Break Up Budweiser. (And Molson Coors too.)

As per Hantke, writing by the turn of the century, the American Weissbier was typically two thirds barley malt and one third corn, 10-11% plato. Either it was using a rice cooker for the corn, or as could be the case in smaller breweries, the corn was mashed together with the malt (leading to poor efficiency as per Hantke). Fermentation is started at 12 degrees Reaumur, in winter often at 14 degrees reaumur. The fermentation lasts 36-60 hours, typically 48 hours, it is then transfered over to storage barrels for a few days at 8-10 degrees Reaumur and then over to a vat where it is mixed with 15%, often even 20% kräusen before being filled into half barrels and then filled into bottles which have to withstand considerable pressure. It is hopped at around 0.5-0.6lbs of hops per barrel.

When serving the beer the bottle needs to be tipped gently to leave the yeast that is deposited at the bottom behind as much as possible, though often the bottle is turned up side down and all of the yeast is stirred up. As per Hantke in recent times some breweries had begun to store the beer under pressure by bunging, as well as fining and filtering, in order to put out a clear yet foaming weissbier, but this beer has found little approval among consumers who are used to the yeast flavor and who desire it in weissbier.

 

Yeah, but I figured those were unlikely to be found in New England.

(But apparently neither are Genesee or Utica Club anymore - for that matter, I seem to recall one of the Lion's beers, called something like "Brewers World" or "Brewmasters", used to make it up to NE in 16 oz. returnable pounders, too. I imagine Stegmaier did at one time, too, maybe as far back as from the original brewery).

Add Minhas (ex-Huber), City (ex-Heileman/Schlitz/Latrobe), and Cold Spring but the last two companies aren't brewing those facilities' original AAL's, of course.

 

Yeah, and pretty much in agreement with what Wahl and Henius said in their American Handy Book of the Brewing, Malting and Auxiliary Trades of the same period.

 

Ah, well that's no surprise seeing as how they reference his book in their bibliography for the chapter.

"The manufacture of weiss beer - E. Hantke, Br & M 1895, xiv, 688"

 

Yes, I will absolutely tell you that about many local breweries. Many breweries even have guest taps where they host offerings from.their "competition"

You made me curious about how abinbev defines themselves so I checked out their website. They lean heavy into the brewer identity. To read their manifesto youd think they ARE the beer community

This is my experience and observation also. Smaller local brewers seem to want their fellow.brewers to succeed and appear to work well together to highlight each other and their area as a whole

 

According to reports at the time, that is exactly what Toppling Goliath did to liquor stores when they first started distributing to Minnesota.

"If you want pseudoSue, you have to take an equal number of Dorothy's Lager and Rover Truck."

 

Since there has been some discussion about American Weissbier I figured some folks would be interested in reading:

“Okay beer fans, riddle me this: what was the key ingredient in 19th century American weissbier? You'll have to dig out your old copy of Wahl and Henius's American Handy-Book of American Brewing, Malting, and Auxiliary Trades* (1902) to learn the answer. Give up? Here it is:

The material employed and method of mashing is usually quite different [from German methods]. Wheat malt is sometimes, but not generally, used. Instead [corn] grits are employed, usually to the amount of about 30%."

Wahl and Henius, however, were not impressed. The beer was supposed to be like a Berliner weisse, but "undoubtedly the American article could be much improved by employing the materials as well as the mashing method in vogue in German Weiss beer breweries, as grits will under no circumstances yield those albuminoids that give Weiss beer its character, as wheat malt does. Certainly there seems no reason why American Weiss beer brewers should not be able to procure a good wheat malt."

They continue, noting that it's brewed to resemble lager, but "a brilliant Weiss beer does not seem to catch the fancy of the consumers, who are accustomed to the cloudy, lively article of Berlin fame."

https://www.beervanablog.com/beervana/2013/02/american-weissbier-lost-style-ripe-for.html

Cheers!

@Crusader @jesskidden

 

The part about improving the American weissbier is also largely (apart from adopting the Berliner mashing process) taken from Hantke. He writes:

"I would, when one wants to produce Weissbier of a similar character to the Berliner Weissbier, instead of corn suggest the use of milled wheat, which is boiled in the rice cooker for a short time (15-20 minutes), since one through this extract the sweet and mild tasting albuminoids, which corn does not possess, and since one also more easily achieves lactic acid, which gives to the Weissbier the pleasant, refreshing flavor. It would be even better to, as is done in Berlin breweries, mash barley malt and wheat malt together and to use two thirds barley malt and one third wheat malt or half and half. Very seldom is Weissbier in America made with wheat malt, it is then however made very successfully. The mashing procedure could remain the same."

 

You have a more optimistic view than I on the amount of greed in the world today.

Are guest taps still a thing? I feel like they have disappeared around my part of town. Not talking about the ones around GABF that pop up in Denver.

