LOL, out of this thread I found an alt 
Back to economy: I think there's a finite market for micros. I don't think that a new micro brewery bringing out interesting beer will create a market, it'll take customers from another. Megaswiller will try a beer if you give it to them, but then when comes their turn to buy a beer for a party, they'll see the price tags and go back to their CUB/Toohey.
Diversify too much, and your beer will stay on the shelf, because customers will not pay $5 a stubby to try all 12 specialty brews of your range. So you aim for two or three that will sell. No prizes for guessing that you won't try to make outlandish (to the basic beer drinker) beers.
Also, I find it interesting that we're discussing supporting micros by buying bottles - I've only been brewing 2 months but my last commercial beer buying was 1 month ago. I'm not going to spend $50-60 on european imports, and certainly not $72 (as quoted) on aussie beers.
Seriously, I think it'd be interesting to see how much cash / month the people here spend on average on commercial (megaswill and/or micro) beers in bottles.
I think we're like the good mates that say "yeah yeah good idea" but don't actually buy the product - because we make it. I already have 50+ homemade bottles waiting to be drunk, why would I buy another slab? (yeah, I know, when going to parties, I'm not that confident in my brew yet ).
We may buy a bottle or two to try out, but can you honestly say you'd buy a six pack a week?
My point is that a micro that caters only for the HB crowd won't last long. So they aim for a wider audience, and this means selling more well-known types.
At this stage of the aussie market, maybe it's the knowledgeable beer drinkers like people here who help make a micro successful, but in the end if they want to expand they need to attract people who don't necessarily want to drink something that they don't know how to pronounce. And hence you end up with the usual pale ale, lager, bitter, etc.
Back to economy: I think there's a finite market for micros. I don't think that a new micro brewery bringing out interesting beer will create a market, it'll take customers from another. Megaswiller will try a beer if you give it to them, but then when comes their turn to buy a beer for a party, they'll see the price tags and go back to their CUB/Toohey.
Diversify too much, and your beer will stay on the shelf, because customers will not pay $5 a stubby to try all 12 specialty brews of your range. So you aim for two or three that will sell. No prizes for guessing that you won't try to make outlandish (to the basic beer drinker) beers.
Also, I find it interesting that we're discussing supporting micros by buying bottles - I've only been brewing 2 months but my last commercial beer buying was 1 month ago. I'm not going to spend $50-60 on european imports, and certainly not $72 (as quoted) on aussie beers.
Seriously, I think it'd be interesting to see how much cash / month the people here spend on average on commercial (megaswill and/or micro) beers in bottles.
I think we're like the good mates that say "yeah yeah good idea" but don't actually buy the product - because we make it. I already have 50+ homemade bottles waiting to be drunk, why would I buy another slab? (yeah, I know, when going to parties, I'm not that confident in my brew yet
).We may buy a bottle or two to try out, but can you honestly say you'd buy a six pack a week?
My point is that a micro that caters only for the HB crowd won't last long. So they aim for a wider audience, and this means selling more well-known types.
At this stage of the aussie market, maybe it's the knowledgeable beer drinkers like people here who help make a micro successful, but in the end if they want to expand they need to attract people who don't necessarily want to drink something that they don't know how to pronounce. And hence you end up with the usual pale ale, lager, bitter, etc.
