April 8,2008

I have forseen the demise of many beer festivals for a number of years, though some of the priemier fests will likely survive. The majority will die for a number of reasons.

The biggest reason - beer festivals have been too successful.

Fifteen years ago the smaller brewers had a wide variety of beers they needed to expose to a large market that otherwise might have stuck with "Bud, Bud Light, Miller, Miller Lite." The smaller breweries needed the festivals to introduce their product to a large audience.

Gathering many breweries with their plethora of beers allowed the general public to taste a variety of beers. The festivals educated people by allowing them to discover that some varieties of beer actually have flavor, and the various styles of beers have flavors that are different than other styles.

At the same time large amounts of money were generated for charities. This didn't go unnoticed.

Soon, every Kewanis, every Rotary, every Chamber of Commerce was holding a beer festival, and the smaller breweries became overwhelmed with the large number of festivals. There were multiple festivals every weekend during the summer. Breweries got tired. They became more picky about which festivals they would or could attend. Much of the decreased attendance by breweries was offset with increased participation by distributors.

By this time most people had heard of many of the smaller breweries. Those who would try one brewery's products would be more likely to try an unknown brewery. Just recently, brewers and distributors in Wisconsin have been allowed to give tastes in grocery stores.

The small breweries no longer need the festivals to get their names out there.

Another reason a number of beer festivals will fail is Wisconsin's "Tied House Law" which the Brewers Guild insists states a brewer must sell his product to each account for the same price. This would force the various festivals to buy beer (yes, I know some festivals have purchased beer since they began) from distributors.

Therefore the festival would pay wholesale prices for beer, rather than ask for donations. I don't think anyone realistically believes we can forsee how much beer would be consumed at the festival so we would have to either purchase less beer than we thought we would use (meaning we would deliberately run out of beer - certainly not a croud pleaser), or we'd be forced to purchase excess beer, of which we would have no way to dispose. The distributors certainly won't accept partial cases or kegs as returns for credit, and the temporary beer license the festival operates under does not allow package sales.

I don't understand why the Tied House Law would apply to a festival if ALL the breweries participating are not charging any price (i.e. free). Of course I'm not a lawyer, but I have noticed that law was passed in the 1930s and and it didn't seem to apply to festivals until 2008. I've also noticed that breweries are still donating beer - to political fundraisers, to churches, etc. Excuse me if I don't believe the law has much to do with this policy change.

I have worked at, and attended, a number of festivals operating under the new guidelines. I have noticed the distributors have no motive to decrease the festival's costs, or even to provide fresh beer. In fact, I believe distributors are motivated to sell a festival as much product as possible, and if it's old that's even better, since they don't make a profit on beer returned to the brewery.

Apparently the breweries aren't concerned about that.

So... Too many festivals, smaller breweries not needing festivals any longer, Tied House law, problems working with distributors, increased risk, decreased income...

All of those observations, as well as personal considerations went into the decision to discontinue The Milwaukee Beer Festival. I am disappointed at the way it ended, but I have no animosity toward anyone.

I feel that The Milwaukee Beer Festival deserves to be in the primier rank of festivals that will survive, but it's telling that nobody is interested in picking up a program that has generated over $35.000 for charity in the last seven years.

The Milwaukee Beer Festival ran 16 years. Most of those years were good. Some of those years were very good, some were less successful. Now, it is time to move on. We had a good run, but the world changed. It's telling that nobody is interested in picking up a program that has generated over $35.000 for charity in the last seven years.

Favre did 16 years and retired. All things end.

Thanks to the brewers and homebrewers, the volunteers, and the thousands of you who purchased tickets. You're the ones who actually made the festival work.

THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

John Zutz
Festmaster Emeritus