Yesterday, Big Rock announced that it is launching yet another new beer series, the Alchemist Edition. The first beer – as of yet unannounced – will be released October 10. This is the latest in Big Rock’s efforts to re-establish some craft brewery street cred, following the Brewmaster’s Edition seasonal series and the Ed McNally Signature Series of permanent specialty beer.

The press release offers big things. The number of exciting adjectives and adverbs was rather staggering. To use their own words, they describe the line-up as their “most innovative”, “ultrapremium and rare labels” released in “intensely limited quantities”. They say the beer will be designed “to showcase our artistry and appeal to a subculture of men and women that value independent thinking, appreciation of art, creativity, intelligence and anything non-mainstream”. Finally, the brewmaster, Paul Gautreau, “ventures deep into uncharted brewing territory to craft bold, small batch beers that pay no heed to the rules of what came before. Adventurous and experimental, these risky brews are their own reward.”

Whoa. I am dizzy and exhausted just reading the release.

I don’t mean to be too facetious (a little, maybe), but the level of hyperbole in the press release worries me. No matter how interesting, creative and well-brewed the beer may end up to be, there is NO way it can live up to that level of hype. I fear the well-intentioned marketing people may have set this beer up, a la Original 16 (read here for the story on that), for failure.

I am in no way pre-judging the beer itself – in fact I am quite curious about what the first one will turn out to be. Plus their hyper-spin has already gotten me to write about it and will likely spur me to write about the beer itself once I try it (so maybe it did what it wanted). I am most asking WHY such an oversell?

I won’t rehash that argument again – as I have made it many times. I believe strongly that part of being considered craft beer is to NOT oversell the qualities of the beer. Be playful, irreverent, controversial even – but don’t mislead the public about what the beer actually is. Maybe Big Rock isn’t exaggerating and these really are going to be blow-your-face-off beer. But are they really going to outdo some of the crazy product put out by Dogfish Head, Brewdog, Mikkeller, and others? I doubt it.

I have actually been favourably inclined toward Big Rock’s most recent efforts to re-craft itself. While the product has been a bit hit-and-miss, the intention is exactly what we need from the prairies’ big regional brewer. I want them trying harder to win beer drinkers over with flavour and different styles. Plus, I think it shows how much the craft beer scene has evolved and grown that Big Rock realized they had fallen behind.

I will try the beer. I will probably write about the beer. I may even like the beer (time will tell). But I think a more nuanced release might have gotten the same outcome from me (I am a pretty easy mark on that front – if it is new and interesting, I am usually there). So, next time, dear Big Rock marketing people, please don’t try quite so hard for shock-and-awe, and go instead for clarity in what you are up to.  At least not on my account.