweries opened in 2017, creating an uptick in the average number of products offered in bars and bottle shops.
None of this means that the old (or Old) faithful taps at your local are going to disappear (just like you can still buy instant coffee). What it does mean is that the idea of paying more for something different is becoming normalised for both the supplier and the consumer.
People are accepting that new beer tastes better too. Though maybe not your dad or uncle Bazza. So next time you feel the need to point out to some beardy bloke or hip gal that they just paid twice as much for that Rasberry Berliner Weis than you did for your old faithful, just double-check that you don’t have instant coffee in your cupboard first.