Molson-Coors to close Irwindale brewery

I know. Is the Old Chicago OK overall?

 

It is. The new beer manager, Eric, came from Uberbrew in Montana and he does an excellent job of bringing different beers in.

 

I forgot about Full Sail. For years, Miller contracted the smaller Henry Weinhard styles to Full Sail.

 

And Old Chicago was a short-lived brand when Huber operated the ex-Meisterbrau Peter Hand plant in the 70s. I think the Old Chicago beer brand was an update of the "Old Brew" Chicago brand that Huber had in it's back product. It was never an iconic brand like Meisterbrau. I don't know where Zodiac Malt Liquor, Huber's other Chicago brand, came from.

 

Augsburger and the dark are what I enjoyed back in the day from Huber.

 

There was a canned Old Chicago Dark which didn't come close to Augsburger. I thought the Chicago brewed beers didn't taste nearly as good as the Huber Monroe brands.

 

MC is getting their feet wet in other beverages.
https://www.fooddive.com/news/molso...nk-space-with-distribution-deal-for-z/593156/

 

City Brewing Co. (owned in part by Pabst executives) today announced the re-opening of the former Miller > Molson Coors brewery in Irwindale, CA in a press release.
https://www.businesswire.com/news/h...eginning-of-Production-at-Irwindale-Brew-Yard

 

Yes! What the world needs now, is love sweet love, and mega gallons of Seltzers.

 

A talented and committed team should be able to come up with something other than low alcohol beer. Unless that's what they're committed to.

 

The Press Release says "low-alcohol beverage contract production facility" which means products like beer, seltzer, FMB's, even, as the PR said, RtD-spirit-based beverages etc., so "low" compared to other alcoholic beverages like wine and spirits. In the US by legal definition "Low Alcohol" beers are under 2.5% ABV.


City does a lot of malt liquors - they were doing (likely still do?) the Four Loko FMB's that go up to 14% ABV.

So, regardless of the skill of their brewers, City is a contract-brewing company and brew "to order" the beers/FMBs, etc., that their many customers - inc. Pabst, BBC, Four Loko, Molson-Coors, Jack Daniels, Dixie, Guinness - want to market.

 

Late 1990s to early/late 2000 (I toured in 2010), the original La Crosse plant was the leading non-beer, malt beverage brewer. So Mike’s Hard Lemonade got its start there, as did Smirnoff Ice, and even the non-alcoholic sparkling water brand “LaCroix.”

It’s an older facility now, but it is still a facility on the same scale as top twenty largest breweries in the world, and largely up to date with automation (and I can’t imagine that their other facilities are any less so).

As individual hobbyists whose focus is on excellence in taste and craftsmanship and the pinnacle of refinement of the brewing arts, it is sometimes (or even oftentimes) difficult to understand the purpose of brewing facilities of this scale.

Basically put, turning a profit off of Microbrews (c.f. “quality, Craft Beer”) was never the original focus when the place was built out to its current capacity.

If and when called upon to do so, they still contract with Craft brands (and even “faux Craft” brands), but it is a much, much more flexible operation than your local taproom.

 

Yeah, based on their own website's facilities' capacities (rated by cases packaged, rather than barrels) they're at 130 million cases - a bit under 10 million barrels. Add in their future prediction for Irwindale (MillerCoors had it at 7M bbl/yr) of "110 million cases per year within the next 5 years" - pretty big company. They can certainly handle Pabst's barrelage with no problem, since it is down to around 3.65M bbl. according to The Brewers Association.

Pabst, long before they owned the dozens of brands from Falstaff and most of the Carling-National/Heileman/Stroh portfolio, and before changing ownership 3-4 times, was a 17M bbl company in the mid-1970s.

 

I was being ironic. Marketing words that emphasize the Brewers have as their purpose turning consumers attention away from what is being brewed.

My neighbors drink a lot of light beer and as long as it tastes the same don't give a hoot if the brewer is a Master or a recent graduate.

 

Who's on first?