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Anheuser Busch and their deceptive marketing

So today i'm in my local craft brew store, its a saturday, so apparently they have some tastings and other stuff going on, that's fine. So one of the tastings was from AB/InBev slinging their Budweiser Black Crown and Becks Sapphire garbage. So i tasted some local, DuClaw, mediocre at best, then i went about my merry old way. Expressing no interest at all as i walked by, the budweiser spokesman asks me if i'd like to sample some of their products. Maybe I should've just plainly said no, but instead i said "no, i don't support Anheuser Busch products".....so instead of just realizing that i obviously know more than the average consumer, he further's the matter by saying "why?". ok, so whatever, i was honest, i said "b/c they're trying to kill craft brews" so he says, "no, actually we're in alliance with them". (oh really? are you? AB/In-bev is just totally cool w/DFH, Stone, SN, Lagunitas, etc, just eating into their market share by the millions of dollars, not to mention they don't like you?) So I said "no you're not". he says "yes, actually we're in alliance with CBA (Craft Brew Allinace)".........which is true, u know why it's true, b/c InBev owns a stake in all of the "craft"/crafty brews (redhook, kona, widmer) that are a part of it. So instead of destroying this a-hole and embarrassing him in front of everyone, i just threw up my hand and walked away. Long, long story short....i dont appreciate AB/Inbev pretending that they're the same as craft breweries, i really really don't like them tricking American's into thinking their beers are craft beers, when they're really "crafty". I saw a lot of people buying Black Crown as direct result of this bs, and these are people that came to buy craft beer but don't realize the difference, they think something different from Bud is craft b/c of the bs they've been sold. What's my point? i don't know, it just pisses me off, b/c we're just a demographic to bmc, they don't care about the love of brewing, they care about profit. and sure, everyone wants to make money, but these guys dont do it to make the best beer possible, they do it to sell a subpar product that is universally acceptable. I hate you BMC. EFF you and all of your lackies, you're a poison to America. Don't know how i want anyone to respond about this, that's just how I feel.

I'm glad Ken Grossman, Jim Koch, Sam Calgione and others aren't worried about growing their businesses and making money, and instead haven't expanded their operations at all and also sell their beer at a loss because they don't care about the bottom line.

If In-Bev is trying to destroy craft breweries, they're doing it wrong. Craft breweries are at an all time high in this country.

They showed their faces at Big Beers, Belgians, and Barleywines this year:

http://img826.imageshack.us/img826/2...0112165051.jpg
...course they bailed about halfway through the tasting. Worst presentation of the lot. One guy with some bottles that were poorly labeled with some goofy "Not for resale" verbage on them. Nothing special...just a porter and a barleywine. Couldnt tell if he left from embarrassment or being poorly stocked.

Sorry for the blurry picture. As I said, it was halfway through the event, and nothing at BBBB is under 7% :drunk:

Maybe im missing something but I just dont get this attitude of the OP. Last I checked craft brews were not a endangered species. I get not buying something cause you dont like it, but cmon....really?

Quote:

Originally Posted by AZ_IPA (Post 4831112)

If In-Bev is trying to destroy craft breweries, they're doing it wrong. Craft breweries are at an all time high in this country.

Yes, they are at an all time high, but still less than 10% of the market share. so what does that say? 90% of Americans are still being influenced by the marketing and are too brand loyal to open their eyes to better beer. ie. "i'm a coors light man" ........really? well ur effing stupid coors light man. uve been tricked into liking only ONE brand of ONE style and you've more or less committed yourself to it for life. For what??? What does drinking the same exact beer for your whole life get you? do they send you a fanny pack to put your cigarettes in? No, they dont care, as long as you're drinking the "coldest tasting beer" thats all you care about, right? but guess what? "Cold" isn't a flavor....and furthermore it dulls ur taste buds. I'd think 90% of America would be smart enough to rely on their actual taste buds to tell them if something is good or not, but no, BMC marketing and brand loyalty is trying to destroy the craft of brewing.

Quote:

Originally Posted by McMalty (Post 4831138)

Or there's a helluva lot of people that like Light Lagers, myself included?

Yeah and I can find more craft beer in my grocery store or even drug store than I can find an AHB-inbev product. They're really squezing out the craft breweries. :rolleyes:

Funny, but where I live even our chain grocery stores carry more craft beer than they do macro beers. kroger's, Meijer's, even the local IGAs carry a huge selection of craft and imported beers, and devote more shelf space to said beers. Than they do to domestic light lagers these day. Even the most "Ghetto" of the liquor stores in Detroit have some alternatives to those beers.

