Stone Brewing Company recently announced it’s opening the first American-owned craft brewery in Europe, located in an old gasworks facility in Berlin.
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As part of the announcement, a group of beer fans and European craft brewers gathered in front of the brewery’s main building and cheered as Greg Koch used a forklift to drop a huge boulder (you know, a Stone) on top a pyramid of watery European pilsners and lagers.
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The intended symbolism was clear; Stone will crush traditional mass-produced European beers. But what about the unintended symbolism?
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While on the surface it seemed like a fairly harmless way to celebrate American craft beer’s first beachhead on European soil, the act of destruction may have said more than Stone intended.
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It’s not in the spirit of craft beer
Stone posted a gallery of pictures documenting the event on their Facebook page, and amongst the majority of people who thought the act was fun and harmless, there were a few who thought it didn’t reflect the craft beer ethos of “may the best beer win.”
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“Nothing like promoting your brand by putting others down.” posted one beer geek. “Stuff like this that will make me turn my back on a brewery,” said another. Thoughts like these could be found in other places across Facebook, where users had shared the gallery on their own walls.
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It appears to be a waste of funds for a brewery begging for cash
Others on Facebook took issue with the fact that Stone has launched an Indegogo campaign to raise a million dollars to help expedite the brewery’s construction, yet they have the funds to publicize the beer-bashing, gather the crowd, and play with boulders.
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“Enough money for this stunt but still asking the public for a million to fund the new brewery?” asked one frugal Facebooker.
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While it likely cost very little to try and make a splash with the locals, some Stone fans seem to be counting every penny, which is a little silly – this was at the launch event for the brewery, a hugely important occasion to let the world know Stone has landed. It’s money well spent.
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It’s a little historically tone-deaf
A bunch of Americans once came to Berlin to “crush” the competition. Sound familiar? While it’s a stretch to compare smashing a bunch of beers to World War II, it’s perhaps not the best metaphor to introduce your All-American product to Germany. Also, there’s something a little foreboding about a crowd of people rallying in Berlin to symbolically destroy products whose ideology they don’t agree with. They did that 75 years ago in Germany – I saw it in an Indiana Jones movie.
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I’m not saying that this little stunt was in any way close to a Nazi book burning (that’s a little dramatic!) or that it may have dredged up the horrors of World War II, but choosing to exclaim their arrival in such a manner gives the impression that Stone may be stone deaf when it comes to understanding the history and culture of the market they’ve just entered.
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Have the locals by, share some beers, talk about bringing bold flavors to Europe, roast a pig, plant a cherry tree, go wild, be rebels, whatever. There are lots of ways to announce you’ve arrived without going beer bowling with a boulder. As a matter of fact, this little gag was a tiny part of Greg’s well-crafted message at the event (you can read his speech here), and he could’ve made just as big of a splash without it.
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Stone will be Stone
All-in-all, I think this was a harmless little bit of fun, a chance for a brewery whose beers have words like “arrogant” and “self-righteous” in their names to introduce their swaggering, irreverent attitude to market full of conservative and traditional products.
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But they should be thoughtful about how they express themselves as they enter an entirely new culture – sometimes when you seek as much attention as Stone does, you attract the wrong kind.
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So what do you think? Was this a cool way to introduce ze Germans to Stone’s punk-rock attitude? A waste of beer? In poor taste? Exploitative of boulders? As always, let us know below!
Filed under: Beer, News Tagged: Beer, berlin, boulder, forklift, greg koch, stone, Stone Brewing Company