[Rhodes22-list] Bob Weber about 'Beer'

[John Lock]

At 09:08 AM 8/4/2008 -0500, Bob Weber wrote:
>Ed, Stella is one of their flagship brands.  It has a great 
>following in the US.  I am in the distribution system and it will be 
>interesting to see how it all shakes out.  AB "endowed" private 
>owners with exclusive distribution rights and whether Inbev chooses 
>to honor previous relations is anyones guess.  I believe Fat Tire is 
>a product of Molson/Coors.  All breweries have labels which are 
>portrayed to be "micro".  It fools the counter culture, beer snobs, 
>into thinking they are more refined than the mainstream.  Sam Adams 
>is the most successful of these (SAB-Miller).  Where beer is 
>concerned I have 2 classes.  I like a good stout for a dessert but 
>for mass consumption give me a good old bud or 5.

As someone "in the system", you should really try to get the facts 
straight.  New Belgium Brewing (brewers of Fat Tire and other ales) 
is not owned by Molson/Coors (see 
http://www.newbelgium.com/ownership.php).  Neither is the Boston Beer 
Company (brewers of Sam Adams brand) owned by SAB/Miller.  They are 
both independent breweries.

You may be confused by the fact that many microbreweries (including 
these two) often hire out brewing to other breweries with excess 
capacity.  It's called contract brewing and doesn't alter the recipes 
of the beers produced.  Lately this has become commonplace as the 
large brewers' shrinking market share left breweries expensively 
idle.  Microbreweries, looking to increase capacity to meet their 
growing demand, realized it makes more sense to rent somebody else's 
brewery than build a new one.  Both sides wins (financially anyway).

However, you are correct that the big multinational brewers have spun 
off "micro-looking" brands in an attempt to capture some of the 
growing sales the microbrew market segment enjoys.  Blue Moon, for 
example, was a spin-off from Coors many years ago.  In fact, some of 
those products have even been moderately tasty.

As one of the beer snobs you refer too, I spent a great deal of time 
learning about beer, its ingredients, history, styles, and homebrewed 
my own for a while.  Before I got into sailing, I was into beer.  The 
mass market swill that the big brewers push off on us are vaguely 
"beers" but that's what main-stream America wants - an alcohol 
delivery mechanism.  Not that that is a bad thing... but if you care 
about the craft of brewing and the taste of a finely brewed beer 
you'll need to look to the micro brands.

FYI, Stella (like most imports in green bottles) is a pretty crappy 
beer and a far cry from the fresh product available in 
Europe.  Beside being brewed for the "lighter" American palette, the 
green bottles hasten its deterioration on store shelves under bright 
lights.  Bright light = bad beer.  They call Rolling Rock "Green 
Death" for a reason!  Heineken lovers have even made a cult following 
out of savoring the skunked aroma of beer gone bad.

The best beer you can get is one brewed locally.  If you have a 
brewpub or microbrewery in your area, enjoy it often and liberally.

Cheers!

John Lock
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s/v Pandion - '79 Rhodes 22
Lake Sinclair, GA
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