Would you work at BMC?

I'd take it, then, in the most unrealistic situation, make a sour lager and put it in their standard packaging for infinite lulz. There would then obviously be a huge recall. I would then take the entire stock of sour back to my condo and quit.

 

I'd actually be really curious to try their experimental beers. I imagine it's like seeing all the amazing concept cars at the Detroit Auto Show, only for the production model to come out and be totally disappointed.

 

The current ‘brewmaster’ at the AB Pilot Brewery is a Chemical Engineer. She is 29 years old and prior to joining AB she knew very little about beer:

“She spent two summers at Eastman Chemical, EMN +2.76%working on chemicals used in plastics and gas-collection systems, before graduating from Purdue University in 2005 and joining Anheuser-Busch. "I always liked beer, but I honestly didn't know a lot about it when I got here," she says.”

Below is some discussion on the types of beer made (or planned to be made) at the Pilot Brewery:

“Ms. Reid is trying to stretch the boundaries of what typically ends up in a beer. Recently she mixed hibiscus flowers with wheat and lemon peels to approximate the taste of a "strawberry lemonade'' beer.

Other botanicals that she wants to experiment with in the coming months include thyme and rosemary. "If they go well in food, they should be good in beer,'' she says.

Ms. Reid and her dozen assistants also recently experimented with several Christmas beers, brewing a peppermint stout as well as gingerbread, raisin and apple-pie ales that might one day make their way to store shelves.”

I am uncertain that I would want to drink any of the above discussed beers.

You can read more here: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324624404578257750911675908.html?KEYWORDS=brewing

Cheers!

 

LOL. Me too.

 

I am way too much of a control freak to brew in a place where I'd be hired to brew other people's recipes, to previously defined standards, and with the goal of producing an end product that I wouldn't want to drink.

 

The rosemary beer sounds like it could have applications. Not sure I'd want thyme in a beer tho.

However, any of these odd beer types coming from AB leave my skeptic senses tingling big time, as any actual good that might come from these oddball recipes is likely to be ruined by AB corporate turning it into a commercially oriented pseudo-craft beer, complete with fancy packaging, increased cost, but lacking in any actual craft beer molecules being contained within the bottles.

While recognizing the skill needed to make AALs, I have yet to really recognize any particular creation of AB that I'm very anxious to drink more than once (and once meaning one bottle only, and solely for the purpose of posting a review). I have a feeling people like Mitch leave AB because they want to make a quality craft beer product, not just a beer product that's hard to make and has strict quality control standards. There is a big difference.

 

“ …lacking in any actual craft beer molecules being contained within the bottles.” That statement is awesome!

Cheers to AlCaponeJunior!

 

There has been some discussion about Mitch Steele. Another brewer that I admire that has worked at AB is Florian Kuplent currently the co-owner and head brewer of Urban Chestnut Brewing. I have had the distinct pleasure of meeting and talking to Florian a couple of times. He is a class act and a very knowledgeable and skilled brewer. Below is part of his bio from the Urban Chestnut Brewing website:

http://urbanchestnut.com/our-brewmaster

 

Not to detract in any way from Florian's skill and contributions to beer, but which michelob beers, and what awards?

Urban chestnut - been there various times, always love their beer and the experience of being at their brewpub in St Louis. Had my first spruce beer there - inspired me to brew Juniper Ale, which came out good on both my attempts, and MrOH's attempt too! I would certainly brew Juniper ale again (probably when it gets cool out again I'll brew it again).

 

Yep. Great money. I would just homebrew crazy shit. Mitch Steele did the exact same thing

 

Below is a list of GABF awards for Michelob branded beers. I have no idea how many of these were due to Florian Kuplent.

I personally enjoyed drinking Michelob Dunkelweisse beer. I do not know whether Florian was the person who developed the Dunkelweisse beer.

GABF Awards:

2006: Silver: Michelob Marzen, Anheuser-Busch, St. Louis, MO

2007: Bronze: Michelob Marzen, Anheuser-Busch, St. Louis, MO

2008: Bronze: Michelob AmberBock, Michelob Brewing Co., St. Louis, MO

2009: Bronze: Michelob Marzen, Anheuser-Busch, St. Louis, MO

2010: Gold: Michelob AmberBock, Michelob Brewing Co., St. Louis, MO

Cheers!

 

FWIW, AB really hasn't done any substantive damage to Goose Island yet (keeping my fingers crossed). And, if you'll recall, 'Miller Valley' Brewery won a Bronze in the Strong Porter/Stout category at FOBAB a couple years ago (not surprisingly, Goose's Bourbon County Stout took the Gold). 'AC Golden' came up empty. I don't recall if AB sent anything.

 

No, I really never would. It really is a moral thing for me. Not just the swill that they make, which I can and do enjoy from time to time, swill it may be. But, also the underhanded way that they attack small craft breweries and even non breweries that will not in the brewery's lifetime would ever brew as much as global BCM's do in a week or a day. That's just the unnecessarily hassling of small start up mom and pop type operations, you know the American dream.

