Back to my roots...AAL

I found your reaction fascinating john0721, mostly because it's SO different from mine.

It sounds like you and I are of a similar age, with a similar background when it comes to beer. I was living in N. California when I first started drinking beer, so at least Anchor Steam was sometimes an option (but was so "prohibitively expensive," that I almost never bought it). However, for the most part, given my limited budget and limited options, night's out for me an my friends consisted of visiting pizzerias and similar inexpensive restaurants, and ordering pitchers of whatever BMC variant was the nightly special. A few places might have Heineken or Carta Blanca on tap, which if we were feeling rich, we might sometimes order. However, most of the time we would order some type of BMC, which we were content with (but then again, back in the day - in the late 1970's - this was really all we knew or could afford). Like you, I have a lot of fond memories from those times.

I think it was probably in the late 80's and early 90's when I really started getting into craft beer (microbrew back then). What struck me immediately about the pale ales, blonds and ambers that were available, was just how much flavor they had. I think what hooked me for good was a visit to Pacific Coast brewing in Oakland while taking the Bar exam in 87 or 88. Aside from their own excellent beers that they brewed on premise, they also had 20 or 30 "guest" beers, that included a number of English ales, as well as a number of other locally brewed ales and lagers (mostly ales, but there were a few lagers). Unlike the swill I'd been drinking from BMC all my life (which had at most subtle differences of flavor), each one these beers was distinctly different from the others. It was an absolute epiphany for me (I'd been to England when I was over in Europe in the Army, so I knew it was possible to brew something that wasn't an AAL, but had always been told that American brewers didn't have the know how to make such beers, and that in any event, even if they were available, Americans wouldn't drink them).

In no time at all, I found that I was no longer drinking any BMC products. After drinking SNPA, Red Hook ESB and Ballard Bitter, it was simply impossible for me to go back to the flavorless swill I'd drunk my youth. However, what lead to my negative impression of BMC (and eventually to pretty much any AAL as well), was AB's then obvious attempt to stifle my new fond hobby (which at this point, included visiting any new microbrewery that opened in N. California). AB ads continuously belittled craft beer in the area, and they did everything they could to marginalize the industry (mostly by threatening AB distributors to withhold product if continued to distribute craft offerings). Over the years I've seen AB strong arm distributors and retail outlets in an effort to get them to stop carrying craft products, in the hope this would eventually put the small, often under capitalized microbreweries out of business. When that didn't work, BMC producers briefly sold their products at such a low price that no one in their right mind would want to buy craft beer (our local grocery offered 12 packs of MIller for 99 cents for a while with a mail in coupon). That didn't last long (as it was obviously a mistake, and did nothing to enhance people's perception of BMC products), and so after that the big boys tried to make their own competitively priced "craft" beers (still remember Miller's Velvet Stout). Apparently that wasn't particularly successful either, and so then the boys moved on to "stealth" breweries (BMC products, but with a cute gimmicky name that gave the consumer no insight as to actual the brewer). There's more to the history of course (the current strategy seems to include buying up and absorbing craft breweries whenever possible), but over the course of time one thing has become clear. BMC producers are no friend to craft beer, they wish it didn't exist, and they will continue to do everything they can to at least control (somewhat) the industry if they can't destroy it (I'd like to think at this point that InBev-AB and Miller-Coors are resigned to the existence of the craft beer industry, but given their history, my guess is that they still hold out hope that some day it will go away).

Part and parcel with BMC's attempt to destroy the craft beer industry, has been the ongoing, completely absurd and over the top marketing by the BMC boys. All my life I've listened to BMC adds trying to convince me that beers like bud, miller high life and Coors banquet beers are rich, robust, full flavored, hearty beverages, suitable for all manner of occasion and celebration, that will make me incredibly cool, handsome, strong, savvy, athletic and a complete success with women. Those beers are none of those things, and despite my initial enjoyment of their products in my youth (when of course I had virtually no other choice or recourse), this attitude, along with their attempt to eliminate something I now quite enjoy, has completely soured me both on BMC producers, as well as the insipid products they make.

I completely agree that consumers should drink whatever they like, and if that happens to be an AAL, then go for it. I would be the last person to make fun or disparage someone for drinking an AAL. However, please don't expect me to ever call it anything other than what it clearly is.... light, watery, insipid, flavorless swill.