Maybe we should just stop talking about quality in the Dutch beer world. It only seems to rub people the wrong way. It sometimes feels as though 'quality' as a topic of conversation is nothing but a hot potato: picking it up gives an uncomfortable, awkward feeling. Yet on the other hand it's a no-brainer: if you brew beer, it has to be good quality.
Any attempt to have a level-headed business discussion about quality is often shut down immediately. Because what does 'quality' actually mean? Is my quality different from yours? Surely it should be possible to draw some boundaries around the concept of 'quality'? Quality is tied to the expectations that customers have of a product - beer or otherwise. Admittedly, those expectations are often of the unspoken variety.
Predictability
Quality means being able to enjoy a product without worry, or work with it without problems. In this case: beer. A bottle-shop owner shouldn't have to expect cans of your beer to start bulging on the shelf. Pub owners shouldn't get sprayed with beer when they tap a new keg on a busy Saturday night. And a consumer should be able to count on finding the same palette of colours, aromas and flavours in the glass whenever they reach for a beer from your brewery. If your dubbel has gone a bit sour, did everything really go to plan? Or if one batch of your tripel comes out a festive golden and the next has gone all the way to dark amber? Quality is about predictability. Most people respond well to that.
On the subject of predictability: quality is also about consistency. Not hitting it out of the park once by luck, but performing every time you step up to the plate. What's the point if a commercial brewer nails it once and then can't reproduce that success? Noblesse oblige: when you put something out there with your brewery, you set certain expectations. Does that motivate you to live up to them, or does it feel like stress and pressure? Quality means knowing what you can do and how to handle that.
Beer is a 'living' product
Is it really petty to draw attention to certain issues around the quality of independently brewed beer in the Netherlands? Does naming them hurt the reputation of beer brought to market by SME breweries? Let's not beat around the bush: wherever people work with food or drink, there is always a risk that something won't go the way you want it to. Beer is a 'living' product, with all the risks that come with the complexity of making it. That applies to the very biggest players just as much as to breweries of a more modest scale. Even Big Beer isn't immune to product recalls.
How you respond when something does go wrong is another aspect of quality. When a customer's experience falls short of their expectations, do you as a brewer and beer supplier stand accountable for that? Admitting that something went wrong takes courage. But by coming up with a good solution, you can make the difference. Any service provider will agree: when everything runs smoothly, it doesn't leave much of an impression. That's normal - it's what people expect. What they remember, however, is how a supplier handled things the one time it didn't go well. If you manage to find a solution that ultimately leaves them satisfied, that sticks. That's what people talk about at birthday parties, over coffee, or at the pub.
Quality is something you do
Or is quality something you shouldn't discuss at all - just something you 'simply' do? Talk is cheap, after all. Quality means knowing your craft as well as possible. And that's something every ambitious brewery can achieve. It's not a privilege reserved exclusively for well-capitalised large brewers. SME breweries have the ability to pursue quality to the same high standards as Big Beer - on a scale that fits their size, but without cutting corners on professionalism. Curious how that works? At Beer-o-Meter we'd love to tell you more about what you can do.