 

Last guest taps I saw were at Highland Park brewing and Beachwood brewong, both in late 2019 in LA/OC area and both very successful and well regarded breweries

 

If I'm a distributor for Anheuser-Busch and they pull their products from me, I'm out of business immediately. That's why they have the power, the majority of people want their products.

 

Well first, let's all acknowledge that the brewer that sells $100 bottles of stout is clearly not the paragon of the small craft brewery ethos. No one is arguing that there are no craft brewers who would happily behave like AB if they had the chance (I think Sam Adams was already called out in this thread or the other for their shady practices).

Additionally, the practice you're describing isn't the one that tops most peoples list of evils engaged in by abinbev. First is the actual literal bribing of draught accounts with 5 figure gifts to carry their beer. Second seems to be threatening and strong arming distributors into dropping competing brands. I don't personally have any problem with a brewer selling their portfolio as a package (personally I think it's a big risk for most.brewers and missed opportunity to get valuable customer feed back). The bigger issue is.that our regulatory structure is so out of whack that we.allowed one company to.vacuum up such a massive slice of the total.market that they have a whole different level of control that they cab exert. A problem that could be solved by "breaking them.up"

 

In my view, the shady/illegal practices by AB-Inbev (and A-B prior) in the final analysis had only marginal impact.

They were not able, for example, to contract themselves into thousands and thousands of tied houses nationwide, like Coca-Cola did. Some years back, I read a business analysis of Coca-Cola that stated that it was their vast domination of the restaurant business that made them, and kept them, #1. The article went on to say that when given a choice (at grocery stores, for example), consumers chose Pepsi products more than Coke products. (I have no idea if this is still true, but I suspect so.)

Again, in my view, the real impetus behind the growth (and now decline at some level) of A-B / AB-Inbev in the USA has been, and will continue to be, consumer preference, backed by sound business management.

It is easy to criticize TG for not allowing black marketeers such a huge profit under the guise of "gouging" or some such, but in that specific case, it is purely responding to the market with absolutely nothing underhanded. (As an aside, Founders is also criticized here for doing the opposite - making their "hyped" beers widely available and damaging their "hype" value. Consistency is not our virtue here.)

Forcing small mom and pop liquor stores to tie up their limited inventory funds in shelf turds from TG to get the much-hyped pseudoSue WAS sleazy. And, those beers were shelf turds. TG first started distro here in 12 oz bottles, then went to the Florida contract-brewed cans, and finally to the Decorah-brewed cans. The 12 oz bottles of Dorothy and Rover Truck hung around on the shelves for months and months after the cans from Florida started showing up, and, no surprise, cans of Dorothy and Rover Truck appeared while the bottles were still gathering dust.

TG is not the only one who engages in this, or similar, practices in the craft brewing market. Don't kid yourself. Human nature is human nature, and brewing craft beer does not magically instill a kumbaya ethos.

 

You seem set on this point that ab anticompetitive behavior isn't so bad because coca cola gets away with worse. That's a really bad argument

 

No, you are misunderstanding my point(s).

My first point is that what A-B and AB-Inbev do is illegal because it is illegal and that other large consumer products businesses to the same (or worse) because it is not illegal. So, IF the behavior is wrong, then why does it only apply to alcohol?

My second point is that the large market share held by AB-Inbev and Molson Coors was largely achieved by sound business management and paying attention to consumer preferences, and that the illegal practices have had only a marginal impact.

My third point is that there is nothing inherently moral or ethical about the craft brewing business that prevents them from engaging in their own shady practices when they can.

And, a fourth point I made well above in this thread is that the big issue here is regulations of the brewer-distributor relationship rather than Federal ant-trust. Regulations intended to protect the distributor FROM the brewer has been turned on their head, and the small brewers need to have the laws changed. This is a state issue, not a Federal issue.

Other points I could make: AB-Inbev's purchase of SABMiller had zero impact on their market power in the USA.; The combined market share of AB-Inbev and Molson Coors in the USA may be large, but it is hardly monopolistic. Federal anti-trust action is not needed (apart from the distribution issue, perhaps.)

 

What you are describing is how almost every brewery and distributor operates. You buy more of their flagships and you get access to their more exclusive products. It's called a sales incentive, not a shady practice. You sell more of the widely produced flagship products and then the top accounts for the distributor usually gets the limited allocated items that not everyone can have access to due to limitations. In a way it works because if a store sells more from that brewery, you might think customers that go there actually like them, buy their products, and would be likely to buy the more exclusive products too that might sit around in a gas station that isn't frequented often.

 

Point no longer brews an AAL. Point Special has been reformatted to 100% malt. I listened to one of their Facebook videos and they stated they made the switch to be considered a craft brewery as it is their largest seller. Granted they use both 2 and 6 row but no longer use corn.

https://www.pointbeer.com/beers/year-round-brews/special-lager/

Cheers!