Defining BMC

Emergency back up for when my car's radiator goes dry, maybe. But I'm never desperate enough for alcohol to drink a beer I don't like the taste of.

 

Nope, Miller is owned by SABMiller but Coors Brewing is actually part of Molson Coors Brewing Company with headquarters in both Montreal, QC and Denver, CO.

Then in the US they have formed MillerCoors, a joint venture between SABMiller and MoulsonCoors to sell the beers from both brewing companies in the United States in an effort to compete against the larger Anheuser-Busch InBev.

 

Not sure if you're referring to the Goose Island brewpub (they really only brew at the Clybourn location) or not, but the A-B owned brewery and the brewpub are 2 different entities. A-B got no buy-in the the pubs when they bought the micro and John Hall still owns the pubs.

 

So, is it common knowledge then, that Becks, Stella, Heineken, use adjuncts? I'm new to being a beer geek, so i love to learn about it.

 

Beck's and Heineken are both all-malt currently - though the Heineken exported to the US contained corn up until the 1990's and Beck's supposedly also used corn in their export version in the '80s according to a brewmaster "spy" from the Boston Beer Co. Of late, both the German version and now the brewed by AB-in-the-US version claimed to be brewed to the Reinheitsgebot.

In the '50s, Heineken's US importer, Van Munching, used to boast that they pioneered using rice as an adjunct.

Stella Artois website and advertising (in other countries, not in the US that I've seen) notes it uses "maize".

That BJCP definition of "Premium American Lager" seems to include both all-malt and adjunct beers which is somewhat confusing, as is calling beers designed and brewed outside the US "American".

 

I was surprised to see Stella on the list, and I'm not sure if it is all malt or not. Actually, Beck's might be all-malt too. The BJCP definition for Premium American Lager says that they "can be all-malt." I'd say it's common knowledge that Beck's and Heineken are terrible, though I'll be taken to task for saying even that, just you see.

 

Hey, if we can make french fries here I don't see why they can't make Premium American Lager "there."

 

Yeah, but "they" don't label them as such instead stressing the "IMPORTED" status of their beers, their Belgian or Dutch homeland or, in the case of the label for AB-brewed Beck's Bier, how it "Originated in Bremen, Germany" and is now brewed by the foreign sounding Brauerei Beck & Co. in.... St. Louis, MO

I'd also say, regardless of adjunct usage, in bitterness alone, the Euro lagers like Heineken, Beck's and now Stella, are and always have been unlike "Premium" or "Superpremium" American lagers like Michelob (which is again all-malt for that matter).

And "French fries" - aren't they really Belgian Pomme Frites, anyway?

 

Blue Moon certainly does market itself differently than Coors on an executional (use of art and emphasis on the "crafting" of a quality beer vs. use of social situations and emphasis on when you might drink a given beverage) level, but the general philosophy is still the same--create a lower-cost product in mass quantities that is designed to appeal to the largest number of people possible. Obviously, being a witbier instead of an AAL slightly changes the "largest number of people" metric, but as non-AAL styles go, witbiers are pretty approachable because they don't hit you over the head with bold flavor, and Blue Moon is even a rather bland version of a witbier.

At the core philosophical level, Blue Moon shares more in common with Coors than it does with Allagash White. The brewer starts with the audience and works backwards to the beer. Non-BMC start with the beer and work towards the audience. It's a difference in pull marketing vs. push marketing, as well as a difference between marketing being something you do after the product is finished to "sell" it to people or marketing including the actual process of identifying the beer you want to create and creating it.

The other thing that complicates here is the dichotomy I mentioned about defining BMC by the producer or the actual product. By producer, Blue Moon is definitely a "BMC" beer (based on the core philosophical approach I described above). By product, Blue Moon is *not* really a "BMC", because it's flavor profile doesn't really resemble anything like an AAL.

 

This.

 

Even the term Euro pale lager is pretty vague considering the differences which exist inbetween different European countries. You have the all malt pilsners and export lagers of Germany and Czech Republic, the adjunct lagers of southern Europe where some are light bodied yet offer a distinct bitterness, whilst others are light in both malt and bitterness/hop flavor. Then you have the all-malt lagers of northern Europe where Swedish lagers tend to have a bitterness slightly above 20IBU, whilst in Finland the beers might be all-malt as well, yet the average bitterness of the standard mid-strenght lager beer (4.5% abv) is alot closer to American adjunct lagers with IBUs in the low teens (11-13 or so).

 

I knew I'd get in trouble trying to define "Euro" beer with American terminology. And trusting the BJCP too, for that matter.

 

If I say BMC, I'm probably referring to an AAL brewed by Bud Miller or Coors. But, if it's something like Blue Moon that is owned by them but tastes better (in my opinion), I don't really tie them in with BMC. But, I don't even use BMC negatively. It's not my favorite stuff but on rare occasions, it can be good.

 

I'd have to say after tried "euro"lagers, I noticed how syrup sweet Amercican lagers are, and everything from Harps to Stella to Becks tasted better.

 

when i was at the three penny taproom in vermont they had a sign on the wall that said "we proudly do not serve Anheuser Busch products" that made me smile