None of these companies are American owned now btw. The largest American owned brewery is Sam Adams or Yuengling I think. Those companies need to be broken up like Bell tele was back in the day. Get back to regional unique beers.

Also the strangle hold that they have over the third unseen arm of beer, DISTRIBUTION!!! They try and squeeze out, not the little guy, but the guy who did something you never even though of, that doesn't effect your profits at all, because these demographics don't buy your beer. Then they go after them. Ridiculous.

 

I would take it. Even if they didn't give me creative freedom. ( a job with a big firm is nice ) There is a very large market for what they make, and room enough for other styles that people like. I drank a bud light the other day after brewing 18 gallons of a Belgian dark strong and 6 gallons of a German wheat. I was driving and the low alc. content served me well.

 

There are some legit points to consider here. The big brewers have historically been real jerks when it came to business practices. I can't see that this is likely to improve now that they're owned by foreign interests. Craft beer may have a place in the market now, but it's certainly not thanks to inbev an' nem's generosity.

 

Depends on what the pay is. I don't think it's a sell out. I'd still brew at home.

 

Not to be a downer or endorse business practices, but no business makes it as a result of the competition's generosity. Big beer uses their clout to make money, and small breweries need to do what they need to do to make their profit. Who's the jerk always depends on which side of the fence you are on. If I were a small commercial brewer I would hope to make friends with other small brewers, but at the end of the day if my business needed to make more profit, I would do what needed to be done to make that profit even if it meant my "friends" had to make less profit because of it.

 

[warning: post may contain hyperbole and/or speculation, and does contain rambling. view at your own risk]

All fine and good. But there's a difference between the profits-and-dividends-no-matter-what mentality that many business leaders exhibit, and the need for a business to make a profit. Of course every business needs to make a profit, and I don't think it's a bad thing to aspire to make money from a business. But competition stifling business tactics aren't appropriate for the world of American craft brewing, and won't actually wind up maximizing anyone's long term profit. I suspect that the big American brewers' leadership hasn't figured this out yet, and probably won't anytime soon. Instead, they seem to be hurriedly trying to catch up by producing pseudo-craft beers (now that it's obvious craft beer is here to stay, and no amount of business tactics will change this fact).

Jim Koch from Samuel Adams understood this when he sold hops at cost to small breweries that were struggling to get hops during a hops shortage (2008, I think). Now it could be argued that Boston Beer Company would have made more profits had they let their smaller competitors struggle (or even go out of business) with the hops shortage. But I suspect that Jim sees far beyond the small immediate profit that not helping out the small brewers would have yielded. Craft beer thrives on having lots of choices, lots of small breweries, lots of diversity. Jim probably knows that he'll sell more Sam Adams in the long run if craft beer gets more popular, and keeping small breweries in business will actually make craft beer more popular. But this isn't an immediately quantifiable benefit, so I would expect many CEOs to completely ignore the possibility and just opt for the "jerk" option.

The whole concept of not maxing-immediate-profits-no-matter-what-the-future-cost seems to be mostly lost on many business leaders these days, and not just the ones who work at big beer companies. But you know, some things that reduce immediate profit actually have benefits later that are more than worth the investment. I know, I know, that's crazy talk. Maybe not tho.

Selling some of your hops at cost during a hops shortage, so the smaller guys don't go out of business, is one example of choosing to not be a jerk. Note that by choosing to help out smaller brewers, Boston Ber may have slightly decreased their overall profit margin for the quarter, and thusly the shareholders may have been forced to receive a slightly smaller dividend*. The horror! The horror! The horror!

Paying workers more than the absolute minimum required by law could well be another example where the immediate loss of this quarter's profits could be repaid multifold later. The long term cost savings due to increased worker loyalty, reduced turnover, increased productivity etc could far exceed the immediate the immediate slight lessening of profits.

And it's not being a jerk if you make money, but it's being a jerk if you intentionally hinder competition (especially if that competition is of no real threat to your business). It's also being a jerk if you're just a general douche in the way you do business, always trying to max out this quarter's dividend no matter what, but not caring about the ethical, moral, and social aspects of your business methods, and the effects said methods might have on other people/markets/the planet etc.

*well, technically, not with Boston Beer company, because their stock (at least the common stuff) is a non-dividend paying stock. I know this because I have a few shares that I bought in 2009. I guess Jim's choice to not necessarily put profits ahead of everything, all the time, no matter what must be working, because BBC stock has more than tripled since I bought it and may hit the quadrupel mark sometime soon (bought in 2009).

 

. All good points. And the market will determine their accuracy as it always does.

Let me ask you this? Small breweries are four times as likely to have employees injured on the job as large corporate breweries. The employees of smaller breweries generally have poorer benefits than employees of corporate breweries. Does this make small breweries unethical? Would large breweries be right to cast aspersions against craft brewers using indirect marketing techniques, similar to the Beer Wars propaganda film?

If large brewers break the law let them be prosecuted, if they don't, well, I don't think there will ever be a consensus as to what is unethical in business. Same for small brewers. I will repeat I believe it depends on which side of the fence you are.