MdV: Merchant
du Vin beer e-newsletter – Thursday January 25, 2007: Your Beer Purveyor
Valentine’s
Day is a great beer holiday – if you get Lindemans Lambic for your
Valentine! More as a 222k .pdf:
http://www.merchantduvin.com/linde_val_day_2007.pdf
Over
the next few months, look for news from us about some fine new additions to our
portfolio.
Samuel
Smith Nut Brown Ale in the New York Times; Oatmeal Stout in House and Garden;
Orval Monastery on cable TV . . . attention from mainstream media for great
beers – ours and others – continues to grow.
Plus, beer festivals, dinners, and events are offering beer lovers all
across
Full
national news & event listing at:
http://www.merchantduvin.com/pages/1_about/news.html
Beer
Chat from the
Lately
there have been changes in the way some import beers will reach the
Could
this be an indication that the future of beer in the
We
think so. We appreciate that this change
in the
Because
the growing flavor choices in the
1. Remember that the folks selling or serving
your beer are performing a difficult and demanding job: they must hustle, keep
track of a number of tasks, sometimes they must tell customers they are right
even when they’re wrong. Beer sellers
have responsibilities that other retailers don’t have, such as licensing and
age verification. Beer is hard work –
it’s heavy. (Ever picked up a keg?) It needs to be rotated, which means lots of
restacking and working shelves.
We
appreciate the hard work of American beer retailers. When you see a beer purveyor working hard -
answering questions, fitting a new beer variety into a shelf, building a
display, restocking - it's great to say “thanks.” You could even buy an extra bottle or two from
them as a thank-you.
Most
“on-premise” beer is sold in the afternoons and evenings, meaning that servers
and bartenders work a lot of evenings. (You’re
relaxing at a pub with a tasty beer – they are at work, clearing your dirty
glassware.) When you get good service,
tip extravagantly – as we’ve said before, we want great servers to be well paid
and stay in the business.
2. Give your opinion to the seller, and include
specifics about how the beer tastes to you.
Info about a beer can help them do their jobs better.
3. When you discover a poor beer selection at a
fine restaurant, respectfully suggest that a place with 200 wines and 50
scotches should also offer a wide variety of beer flavors. There are still restaurants in the
4. Try new beers! Ask your local store or bar to add new beer
varieties & seasonals.
5. Patronize businesses that offer beer variety.
If a store that doesn’t offer beer
variety surveys you, tell them why you shop elsewhere.
6. Hold a beer tasting. Serve fine beer at weddings. Pop the top of a special beer at New Year’s. Serve beer at dinners at your home. Start a beer cellar. Christen your yacht with a fancy beer in a
magnum. Your beer retailer can help you
with all these – in fact, what are you waiting for?
7. Keep reading about, talking about, and
drinking great beer. To people who
haven’t yet learned about fine beer,
courteously & gently suggest that they are missing an enhancement to
their lives.
And
last, please accept our thanks for buying beer from Samuel Smith, Ayinger,
Lindemans, Pinkus, Traquair, Melbourn Bros., Orval, Westmalle, and Rochefort.
The
purpose of this e-newsletter is to promote enjoyment, delight, and comfort in
fine beer as well as to provide information that might make it easier to buy or
to sell fine beer. Please forward this
to anyone who enjoys great beer.
If
you are reading this for the first time, check our archive at:
http://www.merchantduvin.com/pages/1_about/enews_archive.html/
and
sign yourself up for e-news at:
http://www.merchantduvin.com/pages/1_about/guestbook.html
Merchant