Budweiser Makes Limited-Edition Sampler Pack to Woo Craft Beer Crowd

Discussion in 'Beer Releases' started by bpd2001, Sep 20, 2012.

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  1. Finn18

    Finn18 Initiate (0) Oct 24, 2012 Georgia

    Here is something to ponder...

    Do you hate the macro breweries because they make poor quality beer, because that beer is popular, or because they were the only companies to survive Prohibition and were thus the first to get their proverbial flag in the sand and shape America's beer scene? If Stone or Sam Adams or Founders became as large as ABInBev and started aggressively marketing to keep other beers off the shelves, would you boycott them too?

    What if they saw the light and diverted superbowl ad money into making genuinely GOOD beer? What if they made an IPA that put all others to shame and could push it to grocery stores for $18 for a 12 pack? I can only see two reasons to buy craft beer: quality, and supporting local breweries. I buy Sam Adams, Stone, Founders and Dogfish because they are good, and Sweetwater, Red Brick, and Red Hare because I like to keep my money where I live.

    And as for popularity, brand loyalty is pretty much the only reason why beers like Busch and Schlitz even exist anymore. And light beers are probably here to stay, since people like the fact that you can get a buzz for less than 100 calories. If people only cared about taste, Diet Coke simply wouldn't exist.
     
  2. jesskidden

    jesskidden Grand Pooh-Bah (3,071) Aug 10, 2005 New Jersey
    Pooh-Bah Society Trader

    Well over 600 breweries with links to pre-Prohibition companies survived to re-open after Repeal (out of a total over 700 breweries by 1934).

    AB was the #1 brewery in the those first few years of legal beer in the mid-'30's but had under 2% of the US beer market. Miller was much smaller (probably in the 20's) - there were 3 other breweries in Milwaukee alone that were larger. Coors was even smaller, brewing under 100,000 bbl./yr the first year, so less than 1/10 the size of AB.

    The era of "BMC" as the Big 3 began in 1990 when Coors finally passed Stroh for the #3 spot (and it technically ended in 2007 with the merged MillerCoors, and the start of the Big Two era)..
     
  3. kelvarnsen

    kelvarnsen Pundit (944) Nov 30, 2011 Canada (ON)

    Honesty I think this is why you see things like that other thread about smaller brewers trying to distance themselves from the big guys by making "craft beer" an exclusive thing. I mean they used to be able to distance themselves by saying that they made better beer and guys like AB just made light bland lager. But I can easily see in the very near future a company like AB realizing where the growth is and putting out a solid, well made IPA or APA. I mean it would be hard to deny that the brewers who work at AB breweries aren't people with a lot of skill, so I am sure if they came up with an IPA recipe it could be at least good. And with their suppliers and distribution they could probably sell it for even less than $18 for 12.
     
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  4. rlcoffey

    rlcoffey Initiate (0) Apr 20, 2004 Kentucky

    And as late as the late 70s, Coors was still so regional that a movie could be made about bootlegging a truckload of Coors to the east coast (Smokey and The Bandit).
     
  5. jesskidden

    jesskidden Grand Pooh-Bah (3,071) Aug 10, 2005 New Jersey
    Pooh-Bah Society Trader

    Yeah, didn't cross the Mississippi until 1981. They were big enough on the western side of the country that they were already the #6 brewer with over 13% of the market (larger than their share in 2007 when the MillerCoors merger occurred, IIRC).

    Of course, once you hit the Rockies back then, there were few strong regional brewers left --- all the way to the Pacific coast. Olympia was probably the last - and it'd be swallowed by Pabst a year or two later.
     
  6. rlcoffey

    rlcoffey Initiate (0) Apr 20, 2004 Kentucky

    I remember Coors being a big deal to people who went out skiing in Colorado and would come back raving about it. Like the Kalik Gold I enjoyed in the Bahamas, I think it had a lot more to do with setting than flavor.
     
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  7. ColinStClaire

    ColinStClaire Initiate (0) Jul 31, 2012 Washington

    $
     
  8. ColinStClaire

    ColinStClaire Initiate (0) Jul 31, 2012 Washington

    "DEEP AMBER! DEEP GOLDEN!" Well I'm convinced. :wink:
     
  9. Spikester

    Spikester Pooh-Bah (2,027) Jul 14, 2007 Oregon
    Pooh-Bah

    I bought the 12 pack of three different beers. All seem to be too sweet and no hops. Waste of money. Won't please Bud drinkers or Craft beer drinkers. Not bad beer just weird IMO. And I liked the American Ale try from a while back but it sold at a craft beer price in my area and was too tame to compete in that area. They should stick to pumping out the Bud Light and forget craft beer. Or invite in some home brewers to show them how to make tasty beer!
     
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