Controversial Beer Opinions (Round Two)

I agree with your main point.

But, there has always been vigorous competition among brewers; there has never been a monopoly.

 

There is still time...

Obviously a true monopoly is hardly feasible, because it would be hard for one company to acquire so much resources to make enough product that would be exclusive to the market. But what if a large corporation buys up all the small guys in their name? Or changes the business to their own? Too many of our industries have seen near monopolies due to consolidation and greed. I wouldn't rule it out right now even with beer. Before prohibition we had a lot of independent small brewers didn't we? I don't see a good reason not to think big beer wouldn't use their money and corrupt political power to influence laws to deter craft brewers, and I think we have already seen that to some extent, just not near a monopoly level.

 

Post-Repeal through to the end of 1930s, Anheuser- Busch, as the largest brewer in the US, had a market share of under 5%. Throw in the other "national brewers" (Pabst, Schlitz, Falstaff) and the large, mostly eastern, regionals of the period (Ballantine, Hamm, Schaefer and Rupert) and the Top 8 brewers in the US together had ~20%. Far cry from a monopoly or even a oligopoly.

 

I know there was always competition, and I always put big beer brands together like BMCetc. What I mean by monopoly is sort of like today's cable or internet companies, or something like that. For instance, in my area I think we only have Verizon available for something, or only Comcast for something, and there are like 3 total options nationwide. I'm more referring to the times before the craft beer explosion (revolution) when every place you visited pretty much only had Bud, Miller, Coors brands on tap, and maybe a Boston Lager or Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. Today we see lots of local, regional, smaller independent brands, to me that seems like less of a monopoly. I don't necessarily mean monopoly by one company, more like monopoly by big beer and their boring single beer and maybe it's light version, as opposed to so much variety and different styles that we have today, thanks to more different brewers. Oligopoly is a good term I never heard of before, but what qualifies that? 20% seems like a small number but when every bar and every local corner store only has BMC big beers available, it seems more like an oligopoly than the numbers speak.

 

Funny you mention that... cable TV and other utilities traditionally maintained their local monopoly by government action. Comcast, for example, (or Verizon if you are talking about their traditional telephone service) were given exclusive rights to a city or region by the local governments. If your city got cable service via Comcast, they had no competition by virtue of the city-granted exclusive license.

 

Between that and consolidation it is scary to think about what corporate America could do in any industry, and already has.

 

Well, having lived through that period (2020 = 50th year of [almost] legal drinking), that's not how I saw it. I don't doubt that there were bars with only Bud and Miller on Tap (Coors, of course, was still regional) but I didn't frequent them. Living in the northeast (NJ, upstate NY, MA, VT), I still found lots of local and regional draught choices (Pabst, Matts, Genesee, Narragansett, C. Schmidt's, Ortliebs, Schaefer, Rheingold the most commonly found AALs, but word got around where McSorley's Ale or Ballantine XXX or Krueger Porter or Stegmaier Porter, or any of the "Dark Beers" from the above brewers might be found).

"Craft" for me started circa 1980 (Newman's in Albany, New Amsterdam in NJ) so predating SNPA (in the east) and SABL. And there was also some draught but mostly bottled non-AAL beers from the remaining local and regionals like (regular forum readers - forgive the copy/paste ) Ballantine XXX Ale, Ballantine India Pale Ale, Ballantine Brewers Gold Ale, Ballantine Porter, Krueger Old Surrey Porter, McSorley’s Cream Ale, Lord Chesterfield Ale, Black Horse Ale (Trenton and Koch), Rainier Ale, Pickwick Ale, Croft Ale, Genesee 12 Horse Ale, Schaefer Cream Ale, Schoenling Cream Ale (Little King’s), Carling Red Cap Ale, Pabst’s Old Tankard Ale, Liebotschaner Cream Ale, Gibbons Ale, Kodiak Cream Ale, Tiger Head Ale, 20th Century Ale, Utica Club Cream Ale, Utica Club Sparkling Ale, Yuengling Porter, Nueweiler Cream Ale, Stegmaier Porter, Narragansett Porter, Narragansett Bavarian, Koch Jubilee Porter, Boarshead Stout, Koch Holiday Beer, Matt Holiday Beer, Augsburger, Augsburger Dark, Augsburger Bock, Prior Light and Prior Double Dark, Geyer Bros. Dark, Old Chicago Dark, Haffenreffer Private Stock Malt Liquor, Schaefer Braunslager, Royal Amber, Esquire, Horlacher Perfection Beer, National Premium, Andeker.

