Big Beer Takes Over - Monopolizing America

[ensho]

http://counterpunch.com/monkerud11272009.html


Forget about kicking back and enjoying an American beer; a massive wave of consolidation is transforming the industry.

According to a recent report by the Marin Institute, a California-based alcohol industry watchdog, a rush of buyouts and mergers in the last years of the Bush Administration has left two overseas giants in control of 80 percent of American beer consumption.

"How beer is marketed and sold in this country will never be the same," said Charisse Lebron, corporate responsibility & advocacy manager at the Marin Institute. "Anheuser-Busch InBev and MillerCoors, controlled by parent companies SABMiller and Molson Coors Brewing Company, are all that really matter in the U.S."

America is the world's most profitable beer market, yet the U.S. has lost what was once a competitive industry. As recently as 2004, ten companies fought over world consumption; today Belgium-based InBev (Anheuser-Busch InBev) controls 25 percent of the world's beer market. SABMiller, the second largest brewer with 15 percent of the market, is a London-based conglomerate that formed when South African Breweries acquired U.S.-owned Miller in 2002.

-snip-

Approved in record times by President Bush's Federal Trade Commission, these beer mergers have a number of drawbacks. Charisse Lebron, author of the Beer Duopoly Report, predicts that American shareholders will have difficulty attending annual meetings overseas. Less shareholder involvement could lead to lower environmental and labor standards, while InBev and MillerCoors replace local beer distributorships with direct distribution from the brewery. The current three-tier system of alcohol sales and distribution was established 75 years ago to prevent aggressive sales tactics and give states oversight of alcohol.

-snip-

An even more troubling problem arises over taxes, especially with government facing reduced tax revenues. Federal alcohol excise taxes haven't been raised since 1991 and, adjusted for inflation, have lost 40 percent of their value. State taxes are similar: Wisconsin hasn't raised its alcohol tax to keep up with inflation since 1969 and has lost 83 percent of its value. Maryland's alcohol excise tax was set in 1972 at 9 cents a gallon, but would be 38 cents a gallon if it were adjusted for inflation.

"Increasing taxes is the number one most effective way to reduce underage drinking and overall harm," said Lebron. "The beer companies know that and are fighting it, despite the fact that alcohol harm in California alone amounts to $38 billion a year. In the U.S., it's over $200 billion a year. Industries that cause harm, such as alcohol and tobacco, should be financially responsible for some portion of that harm."
-snip-
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[Sebastian Doyle]

1. Buy American. Buy local. Drink microbrews.

They taste better anyway :beer:

[Twinguard]

2. +1

I prefer my beer to have flavor. I'm a huge fan of micros.

Although, my favorites all come from the next state over... Oregon has some AWESOME micros.

[depakid]

12. "Oregon has some AWESOME micros."

Best there is:

[Taverner]

31. Choose a best from Oregon? Not possible.

I mean, what about Ninkasi Tricerahops? HOTD Pale Blue Dot? Yellow Snow? And that's just IPAs...

What about Descutes Abyss? Deschutes Black Butte XII? And that's just Deschutes...

See?

Not that simple.

[depakid]

34. +3 or 4

[HuckleB]

37. Have you had the new sour beer from HOTD?

I can't wait to get my hands on that.

[Taverner]

50. Cool - HOTD is making sours now?

I guess it was only a matter of time - being that they have conquered every other style :)

[C_Lawyer09]

55. You got that right

I like Black Butte Porter. Mac n Jacs from WA is good, Arrogant Bastard as well. Hell yes I miss the NW

[Initech]

20. + infinity

I love micros - there's a couple of them not too far from where I live and one I actually know the owners pretty well.

[NightWatcher]

23. just walked in the door with a case of Magic Hat #9 from Vermont

I hate to think of the effort to ship it from Vermont all the way down to Florida, but it's still better than any Busch beer

[hatrack]

28. Haven't touched A-B (of my own volition) in years . . . occasionally at parties if it's all there is

Think globally, drink locally!!

[fishwax]

29. Absolutely

:kick:

[Taverner]

30. [phone]

[HuckleB]

36. Way better.

[backscatter712]

38. Damned straight!

I won't drink beer from the big breweries. Since I live in Fort Collins, there's absolutely no excuse for not drinking real beer. There's New Belgium, there's Odell's, there's Coopersmiths, there's the Fort Collins Brewery, there's hundreds of choices of microbrewed beers in any liquor store.

[JVS]

3. I smell bullshit

"Increasing taxes is the number one most effective way to reduce underage drinking and overall harm"

Increasing taxes is the number one way to cut down the amount of beer the public can afford, thus indirectly lowering underage drinking, but by that logic a general curfew of 10 PM would cut down on youth crime.

[PJPhreak]

22. Most kids do what ever it is that can get them in trouble...

Between 3pm and 7pm, after school hours. Think back when you were in High School,When did you (Or your Friends) break out the Bongs,go do the Dukes of Hazzard with your cars,or go spend some "Quality Time" with your Girl/Boyfriend.

a 10 pm curfew won't work as well as one may think.

[nickinSTL]

4. eh. don't drink beer myself

and my wife and friends all brew their own.

:shrug:

[tabasco]

5. Started making my own.

Best beer I've ever had.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

7. Can you point me towards a good resource to do the same?

Thanks in advance!

[blogslut]

8. Here's a super easy way to get started

http://www.mrbeer.com/

Me, I make my own ginger beer and soft-core bubbly stuff. All I need is sugar, yeast, water, something tasty, a gallon PET bottle, a balloon, a rubber band and 12 hours.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

40. Thank you very much!

:toast:

[tabasco]

10. Absolutely.

Here's some links to get you started.

www.northernbrewer.com - for ingredients and equipment.

www.micromatic.com - for equipment.

www.homebrewtalk.com - lots of good info.

www.homebrewing.org/5-Gallon-Cornelious-Keg-Ball-Lock_p_70.html - it will save a lot of trouble bottling your home brew if you just put it in one of these 5-gal. kegs.

