[Rhodes22-list] Bob Weber about 'Beer'

[Michael D. Weisner]

David,

Genny Cream is still available and is pretty good beer.  We sometimes find 
it in the supermarkets here on Long Island.  If the Utica Club is the same 
stuff that I remember from my college daze, it is great for garden projects 
such as slug bait.  Even then, there was a difference, although the Utica 
was real cheap.

Mike
s/v Shanghai'd Summer ('81)
Nissequogue River, NY

From: "David Bradley" <dwbrad at gmail.com>Sent: Monday, August 04, 2008 12:39 
PM
> Where I grew up in Western New York State we had Utica Club and
> Gennesee Cream Ale - but we didn't know to call them microbrews!
>
>
> On Mon, Aug 4, 2008 at 10:55 AM, John Lock <jlock at relevantarts.com> wrote:
>> 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
>> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>> s/v Pandion - '79 Rhodes 22
>> Lake Sinclair, GA
>> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>>
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>
>
>
> -- 
> David Bradley
> +1.206.234.3977
> dwbrad at gmail.com
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