{"id":26462,"date":"2025-05-01T09:35:15","date_gmt":"2025-04-30T21:35:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/?p=26462"},"modified":"2025-05-25T16:05:00","modified_gmt":"2025-05-25T04:05:00","slug":"beer-not-special","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2025\/05\/01\/beer-not-special\/","title":{"rendered":"Special to us, but not special"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Screenshot<\/a>
There’s a lesson here, probably several<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I’ve worked in the beer industry for nearly two decades. I met a huge proportion of my friends through it. I write\u00a0this<\/em>. It is a significant part of my identity. And it’s not an easy time for beer, right now. But it makes me extremely uncomfortable when people \u2014 in the business, or the wider subculture \u2014 call for direct, targeted support from government. I want to try and explain why, with help from a simple piece of moral philosophy nicely illustrated by, of all things, an episode of Bluey<\/em>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In ‘Library’,<\/span>1<\/sup><\/a><\/span> Bluey’s cousin Muffin is being driven over to visit and sees her dad ignore a traffic signal. Panicking a little, he says it was a “special case” and when Muffin follows up asking if she’s<\/em> special he tells her “you’re the most special kid in the whole world.” She then proceeds to act like an absolute nightmare at Bluey’s house for most of the episode until he eventually clarifies: that is<\/em> how he and her mum feel, but “you’re probably not special to everyone else.”<\/p>\n

It’s a simple point, well made. Your favourite thing might not be quite so beloved by others, and almost certainly isn’t objectively more important than theirs. I think this is important to keep in mind when advocating for something, so you don’t veer into expecting special treatment for your business or your hobby \u2014 if someone didn’t care as much as I do about this<\/em>, would they still agree to what I’m proposing?<\/p>\n

When beer fans are distraught over the latest in a string of brewery closures, you’ll see calls \u2014 demands, even \u2014 that the government do something<\/em>. It’s often vague and abstract, though some concrete suggestions make the rounds, most often targeted tax breaks. But the problems facing beer aren’t specific to beer.<\/span>2<\/sup><\/a><\/span> There is a general cost of living crisis in New Zealand, Australia, the U.S., and the U.K.; all places I see loud calls to “support” craft \/ indie beer with an energy that would be better spent on addressing the root causes \u2014 which would benefit the industry indirectly, if that’s still your focus, but more fairly and sustainably.<\/p>\n

\"Infographic<\/a>The catch-cry of craft beer used to be “a rising tide lifts all boats” \u2014 which we said both to celebrate a collective spirit, and caution against narrow zero-sum thinking. So what if that… but for everyone<\/em>. It’s pretty standard politics journalism these days to look at a budget in terms of “winners” and “losers”<\/a> or to describe a party’s election promises by referencing the constituency they’ll benefit. I don’t think we should play along with that. First, I think it’s grotesque. But second, it won’t get us far. If “beer” is too often in the winners column as other things get ignored, we risk losing a lot of our social license.<\/span>3<\/sup><\/a><\/span> And we are, ultimately, drug dealers. Folks often point to the societal benefits of a beer culture, and I think those are real. The argument for “support” is strongest and most sympathetic with those in mind. But it’s worth remembering, for example, that one of the reasons pubs are such valuable ‘third spaces’ is that there has been a hollowing-out of investment in public<\/em> space. Promoting certain benefits via privately-owned makers and sellers might be extremely inefficient and inequitable.<\/p>\n

I completely understand adjusting some of your own purchasing decisions partly to help out your favourite businesses in trying times. I do that myself. But it’s frankly kind of bizarre, cruel even, to look at the world and think the brewing industry is an urgent priority for government action. If you want a bailout for beer specifically and would let politicians off the hook for ignoring deeper problems if they gave it to you, you are falling for some real\u00a0bread-and-circuses<\/a> shit.<\/p>\n

\"Social<\/a>Some<\/em> policy proposals don’t fall foul of this. Going after anti-competitive behaviour in the beer market (like the ‘tied taps’ phenomenon) is perfectly valid because monopolies are bad for the same reasons no matter which industry we’re talking about. Campaigns run by Australia’s Independent Brewers Association are a fascinating mix of exactly this sort of sensible, widely-applicable proposals, and a bunch of absurd special pleading that is the worst kind of lobbying. Rather than mucking around with the minute details of how excise tax is applied,<\/span>4<\/sup><\/a><\/span> they could be using our industry as a relatively-understandable case study and a way to argue for systemic fixes in the wider economy.<\/p>\n

In Australia, the vast majority of beer is produced by two aggressively-consolidating companies, and retail is similarly dominated by two others. The market-distorting effects are dramatic and the product is an everyday one; it’s the perfect place to be proposing stronger fair trading law enforcement, or maybe a more sophisticated company tax regime (including around the offshoring of profit) to discourage such concentration \u2014 some solution, not specific to beer, which might be equally helpful in more obscure industries and overall.<\/p>\n

