Anheuser-Busch...

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Sorry the gas station was out of green shamrock aluminum bottles.



Wow, I just noticed, it's a limited edition brew. Tastes better already.

 

A lot of people seem to think this site is anti-Bud/Miller/Coors. It's not. It's pro-beer. If you enjoy Bud Light Platinum, who is anyone else to say you shouldn't? But you can use this site to learn what else is out there and explore. Your tastes may change, or they may not. But you WILL find other beers that excite you.

 

I don't like their products, or their politics.

So I don't support them.

That being said, they are very good at what they do.

 

BeefyTits4 said it all brother, drink what ya like, like what ya drink and have a blast seeking and trying new things. Cheers to you on sitting thru a spittle filled drunkin' rambler of an endorsement for this great website...christ, was he rambling AND repeating as well? Rambling is one thing, but to repeat it over and over is grounds for a rabbit punch or quick side chop to the adam's apple...SHUT UP!

 

That would probably come as surprise to those breweries, all of which claim to be running at or above capacity now and don't have the beer necessary for expansion into the fourth largest state in the nation. Both Deschutes and Bell's are under going multimillion dollar expansions with the former specifically announcing they have no intentions to expand further east. Russian River states on their website that "...demand is still greater than the supply..."

In those 3 cases, their out of state distribution now is all through the 3 Tier system and would not be as extensive as it is without it. A-B, on the other hand, is no fan of the 3 Tier model - they've attempted to prevent their independent wholesalers from carrying craft beers through a variety of programs (most infamously, the "100% Share of Mind" in the late '90's) yet close to half of their distributors carry independent craft brands.

A-B owns only a dozen and half of so of their 500+ distributors and several states have recently passed laws strengthening their laws to prevent A-B ownership. Most industry analysts agree that a brewery-owned distribution model in the US would have crippled the craft brewing industry in the US and there's no way these small 500k-100k and under bbl./yr breweries could possibly have as extensive distribution area as they do today without the independent middle wholesaler tier. In the vast majority of cases, if a brewer does not distribute to a particular state, it is primarily the choice of the brewery.

 

I'm an admitted beer geek @ this point but I do love a good old man, polish patio, lawnmower sessioner ala Genny, Pabst, Lil King's etc etc. Craft beer only being 5% of the market, if this is true I'm surprised at the glut of craft that continues to appear on the shelves why would this "small" market be so crowded if there weren't people buying it. How threatened are the big boys if they are trying to prevent the distribution of craft, I don't know whether to laugh or feel saddened by a group w/bigger ad dollars and a bigger grip on the masses having to still feel the need to stomp out competition that's only a SMALL percentage of the market. The macros are their own worst enemies putting out poorly made gimmicky crap like the laughable pursuit of an ever lower carb light beer. If you don't want carbs HAVE A WATER ass, and save the corn mash for the ethanol in your SUV.

 

If you're in Indiana grab some Three Floyds and Upland. Dark Lord Day is coming up soon (Munster, IN) and even without a ticket you could go and meet some great people and try some great beer. Drive up to Chicago and to some liquor stores (I always go to West Lakeview Liquors, but Binny's has single bottles as well) and some breweries/pubs, it is only 3.5 hours from you. You could always drive over to Ohio and grab some Great Lakes and Hoppin' Frog if they don't distribute to you. I personally do not go out of my way to drink Bud, Miller, Coors (BMC), but if I am at a party or am offered one at a bar from a friend I will usually accept. The world of beer is huge and a great place to explore. Welcome!

 

Shady practices are an industry-wide phenomenon and are anything but exclusive to AB. There are craft beer distribs out there with the ability to make AB blush.

The "crippling" Three-Tier system? Really? The Three-Tier system is currently the only reason you can now obtain beer from small brewers who reside outside a hundred-mile radius of your home (as the cost of distributing far and wide is too big a burden for brewers to take on)

Consider this from Harry Schuhmacher's Beer Business Daily, via Jack Curtain's Liquid Diet blog:

"My favorite of the day was this comment from a MillerCoors distributor responding to rumors that the big boys were putting pressure on wholesalers to focus more on their brands at the expense of smaller ones they might also carry:

“With regard to M/C telling us not to focus on allied brands, nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, they have a program going on where they want to control 50% of the taps with their brands in each account. Remember, they have a large share here. If they have their 50%, their reps will help our sales people to obtain extra taps for our house, even though they are not MillerCoors taps. Sounds pretty fair to me.”​

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Interesting mindset there, innit?"

Edit: This was posted without the consent of Harry or Jack; should either of you object to this post, feel free to contact me (you both know where) and I will happily pull it down.