Beer News

By Andy Crouch and Todd Alström

A-B Attempts to Steal Craft’s Mojo

Beer-drinking football fans have recently had the chance to watch Anheuser-Busch’s newest attempt to fight back against the successes of the craft beer segment. The new series of television ads, part of the big brewery’s $30 million campaign to rejuvenate its ailing Michelob brand, are a low-key, sex-free promotion of the flavor and history of the Michelob brand. The ad features an interview with an A-B brewer who talks about Michelob’s tradition and touts its high-quality ingredients. The ad’s focus then quickly shifts from the standard lager to the less familiar ‘family’ of Michelob brands. Featuring Michelob Porter, Pale Ale and Hefeweizen, the brewer zeroes in on the quality of the beer. The spot ends with the campaign’s new tagline, “crafting a better beer.”

Some media analysts and beer lovers alike have been critical of the ad, which also seems to unapologetically steal from Boston Beer’s similar line of successful television spots. The Sam Adams series focuses on quality ingredients and celebrates the passion of the brewers. But it is the brewing giant’s co-option of craft beer’s name that is both audacious and a sign of the times. Going far past the mere release of new products in an attempt for brand traction, the campaign heralds the flavor and quality of craft beer.

Noticeably absent from the ads is Michelob Ultra, A-B’s one-time, low-carb superstar. An A-B exec told Advertising Age magazine that the brand disassociation was a conscious choice. “You’re going to see us reduce the reliance on the name Michelob with Ultra, maybe even to the point of taking it off the packaging down the road,” the executive said. [AC]

Presidential Politics and Beer

Political candidates have long tried to convey to voters that they are ordinary folks who engage in everyday activities.  They are quick to approach potential supporters, grasp their hands and kiss their babies. Politicians have also long been known to saddle up to the bar and sample a pint with the locals, all while the cameras click away.

Hoping to benefit from the highly competitive presidential race and the intense media coverage of the political process, the National Beer Wholesalers Association has launched a campaign of its own.  The NBWA is surveying drinking-age voters across the United States about the candidate they most want to have a beer with.  Starting in Des Moines on the eve of the Iowa caucus and continuing until the last state votes, beer lovers can vote online or in person at various locations around the country.  More than 100 voters participated in the New Hampshire event at The Peddler’s Daughter in Nashua.

“With all of the rigors of a campaign—attack ads, phone calls, direct mail—Americans know sometimes it just comes down to who you want to have a beer with,” said NBWA President Craig Purser. “We hope this campaign reminds voters that at the end of the day, while issues are very important, so is conversation, civility and character. Having a beer with someone represents getting to know someone better, and that’s what the campaign season is all about—getting to know these candidates better.”

Democratic candidate Barack Obama leads all candidates in the voting, with strong competition from Republican candidates John McCain and Ron Paul. Despite their personal, political or religious objections to drinking, Dennis Kucinich, Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney have also garnered some interest among beer lovers. [AC]

Could a £4 Pint Be the End of Pub Culture in the UK?

That’s what some brewers are afraid of as they urge Chancellor Alistair Darling to freeze taxes on beer.

The doom and gloom is thanks to massive cost increases for barley, hops, fuel and metal (aluminum kegs) that’s currently impacting brewers around the globe, but it seems the UK is getting hit hard first.

According to various sources, barley prices in the UK have gone up nearly 40 percent in the last year, 300 percent in the last four, aluminum has increased to £550 a ton, with £60 million in keg theft, and beer taxes have gone up nearly 30 percent in the last 10 years. Even though the current national average is a somewhat affordable £2.5 a pint, the pub closure rate is at roughly 50 a month. Analysts fear that the scores of pubs would fold and the beer trade would literally dry up if a £4 pint came to market.

Mark Hastings of the British Beer and Pub Association warned: “There is an upward pressure on prices coming from a number of sources. The price of barley and hops has rocketed. We have also got increases in commodity prices, so for example, with the kegs and cans that we put beer into, the cost of metal has escalated dramatically. On top of that we have also got things like fuel prices, which affect both the cost of producing the beer in the first place and then transporting it to and from pubs. All these factors have increased the cost of being a brewer quite dramatically.”

In a land where drinking socially is an important part of their culture, will Britons soon opt to hit the bottle shops and drink at home instead? [TA]

Randy Thiel Leaves Ommegang to Join New Glarus

Brewery Ommegang (Cooperstown, N.Y.) recently announced that brewmaster Randy Thiel is passing the brewing paddle to his colleague Phil Leinhart to return back to his Midwest stomping grounds as director of quality control at the New Glarus Brewing Company (New Glarus, Wis.).

Thiel has been a part of Ommegang’s brewing process and culture since the first batches of Ommegang back in 1997 and has been crafting award-winning Belgian-style ales ever since, including: Hennepin Farmhouse Saison, Rare Vos Amber, Three Philosophers Quadruple, Witte Wheat, Ommegeddon Funkhouse, Ommegang Chocolate Indulgence Stout and several other innovative specialty releases. And in 2004, he became the first-ever American brewer inducted into the Knighthood of Brewers Mashstaff, by the Belgian Brewers Guild in Brussels, Belgium.

Phil Leinhart has been director of production at Ommegang since January 2007 and has been in the brewing industry for over 20 years in England, Germany and the US—most recently at Anheuser-Busch in Newark, N.J. Since his arrival, he’s developed increased brewing capacity initiatives that have resulted in record-breaking brewing production at Ommegang.

BeerAdvocate wishes Ommengang and New Glarus much success. [TA]

University Experiments with Pairing Academics with Beer

Gordon McOuat of the University of King’s College in Canada is offering a very unique course, “Brewing Science: The History, Culture and Science of Beer,” that’s also gained the attention and support of local brewers, but only serious students need apply.

“It’s a one-off offering, that is, we’re offering it only once as a kind of experimental encounter with the possibility of teaching a course that broadly and deeply intertwines cultural history along with the history of science, centered around a particular social and technological development, that is, brewing beer,” said McOuat, who also plans on working with brewers to give students a chance to experience operational breweries in action.

“You have to learn somewhere, and it’s an industry which is doing quite well right now. If there’s an actual course provided so people aren’t screwing up and poisoning each other, then I’m all for it,” said Laura Kenny, a first-year student. [TA] ■