My first "special" beer was Double Diamond Burton ale, bought in the kind of inner-city party store where the also kept the "chore boy" scrubbies and sold plastic roses in little glass test tubes at the front counter (if you don't know chore boy and little glass test tubes can be used to smoke crack with, they're quite popular in inner city stores.)

We also have 100 micro breweries in Michigan.

In fact I've been trying to find the Budweiser Brew Masters series that we've been talking about in other threads, and I JUST CAN'T FIND IT ANYWHERE.....I can find any craft, imported and micro beer that are distributed in my state, especially those brewed in Michigan easier than I can find the Budweiser product.

I've been buying imported and craft beers since 1986, and more of it every year. I just don't buy that they have as much power as you think they do. The genie is out of the bottle, the distributors, and the store owners know which side the bread is buttered, they have the real power. They know beer culture is here to stay and they know that a decent amount of the population nowadays is more interested in pay 17 dollars for a bottle of x craft beer. They know that they have to nowadays sell 2 cases of budlight, for every 12 dollar 4 pack of Founder's Breakfast Stout that a large segment of the population is clamoring for.

Or 1 Utopias for every 12 cases of Bush lite?

They're not going to allow the macro breweries to dictate to them how they have to make their money these days.....they're going to cover all bases.

The market drives things, not the producers.

So, from where I'm looking, where I can buy more craft beers, and attend beer tastings everyweek in my local pharmacy I find those "beerwars" arguments about how much power the "evil empire" has over beer distribution anymore about as believable as most 9-11 conspiracies.

This is a DRUGSTORE, where I buy my condoms and heart medication, not one of the dozen beer stores in a mile radious from there that have great beer selections, this is my PHARMACY.....They have three "Beer experts" on staff.
https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphot...59830061_n.jpg

https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphot...78417829_n.jpg

Here's a list....

You might notice they list 8 BMC type beers, and 70 craft, micros, imported, ciders, and meads.

And that's just one store.....If this is the result of a three tier system, than it's fine by me.

I think those arguments are just more looking for a reason to hate, than they're having that much of a stanglehold these days. There's room for it all.

These beersnob arguments are so tiring..... And just silly. Craft beer an endangered species, and bmc the evil empire...*yawn*

I like coors light.

Have you always been a craft beer drinker?

or did you just watch beer wars recently?

Quote:

Originally Posted by AZ_IPA (Post 4831145)

Or there's a helluva lot of people that like Light Lagers, myself included?

Funny you mention that. Me too.....I just posted this in the "What beers have you changed your mind about since you started brewing?" thread. And I think I killed the thread. :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Revvy (Post 4831132)

Yeah actually, BMC/Light Lagers. Actually lagers in general.

I came from a craft beer background. I didn't like that style beer when I started drinking, and when I turned beer drinking age it was at the start of the craft beer craze in the early 80's so pretty much I've grown up drinking only craft beers, and snubbing BMC. And buying into all the idiotic and historically inaccurate beersnob lies about how BMC added adjunct to cut costs, and all that other stuff that had me looking down at BMC, and those who drank them.

Then I read Maureen Ogle's book Ambitious Brew, and learned the truth about how the style developed, and was created because of consumer demand since people in the 1800's could afford meat with every meal and therefore heavy beers (liquid bread) was falling out of favors. So I started to give those beers, and the American Lager/Light Lager a different look...and developed more respect for them.

And I realized what I didn't like about Budweiser and Bud light in particular, was not that they were BMC or made by the supposed "evil empire" but that they were rice adjuncted lagers. And I didn't like other Rice adjuncted lagers, like Sapporo...but I did like corn adjuncted lagers, regardless of whether they were made by craft breweries or by the mega ones. And I quite enjoy corn adjuncted lagers, like Labatts.

In fact the more and more lagers, and lager like ales I've discovered the more I've loved. Maibocs, Vienna Lagers, Bohemian Pilsners, Dopplebocks all wonderful and amazing beers that I virtually ignored or looked down at because they were "lagers" and I thought I was too good for them. And even Kolsh, which is an ale, but in a lot of ways lager like. I looked down and passed all these amazing beers by because I had a "beersnob" stick up my ass and thought those beers and those who drank them were "less than" I was.

As I homebrewer I came to appreciate just how difficult it is to brew a light american lager, especially consistantly, batch after batch, and just because I didn't enjoy a certain beer, didn't mean that the brewery didn't deserve my respect for turning out such a difficult product to brew. And that the breweries themselves like AHB-inbev contributed so much historically to the culture and the technology of brewing beer.

And I also learned that all beer has it's place, EVEN light beers, especially in the summer. And that beer is the most egalitarian of drinks, and we shouldn't have an "us vs them" mentality about it. And open ourselves up to trying ALL beers.