Bite Sized: Allo Gilinsky & Rachel Benkowski on Beer Education
•David Nilsen
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Welcome to Bean to Barstool Bite Sized, where we spend about 5 minutes on a specific topic in craft beer, craft chocolate, or artisan drinks. Today we're talking with Allo Gilinsky and Rachek Benkowski of the Craft Connections Beverage Education Summit. Allo and Rachel share with us some thoughts about how to make beer education approachable for consumers. Enjoy!
You can listen to the entire episode this clip is from here.
Hey everyone, welcome to Bean to Bar Stool Bite-Sized, where we spend about five minutes with some of our favorite people from Kraft Beer and Kraft Chocolate. Today we hear from Allo Galinsky and Rachel Benkowski of the Kraft Connections Beverage Education Summit. In this clip, Allo and Rachel talk about how to make beer education approachable for consumers. Enjoy.
SPEAKER_02
So Allo and I have been using this word empowerment a lot, and I think this applies to not only the folks that are making and serving the beverages, but also to the consumers. I know I have worked behind the bar uh for many, many, almost 10 years now. And even though people have craft beer as such a big part of their lives, they know they enjoy it, they kind of maybe know what styles they like or what they think they like, but they're not really great at knowing how to communicate what those things are. I always like to use the example when somebody comes in and they say, Oh, well, I really don't like hoppy beers. And it's like, okay, great. Well, but what do you mean by hoppy? Do you mean bitter? Do you mean you don't like a lot of citrus aromatics? You know, what do you mean? Nine times out of ten, they think that it means bitterness and their favorite beer is a hazy IPA. A hazy IPA is obviously an incredibly hoppy beer, but they just don't, they don't quite know how to communicate what it is that they're wanting.
SPEAKER_01
I use that example all the time as well, but I'm also in my in my day job right now, I'm working with training staff on how to build their beer vocabulary. So again, it can relate to the consumer. And I'm actively working with a lot of my team members to eliminate hoppy from their vocabulary. Because if they can start training the person on the other side of the bar not to recognize hoppy as the be-all end-all, if they can say, okay, well, is it the pine and earthy flavors and aromas you like, or is it those soft tropical fruits, or is it bright citrus notes? You know, that is such a better way to describe what's in the glass rather than hoppy, which sometimes has maybe a negative connotation to it.
SPEAKER_00
Do you guys have any thoughts on how we provide useful information to consumers in a way that is accessible? It isn't gatekeeping, but does allow them to move further if they want to.
SPEAKER_02
Yeah. So I can speak personally to uh this. And I mean, I understand that my situation is uh unique and different from everybody else's, but um, and this kind of leans into events and consumer engagement at breweries, providing some sort of very casual monthly, bi-monthly, quarterly, even uh beer school or some sort of gathering where folks can come together, you get a flight of beer, and then it is guided by whomever your brewer, the owner, tap room manager approaching it. You know, people are really familiar with wine tastings, but a lot of the folks outside of the beer industry uh have never really sat down and properly walked through how to assess and taste a beer. I lead a beer school at the brewery that I work for once a month. It's really cool to watch people's palates expand, their vocabulary expand, um, and just overall learning about how to approach beer. I've also seen on menus that people have tasting notes or food recommendations or just like little interesting blurbs about all of the beers that they're serving. I think that can be really helpful too. Listing for, let's say, uh a stout could have tasting notes of cacao, you know, drip coffee, things like that, kind of helping people think about what it is that they're drinking as they're drinking it.
SPEAKER_01
First of all, I mean, I just love what Rachel put out there. It really is about making it accessible to the consumer. And I do like to use that term kind of critical drinking, you know, doing more than just sipping it and swallowing it. And in terms of connecting with consumers as well, something that I preach out there is for everybody behind the bar to find personal connections to the flavors you're selling or find ways to associate beers with occasions. You know, where might somebody want to take these beers afterwards? And that's also leans into upselling. I was working with a brewery in San Diego last summer and they had a milk stout in July, and they were having a hard time getting out the door to go. And I said, okay, well, let's taste through this milk stout together. And to me, I got notes of roasted marshmallow and some graham cracker. It kind of tasted like a liquid s'mores. And I realized, okay, you're 10 to 15 minutes from the beach. Have you thought about positioning this as a bonfire beer? You know, that's a really great way to say, okay, where are you headed next? You tasted this in-house. Would you like to take a four-pack to your picnic to the ballgame, to the lake, to the beach? Where are you going that these beers might be able to become another part of the experience? And then also having that mean something to you. You know, we all come from such unique backgrounds that we all have different flavor perceptors. And if you can be behind the bar and reach out to a customer and say, hey, this reminds me of X, Y, or Z, and they might, their eyes might light up because they may not have ever thought about a sour beer tasting like Skittles or Jolly Ranchers. But that might bring them back to a point in their childhood where they say, Oh, I really like those flavors. Let me try that.
SPEAKER_00
You can find out more about the Craft Connections Beverage Education Summit in the show notes. And you can listen to my entire conversation with Allo and Rachel a few episodes back. I'll drop the link to that episode in the show notes as well. The music today was by my dear friend Anna P. S. My name is David Nilsen. Thanks for listening to Bean to Barstool Bite-sized.
