Had a Peach Pumpkin DIPA yesterday...

I couldn't get it past my enormous hipster mustache.

 

Thanks to that commercial there are now 7 in the process of being brewed in Denver alone.
I'm willing to take bets that most of them suck, too. Station 26 might be the only place to announce one that I actually trust won't flub it. The AB marketing team is probably laughing every time they see another one pop up.

 

Innovation can be so predictable sometimes.

 

The whole thing reminds me of the (not very PC) story about Brer Rabbit and the briar patch. AB essentially challenged the community into a running with a bad idea.

 

What's all the fuss about?

 

Is it common knowledge now that Elysian (whom AB just acquired) always made a pumpkin peach ale? AB mocked the costumers of a business that they own. Smooth.

 

WE all know they're making these to mock AB. But the outside world is going to think we all thought it was a great idea, so now we're making it. Just reinforces AB's "beer snob" campaign. They're loving this, I guarantee it.

 

I don't understand what everyone is so bent out of shape and scared about. Craft beer is gaining market share. It doesn't matter what the big boys say.

It reminds me of the the Red Sox Yankees rivalry Years back. Hating the Yankees became more important than loving the Sox. The whole team and fan base looked bad. The Yankees fans never gave much thought to the Red Sox because they were very successful and the Sox never won a thing. Once doing everything they could to actually win became more important than the hate, the Red Sox got their revenge.

Instead of looking bush league and brewing shitty beer out of spite, continue making the best beers and hit them where it counts...in the wallet.

 

I disagree. The beer community is celebrating fun flavor combinations despite AB's attempt to make it sound ridiculous, proving that the community can make anything delicious and fun. The AB spokesman for the commercial called pumpkin peach ale a "ludicrous combinations of flavors." We're proving them wrong.

 

Was actually the Budweiser VP, Brian Perkins.

And the entirety of the quote just leads me to believe that they are actually far dumber than we're giving them credit for and completely uneducated about their own business transactions. They had absolutely NO idea that a pumpkin peach beer actually existed. He (and those making the commercial, obviously) thought they were "fabricating" a flavor combo....here is the full quote:

"The only other beer that we reference in the spot is a fabricated, ludicrous flavor combination of pumpkin peach ale."

 

While I understand the natural inclination to "stick it to the Man," as it were, making a bunch of bad pumpkin peach ales seems like a bad way to go about it.

 

...which is not at all my point of my post. The rest of the world is not enthused by craft beer the way you (we) are. They do not see it as delicious. They look at it and think, "Ha, Budweiser was right, they DO make stuff like that!" Look at it from someone else's perspective.

 

Or, it was a magnificent marketing ploy and now everyone is talking about and trying a beer they own. Do you really think this wasn't calculated?

 

I liked Mikkeller's response. In case you did not see it, he wrote a well worded and very courteous letter that invited them to a beer fest. They would have to show up with 4 beers in various styles and the message was, "I really do brew beer, let's see you brew beer." I think their campaign has backfired and that not too many people are out there running all over town trying to find anything AbInBev owns, but rather anything they don't.

 

These beers are clearly being made as a joke in response to Budweiser's ad, and even if non-craft drinkers were aware of them (which they most likely will not be), they would most likely understand the joke as well. Just because they don't like good beer doesn't mean they don't understand humor.

 

I see your point and it's a good one. I guess part of what confuses me about the ad, is I can't figure out who their target audience is. Are there lots of people who drink Bud who are aware of the craft scene and all it has to offer but just haven't made the leap? Maybe there are; I just haven't met any.

 

I understand you dissected it, but did you fuss over it? You may need to go back to golden subs aged on beechwood.