Jan
21
The 45 Million Year Old Beer
If the title of this post made you curious enough to want to learn more, than I’m on track to explaining why good marketing requires excellent story telling. If you run a business and don’t have a unique story that helps shape your customers experience, than you are missing an easy win to generating new leads and keeping existing customers. In my experience, this is one of the most often missed areas of business marketing. Every company has a story behind it; all it takes is some effort to hone the story so that it resonates with others.
Fossil Fuels Brewing Co. has one of the more interesting stories I’ve read about in a long time. Dr. Raul Cano from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, CA was able to crack open a 45 million year old piece of amber, and literally bring back to life the dormant microorganisms inside. In analyzing the microorganisms, he realized one of them was the yeast brewer’s use for beer (also known as Saccharomyces for you Jeopardy die-hards out there). When Dr. Cano connected with master brewer Peter Hackett to professionally test the yeast in a real brewery, what they found was astonishing. The yeast acted like no other yeast Hackett had ever seen. An article in Wired (Amber Ale: Brewing Beer From 45-Million-Year-Old Yeast by Erin Biba, 7/20/09) describes what happened during their first test:
Hackett combined the yeast with all the other ingredients that make up his popular Rat Bastard pale ale recipe, so he could easily taste its distinguishing characteristics. During the brewing, the ancient yeast’s behavior was unusual, to say the least. “It ferments violently at the start,” Hackett says, “then it falls out of suspension and the beer becomes almost clear.” From a brewer’s perspective, its behavior was schizophrenic: It began like a yeast used in ales, floating at the top. Then it began to act like yeast used in slow-fermenting lagers, settling to the bottom of the tank but not going dormant.
Normally, Hackett ends the primary fermentation process by “crashing the tank”—lowering the temperature to shock the yeast into dormancy. But that didn’t work on Cano’s yeast. “It was just sitting on the bottom and nibbling on the sugar like a couch potato,” Hackett says. A strain that had survived 45 million years in suspended animation was not about to go quietly.
Hackett was prepared to pour the batch down the drain if it tasted awful. But he discovered that the flavor of the resulting ale was unique, and not in a bad way. It was light and crisp with a citrusy, gingery tang. It was definitely worth exploring further.
Amazing. So not only is the yeast that makes this beer 45 million years old, but it acts like no other yeast we know of today. If you enjoy a nice ale every now and then, how can you not want to try a Fossil Fuels beer?
That’s the power of great story telling. It evokes an emotion inside of people that makes a connection. For Fossil Fuels Brewing, the initial connection is curiosity (which is great as curiosity is probably one of the strongest emotions to incite a purchase from customers). But here’s something else to keep in mind – even if the yeast wasn’t 45 million years old, there is a second story that can be told, and that’s how the yeast reacts so differently than any other yeast around. While most brewers might analyze this from only a brewing standpoint, from a marketing perspective it’s a differentiating factor that a great story could be based on (you could call it ‘Coaster Ale’ to highlight the up-and-down fermenting process it experiences before it’s ready).
So what’s your story? Every business has one. While yours might not be as shocking as a 45 million year old beer, it could be as simple as a unique business process you’ve developed that makes the customer experience even more enjoyable. If you can’t articulate the story, that’s where someone with a marketing background can help. Reach out to them and work together to craft a story that you’re proud to tell.
As soon as I’m able to get my hands on a Fossil Fuel beer, I’ll do a follow-up post on my thoughts. If you’ve tried it, I’d love to hear your thoughts (along with where you purchased it!).
