Nine Beers on the Decline

I thought Bud Ice would be on that list and yes, I was aware of the penguins!

 

The article discusses beer sales 2007-2011, and if you had read it in early 2012 you might have decided that shares of Anheuser-Busch-InBev's stock (BUD) would not have been worth holding on to. Yet from 2012 to now, the stock has risen from about $59 per share to about $127 per share, AND it currently pays a decent dividend of 3.7%. (I do not own any shares of this stock by the way.) I find that surprising. I guess they are still making plenty of money on other products.

Anyway, good riddance to most of those beers.

 

I would guess ABI'S share price has more to do with their growth in emerging markets than with their position in the US market.

 

I'm not sure who exactly calls Americans are buzz drinkers, but an older Navy vet buddy of mine said an Indian man said that to him once. He responded with "Well, I guess so. But you guys have to drink spirits because your water sucks". More along the lines of a joke I suppose. Not far off from the truth either, lol.

 

I was part of a can collectiong group in Indy during the early 90's that did a few tastings. One guy brought a 007 that we drank. The beer was probably 20 years old. Circle City Chapter, if you were wondering.

 

Does that mean this beer is not on the decline?

 

In my early 20's that was a party staple. Would have to clean up a bunch of empties with cigarette butts in them the day after. I guess the Big Mouth made them a convenient ashtray.

 

I used to drink Schaefer back in high school. Man it was crappy, but you're right, $3 a 12 pack. Couldn't beat it

 

Now let's not start talking smack about Mickeys. Them's fighting words.

 

Anchor Steam is still big in the bay. I used to love it, but the last dew times I had it I was really disappointed.

 

I've always wondered if the "dark" variations of many of these macro lagers were from malt, or possibly additional food coloring? I'm just curious and have no knowledge of the facts, just curiousity. So don't flame me for making assumptions.

 

You only have one friend?

EDIT: Double fail. I was beat to the punch by about 3 yrs.

 

That's a disturbingly good question. Or point. I'm not really sure.

 

I work for an AB distributor and I remember when Michelob, Michelob Light, and Michelob Amber Bock were considered our high end beers. Michelob is dead, Michelob Light is on life support, and Michelob Amber Bock is making its way to the hospital with a mortal wound.

 

I won't miss any though Michelob Light was actually a good light to me cuz it was on the upper tier for calories in a light beer.

 

Craft Beer is the future.

 

Michelob's slide in sales is even worse that the stats in that article suggests, since it only covers the period between 2006-2011 - 500,000 barrels to 140,000 bbl.

Around 1980 when it appears the brand peaked, AB was brewing about 8 million barrels of Michelob a year - combined with Michelob Light sales (2.7m bbl), in 1981, the Michelob brands had a 5.7% share of the total US market.

 

The shelf space that these beers vacate are just going to be taken up by Miller Lite, Bud Light, Coors, etc. I certainly hope not but The yellow fuzz brewery still command a dominant share of the US beer market. Albeit a shrinking share due to the Craft Beer Renaissance we are experiencing now.

 

My hope is that Jacks Abby achieves sufficient scale that their lagers can be priced near this level without losing quality.

 

Some the former, some the latter - many probably a combination of both ("coloring" added for consistency). Malt, corn and sugar based coloring brewing additives have been around in the US since the Pre-Prohibition era (ads below).

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Here's a quote from Fritz Maytag about the Anchor Dark Steam Beer that was marketed before he took full ownership of the brewery (from Will Anderson's From Beer to Eternity):​

Pretty sure well-known brewmaster, Charles Leiberman, once told a similar story about his early days in PA breweries in the 1930s (can no long find it online).

OTOH, some brewers stressed the authenticity of their dark beers, as in a 1940s era Ballantine promo piece which claimed Ballantine's Dark Export Beer was a "...real dark beer made of genuine dark malt..." (They also noted their Porter was brewed with "...the finest black malt without artificial coloring or syrup additions").
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Porterine (middle ad - above) was a pretty infamous coloring agent - so much so that some brewers even advertised that they did NOT use it.

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To this day, Yuengling still gets accused of using Porterine in their Porter.




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