Patriotic Beer Drinkers

I think your confusing patriotic with ignorant.

 

Ha that's hilarious man

 

Apparently he doesn't recognize California as a state. Sounds like a good place to avoid forever, they probably don't even serve French Fries.

 

Not too surprising. I see bars on a regular basis that list BMC as domestic and breweries that are 30 miles away as imports.

 

I think the average beer drinker might get confused because so many restaurants and bars these days use the title 'domestic' to list their BMC products, everything else is something other than. I might be giving them too much credit though...

 

I think you are right. I always find it odd that craft brews are in a seperate spot then *beers made in merica*.
If only dive bars listed the place of brewing for each beer, that would do more for craft then anything else.

 

Hey alright this is a legit question and I may get a lot of shit for asking but why exactly are those BMC not American beers? are they not produced here or something?

 

They are produced here. but so are many Toyota vehicles. Do you consider Toyota an import or domestic vehicle?

In fact, a Toyota Tundra is more domestically produced than the "All-American" Chevy Camaro.

 

So are they foreign companies?

 

Bud, Miller, and Coors are all owned by foreign companies, yes.

 

What are their actual names and what country's do they come from? I just want to know the whole story.

 

In 2008 AB-inbev acquired anheiser busch. Inbev owns a boat load of the macro brands that you might find at one of these bars. They are a brazillian/belgian company headquartered in belgium. Molson-Coors owns pretty much the rest of what you would find at a bar like that. They are both headquartered in Montreal and Denver, so we can say that it is ~1/2 american. So these beers that are branded domestic are at the very least partially owned and headquartered outside of the country.

 

Thank you for the complete answer! Do you know where the grain and hops come from to make the beer? are those outsourced as well?

 

Brazil, Belgium, South Africa, England, Canada; these are most of the countries of origin of the companies that now control BMC.

 

I would assume they are american only because it would be so expensive to import that much material from overseas, but honestly I wouldn't be too surprised if it was shipped in. I know a lot of their high AA hops come from farms in the pacific northwest. To me, though, pretty much all of it is immaterial. You would be hard pressed to find a 100% american product anymore just because some countries can do some things better than we can, and because if there are small differences, you can get exactly what you want pretty easily. I know GI uses canadian 2-row. There are a lot of craft breweries who use ingredients from overseas.

 

what Agold said, plus SABMiller. It gets really confusing as to what is controlled by whom and who is really calling the shots, but Anheuser-Busch, Miller and Coors all have foreign ownership and influence.

Granted, much of the beer that is on the shelf around you and I is brewed in America, the "buy American" mantra really shouldn't be applied to any of these companies. If you want to support American breweries, the two biggest American-owned and operated brewers are Yeungling and the Boston Beer Company (Samuel Adams).

 

Thanks a lot for the info man! I get this argument a lot that BMC are American because they are so instilled in our culture. I'd just like to have a nice counterpoint to argue.

 

It depends on the style of beer they are making, as with any brewery. If they are brewing a German-style beer, they are probably going to import at least a portion of their ingredients from Germany to get an authentic representation of the style. But that goes for every brewery no matter the size or ownership.

 

Honestly, its really easy to argue either side. Where the companies are headquartered says they are not american, but the brands were conceived of and grew up in America. The beers are brewed in America. Most big companies are multinational and to me transcend nationality.

For example: Company A is headquartered in London, the majority of their sales are in the US, the majority of their production happens in China, and the majority of their shareholders are in Germany. Where is that company from?