Instead, the IBA and many of its members are focused purely on the fact that those two brewing conglomerates are ultimately foreign owned and rely on ham-handed nationalism rather than any kind of systemic critique. It’s a dark path, and they wouldn’t be okay with the same attitude applied to their products from within someone else’s borders. But your country is only special to you<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Australia’s exports include a lot of raw materials, mostly minerals and fossil fuels, but a recent report<\/a><\/span>5<\/sup><\/a><\/span> also suggests that it’s the #8 grower worldwide for both malt and hops used by the brewing industry. If that was cut off or subject to crippling tariffs \u2014 just to pick a wild hypothetical that lies a few steps down the road of this narrow my-country-first mode of thinking \u2014 the local industry would presumably suffer.<\/p>\n

\"Screenshot<\/a>
Muffin learns she isn’t special<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In terms of finished product, I was struggling to think of an Australian one that famously makes its way around the world. Foster’s doesn’t count<\/a>, and we probably should<\/em> be boycotting News Corp., but not because Rupert Murdoch is Australian.<\/span>6<\/sup><\/a><\/span> But then I found it: Bluey<\/em>. Created and produced in Brisbane, in partnership with the public broadcaster, the show brings a significant amount of money home from overseas via distribution deals, merchandising, and such. If the rest of the world wasn’t watching it because of that, I think Australians would quite rightly find that ridiculous.<\/p>\n

Calling for some as-yet-unspecified government intervention to “protect” local beer<\/span>7<\/sup><\/a><\/span> betrays (at least) two distorted priorities \u2014 expecting favourable treatment for your subculture and your country just because they’re special to you<\/em>. There are real issues implicated in all this, but the industry is all too often acting like a total brat. I still love it, and am trying to channel my frustration in productive ways. But it’s not easy.<\/p>\n

I worte this piece together with one on claims made about the unfairness of beer excise tax<\/a> specifically. Check that out if your reaction is \u201cbut the ATO is killing small breweries\u201d \u2014 there\u2019s a lot to complain about with the current system, but a lot of misinformation, too…<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve worked in the beer industry for nearly two decades. I met a huge proportion of my friends through it. I write\u00a0this. It is a significant part of my identity. And it’s not an easy time for beer, right now. But it makes me extremely uncomfortable when people \u2014 in the business, or the wider … Continue reading Special to us, but not special<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[55,76],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interesting-finds","category-regulation"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":19664,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2018\/01\/08\/podcast-special\/","url_meta":{"origin":26462,"position":0},"title":"The 2017 Beer Diary Podcast Unexpected Christmas Special","author":"Phil","date":"January 8, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"For the holidays \u2014 the familiar public ones, but also the 14th anniversary of the first entry in my actual Beer Diary \u2014\u00a0George and I sat down to talk about what's changed, and what hasn't, in the time since we last did one of these. 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Megan, Beth, Hayley and Steph continue\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Podcast episodes"","block_context":{"text":"Podcast episodes","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/podcast-episodes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7467,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2014\/09\/07\/beer-diary-podcast-s04e03\/","url_meta":{"origin":26462,"position":3},"title":"Beer Diary Podcast s04e03: Women & Beer \u2014 part 1","author":"Phil","date":"September 7, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"For a Very Special episode, George and I relinquish the microphone entirely to four of our friends. We'd wanted to dedicate an episode entirely to 'Women & Beer' for some time and eventually realised that we were sufficiently blessed for potential guests \u2014 and also sufficiently lacking in personal experience,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Podcast episodes"","block_context":{"text":"Podcast episodes","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/podcast-episodes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7320,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2014\/07\/26\/beer-diary-podcast-s04e01\/","url_meta":{"origin":26462,"position":4},"title":"Beer Diary Podcast s04e01: Friend of the Show","author":"Phil","date":"July 26, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Back for our fourth season \u2014 which promises to include some Very Special Epsiodes, but more on those in due course \u2014 George and I quickly re-tell our Origin Story for new listeners, return briefly to the topic of our first-ever show (so-called \"grey market\" imports), before catching up on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Podcast episodes"","block_context":{"text":"Podcast episodes","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/podcast-episodes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Beers Of The Week (My house, 16 June 2014)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/s04e01-BOTW-150x150.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7443,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2014\/08\/20\/station-ident-anticipation\/","url_meta":{"origin":26462,"position":5},"title":"Station Ident: Anticipation","author":"Phil","date":"August 20, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"So,1 as may or may not already be obvious, Beervana is nearly upon us. 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