BYO: Beyond Budweiser (A-B's Research Pilot Brewery)

Good article, thanks for sharing

 

Lord that was long, interesting but long.

 

Thanks for posting this link. I found the raw materials testing aspect to be very interesting:

“The raw material testing is very critical to the brand management because making a consistent product every year and at every location with variable inputs — hop crop years are different and we use various hopping schedules — we have to understand how they’re going to change year to year. And the same with barley, there’s less variability but we have to understand how the crops are going to be year to year,” Read said.”

I really admire the effort that AB takes to create consistent beer at multiple breweries (12 in the US and nearly 50 worldwide).

Cheers!

 

I was hoping to find the recipe for the new bud light Long Island iced tea mixx tail. Darn. Good article though.

 

In the year twenty hundred and two I turned 21 and had a six pack of Budweiser for breakfast. In the year twenty hundred and eight I had an argument with my wife and then sat on the steps of my front porch drinking a sixpack of Bud from cans. Back then, I knew little more than Rogue's Dead Guy Ale. Times have definitely changed and I could care less about the consistency of a product I only ever drank to get drunk. It's about time the corporations taper off and the new innovations thrive. Cheers!!!

 

Hmmm, sounds like the "sleeping giant" hasn't been totally unaware changes in the world around it.

 

An eye opener for sure!
Thanks!
P.S.
I've booked marked your link.

 

Yeah. It's a shame most of those pilot batches get dumped out. I think it's also a shame that Budweiser clearly has the ability to create interesting beers on par with other craft brewers, but their classic product lines that make up the majority of their profits also pigeon-hole what they can produce under the Budweiser label. Maybe if they had branded Shock Top better to be more versatile, like the Blue Moon line.... it's hard to take a cartoon punk-rocker orange slice seriously

 

I know this one guy who's feels like an idiot driving a truck with that decal huge along the side.

 

C'mon man, they snapped up Goose Island -- ought to count for something.

 

There is no doubt if they set their mind to it they could, but it would be very disruptive to their operation I would imagine. I think that is probably why they have taken the approach that they have with their craft purchases. Their thought is probably that they are making a product that a lot of people like, but this other thing is happening that is cutting into that. So to address it, they start purchasing up good, not just any, craft brewers so they can get a piece of that pie, yet manage it without disrupting their main operation which has always been their bread and butter. What they are doing is no different that what any other corporation does, i.e. Building a product and need XYZ, you can either build it yourself, buy it or go buy up a company that has that. I would imagine one day, if it ever does happen, when their bread and butter isn't cutting it anymore then they will invite the disruption and go that route, but I will probably be dead by then and not witness it.

 

Being naturally inquisitive I begin wondering if there is some connection in the mind(s) of Senior executives and these are related steps in a longer range, larger scale plan.

For example, GI already had widespread distribution and they have successfully both upped production and expanded distribution. The Oregon brewery they just bought is smaller than GI was but how hard would it be to grow it to GI size. Then move in someone who learned at GI and then expand it beyond GI size. And if you get some really great recipes out of the experimental lab, how hard would it be to do fund a start up by one of your brewers who moves out to a small scale and then grows. Scaling upwards in managable steps rather than having to do it all at once at a national scale.

 

I think the way they are connecting Goose Island with their Elk Mountain hop farm is pretty interesting. Here's this huge brewing company which has access to some pretty extensive hop yards, and it turns out there's a market for hop forward beers that can charge a premium, above and beyond what a "premium" brand like Budweiser can achieve nowadays, especially if they can romanticize/market the product/production process (like say having direct access to their own hop yards/hot new hop varietals/experimental varieties). They'd be fools not to grab the opportunity and run with it, and I think they are going about it in a pretty methodical way.

 

What ever else they may be, Brito and his senior management team are not fools....

Seems we may be having some of the same kinds of thoughts here about a well thought out method to the "madness."

 

Also I would guess that if they came up with a "winning" recipe they could release it under the name of one their recent acquisitions. Nobody would be the wiser as to who developed the recipe so less BMC negative bias.