I know some bitch about the 1970s and 1980s - me, I never went thirsty and never drank Bud or Miller.

 

You are a good beer seeker. Even around here it seemed like most of the restaurants, bars and stores I went to only had big beer brands just 5 years ago, until I got more into the different beer styles and craft beer, and I had to look up places to go for good beer. Now it seems like almost everywhere has some sort of craft beer like Lagunitas IPA or Sculpin, SN, maybe Yuengling, etc. I guess you just have to be in the know to realize there is good beer out there, you may just have to travel and find it. A lot of people just end up settling for the big beer brands though because they are there, everywhere, which leads to them being so popular and their massive advertisement campaigns and buying up competition, etc. I'm glad at least now there is more diverse and good beer available to the masses, at least it seems.

 

TL,DR I'm wrong, you're right, thanks for the education.

 

I never doubted there were different beers out there, and I wasn't specifically talking about the 70's or 80's. I was mainly talking about even recent times, when somebody who wasn't yet into craft beer didn't realize a variety was out there. I literally was not aware of IPAs until after getting into craft beer, but if I got into beer today Lagunitas would be one of the main brands I see around, not just Bud and Coors like even recent years. I think a big wave has been made recently with more smaller breweries and not just big guys like SA or SN getting a larger share of the market, probably because they gained enough revenue through the years to expand into different territories and serve more people, subsequently taking spots that might've been big beer only before. I am thankful for any education though.

 

Having just read Todds Post on BeerAdvocate talk, I am changing this to 225 styles....

 

Seems to be a chicago area thing, but I fucking hate it when people refer to beers as 'pours'.

I don't know why, and I'm not saying it's reasonable, but something about it makes me sick

 

I want more context, cuz I’ve heard/seen this. But I’m curious for your context

 

I just see people saying things like;

"this pour is nice, but i prefer other pours from this brewery."
"excited to try a new pour from these guys!"
"revisiting one of my favorite pours, never disappoints"

They're not "pours", they're beers. I don't care if it's irrational, I need it to stop

 

Agree, but I think "pour" is appropriate when asking bartenders for half a pour vs a full pour ( a thing at some breweries here in VA, YMMV elsewhere)

 

If you smoke cigarettes while drinking craft beer, you don't actually like craft beer.

 

Is this a (common) thing?

 

It is where I work, we have a dozen regulars that drink 4-6 beers every time they come in and smoke half a pack of cigarettes each. I doubt they have much of a taste for craft beer, they just like our patio by the creek, the fact that they can get drunk, and that they like the other regulars. I think I could just as easily hand them a bud light or a jack and coke and they'd be just as happy. But we'll still take their money!

 

Having given up cigarettes fifteen years ago I can vouch completely for the truth of this.

My even more controversial opinion is that the seasonings we use on the foods we eat leave us just as unable to taste the real taste of everything. Our idea of how things taste is just as skewed/disabled by constant use of seasonings like sugar, salt, etc. Ten months ago I was forced to give up added salt, added sugar, meat, fats, fried foods, and almost all oils. Since then I have eaten all raw fruit, whole grains, steamed vegetables, and baked fish, and barely seasoned them with allowable condiments. The last ten months for me has been filled with the feelings of tasting foods for the first time in my life, including the 24 oz. of beer I have allowed myself in that time.

 

I've been preaching this for years to friends of mine. A couple examples of how, in these cases, not seasonings but condiments can mask or ruin the taste of a dish.

For instance, we have a popular burger chain out here called In n' Out. Everybody orders the Double Double, a double meat double cheese. I did it for years on the occasions when I'd go to an In 'n Out. And each time I was never was much impressed by them. Then one day I ordered a "Double Meat". It's virtually the same thing as a Double Double except with no cheese. The taste was like a revelation. You could taste the meat SO much better, and as a nice added side benefit when I was done eating it didn't feel like there was a brick in my stomach. I've gone back since then and ordered a Double Double a couple of times to see if it was just my imagination, but no, it clearly wasn't anywhere near as enjoyable to me as the Double Meat was.

Similar situation with a Philly Steak place I go to. I normally order it with no mayonnaise or cheese, and it's wonderful. The taste of the meat and peppers shine through. Then recently someone ordered one for me but forget to tell them no cheese no mayo. The sandwich was damn near uneatable to me. Globs of mayo falling off, thick gummy cheese masking the taste of the meat ... just awful.

So yeah, same goes for seasonings. In nearly all cases keep it simple. No need to lay on a crapload of the stuff, especially if you're interested in tasting the actual dish that you are preparing.