AB InBev Bashing Craft?

Appropriately enough, those commercials only made me dislike Macs more and identify with the PC guy (who if IRC was actually the more reasonable of the two).

What interests me more than ABI taking more bro-shots at craft is the latest Blue Moon commercial I saw for their White IPA. Featured a few tasters nose in snifter dissecting the beer. Guess this was both an appeal to us "craft" drinkers and a shot at ABI all in one?

 

Interesting that your memory tells you John Hodgman was old when he portrayed PC in those commercials. He was in fact younger than many of the BAs who use this site. He was born in 1971 and is currently 44.

 

Brito , like Pele. They know they have a certain market close to wrapped up and feel free to besmirch whoever they wish. There is no consistency here and they keep trying to divide...and in their minds conquer. It's like a certain type of current load-mouthed, brash politics, that sticks in people's minds whether it means anything or not. Lots of different audiences out there.

 

I honestly just hope that the "merges" or buy outs or purchasing interest in small micro breweries don't lead to "sell-outs" or breweries being influenced to start skimping on quality!! I mean, personally I don't see the reason as to why craft breweries would want InBev to dip into their companies to begin with....someone enlighten me?? Is their money really that good to pass up??

 

I love how the echo chamber of this forum constantly repeats the refrain that BMC drinkers are BMC drinkers only because they are a) cheap, b) ignorant, c) only interested in alcohol delivery and how this situation is all blamed on a) prohibition, b) large advertising budgets, c) large corporations dominating the market and that we all need to just wait until the more enlightened take over.

Well, maybe, and certainly all of those things are factors, but to assume the enlightenment will happen flies in the face of history. There has been a world-wide march for the last 60 - 70 years toward light-tasting lagers and away from craft-like ales. This was based on what beer consumers preferred, and the large brewers merely followed the market.

 

Eh, I try not to read too much into it. People will buy (or should I say "consume") what they want to consume, for better or for worse. It's easy for us because we love craft beer to decry these tactics, but let's not get offended or worried.

Most of us are probably the same people who buy produce at farm stands or would opt for the local burger joint over Applebee's or McDonald's. We're probably in the minority still, but as someone mentioned, our children will grow up seeing different beers than were in our parent's fridges, they'll hear us talk about how the corn on the cob is so much better at the farm than from the big chain market. And maybe that'll inform their own choices as consumers, maybe not.

I, however, don't want to live in a world where college kids are drinking anything other than $49 kegs of swill while making terrible decisions. Don't waste our good beer on just getting drunk and playing beer pong! That's what crappy beers are for! Get off my lawn!

 

Well, if you've invested 20 or so years of your life into building up a good solid business, have no children interested in taking over the business, and are facing the rapidly approaching time of retirement with inadequate savings, why would you turn down a legitimate offer to sell? Especially if you could continue to draw a salary or consulting fee from the new owners who want the success of what they've bought to continue.

 

I mentioned in the Dogfishhead turning down AB-InBev thread that what AB-InBev is doing is actually kinda genius. As @rollom kind of alluded to earlier, classic hedging your bet and (kinda) duping the public.

Go ahead and sweep up an established brewery in as many regions of the country while at the same time, run a million dollar campaign of commercials and ads bashing "craft" and "micro" beers. The majority of people who drink beer don't know AB-InBev owns Goose Island, Full Sail, Blue Point etc. those types of breweries, plus most of them wouldn't care either way if they knew that anyway. Then, they promote the "us vs. them" and "macro we stand" and "'Merica" stance and the same buying public eats it up like spaghetti and meatballs.

Honestly, someone should be getting a raise. All your bases are covered. They, sorry all, have enough people in their corner to make their money and sell their beer. Plus...they get a chunk of the so-called craft business that cuts into their bottom line. Brilliant!

 

I think that part of it comes from the fact that when many people are faced with a complex question/issue they expect there to be a single univariate binary answer/solution. Life can be much easier when one is able to treat the world that way. :-)

 

He was old compared to how they portrayed Long, I suppose. Old is always a relative word, no?

 

I see that point. But at the same time, again, wouldn't seem like you're selling out to the companies that swayed you to open up your own brewery in the first place?? But I do agree and see how it would be a good decision to step back, take a payday while still be a part of the brewery. I guess what I'm nervous about is InBev just taking these local breweries and forcing them to shut down or start pumping out the same/similar crap that we steer clear of.

 

Or perhaps they're playing on the beer snobbery that is often encountered by people who prefer lightly flavored beers when they run into the "missionary" flavorful beer drinkers who want to convert their friends?

 

Mr Falconi laughs as he recalls meeting German brewmasters who behaved as though brewing was a magical thing: “Beer isn’t magic; beer is process.”

This made me sad...

 

Well I think you can relax a bit on that. History shows that Goose Island is now getting wider distribution of all of their beers and seems to have the same quality to their line up that they always had. Plus the Chicago area brewery no longer has to produce the "bread and butter" beers and is being used to expand the barrel aging program and to continue development (and they have new equipment to do it with). There are reasons to believe that the same will be happing with the other brands they have acquired.

I mean ask yourself this, would you be willing to spend several million dollars on a golden goose and then kill it off? Or more realistically, would you, as person looking for a job, accept a well paying job so you could then deliberately screw up your employer's business?

 

True True....I guess time will tell with these facilities.

 

:-) Your age is showing... :-)

 

Amen!

 

Just for clarification, InBev doesn't own Full Sail. FS sold to a private investment company.

 

Sad but true.

 

ABI ads aren't aimed at craft drinkers. They are aimed people who already drink ABI products and Miller Coors drinkers. Unless there funny I don't pay care about them.