I order the ingredients from Northern Brewer, but eventually want to make my own malt and grow my own hops. But the ingredient kits are excellent.

There is a start-up cost for equipment, but, after that, every batch is 5 gallons of excellent beer for not too much.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

39. Thank you very kindly!

:toast:

[johnnie]

15. Make my own too

It's much better. I have a Christmas ale (from a kit) fermenting right now. I also have a kegerator and a few 5 gallon kegs.

[tabasco]

17. Excellent!

I'm building a two corny keg kegerator with a mini-fridge from Lowes.

Next batch is raspberry wheat - my gf likes wheat beer. After that Oktoberfest.

[seemunkee]

21. Been homebrewing for about 6 years now.

Just tapped a Saison for the holidays. I have a kegerator with 3 through door taps and a spot for one more. I usually have one soda on tap too.

[tabasco]

25. I'm building this mini-fridge conversion

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/frigidaire-model-frc445gb-mini-fridge-kegerator-conversion-89013/


$170 for the fridge and $90 for a double tap will make a nice two-corny-keg kegerator. :toast:

I have a double tap for on top and the fridge sitting in my front room.

I just need to get it done before my next batch is done. But that will be about five weeks, if I brew it tomorrow (raspberry wheat).

I wanted to wait until it got cold to brew some more. I take the wort kettle out to the creek behind my house and sit it in the ice water to cool. Works very well.

[UTUSN]

6. K&R #3 for, Shrub screws the country again. And again. n/t

[ensho]

11. I was thinking the same - smirk's crap lives on and on

nt

[DavidDvorkin]

9. When the giant brewers were entirely American

their beer was crap. Microbrews or certain imports were the best choices.

Foreign ownership of the giants makes no difference.

[imdjh]

13. I don't understand why an American Owned And Operated beer company wasn't born when Bud went euro

[leftstreet]

14. Which one did Beeress Cindy McCain own?

Was it Anheiser? Bud?

[Mosby]

19. Hensley & Co. are the AB distributors

for Maricopa county AZ. The company was started by Cindy's father Jim Hensley in 1955.

[HamdenRice]

16. To put our decline in perspective: An African country is colonizing a major American industry

SAB stands for South African Brewing.

At least their beer is better, and maybe we'll finally get to drink Lion Lager and Castle Lager!

:beer:

[alfredo]

43. Tusker? Melotti? Stork (nasty stuff)

Melotti is an Italian brand brewed in Eritrea and Italy. It was a headache in a bottle.

[madrchsod]

18. why would anyone drink big brewer swill?

small brewers and micro-brewers actually make good beer. hell the good Schlitz is back.

[nemo137]

52. Because, while the situation's gotten better in recent years,

craft brews are still 1.) hard to find (relatively speaking) 2.)expensive (relatively speaking - 15-16$ for a 12 of the Magic Hat sampler or the same for 24 of PBR?) and 3.) an unknown quantity (IPA? RIPA? Bitter? Stout? Buckwheat ale? Belgian farmhouse beer?).

Things are looking up - see Micheloeb's attempts to move into a craft-ish niche with clearly defined styles and information on the package for n00bs - but in general there's not enough information about beer out there for your average joe to walk into a store and go "Oh, I think tonight I'll have the Schlafly Kolsch because it's warm out and that's a nice summer beer."

The craft brewers, by the way, don't help this at all by picking whimsical, willfully obscure names - but that's a separate, more beer-specific rant.

[NRaleighLiberal]

24. Rogue, Bells, North Coast, Smuttynose, Avery.....go for the "little" guys!

What Bud and Miller make is NOT beer. It is cheap alcohol for those who hate beer but want to get drunk.

[alfredo]

41. Great Lakes makes great beer. I love Schkafly APA, Bells Two Hearted Ale,

Bells Oberon, Stone IPA, Great Lakes Burning River Ale, and their Dortmunder Gold are fine examples of the craft. Bells makes some fine stouts too.
Founders is another excellent brewery for you. http://ratebeer.com/beer/founders-centennial-ipa/3168/ It says IPA, but the malts are very present.


Schlafly is out of St Louis and can be found at many Krogers. It cost about $.50 more than the premium adjunct swill from the big macro brews. If you can find Schlafly Centennial ESB, give it a try.
It starts off sweet with a nice bitter ending. Nice beer. http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/583/2884 Their APA: http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/583/36290


BTW, Bud and Miller/coors are adulterated with rice. It is not a pure beer. The beers I mentioned are pure, they adhere to The Bavarian Purity Law of 1516. The original law stated that only barley, hops, and water to be used in beer. The use of yeast hadn't been discovered in 1516. The inclusion of yeast to that standard came later.

Get informed:

http://beeradvocate.com/

http://ratebeer.com/default.asp

Drink American

The hard stuff:
If you want to try Rye, start off with either Jim Beam Rye, or Old Overholt. It's a good American drink. Wild Turkey Rye is more expensive and is a two fisted drink. Not for the timid. Rye Whiskey and Bourbon was a more efficient way to transport their crops to market. It was easier to transport casks of whiskey than huge sacks of Rye or corn. Kentucky went with corn based Bourbon because corn was more suited to Kentucky than Rye. Both Rye and Bourbon play important roles in building American commerce. (Note# Johnny Appleseed grew apples for Applejack, not for eating. The fermentation killed off harmful critters in the water. It's better to be a bit tipsy than to suffer from Dysentery. )

If you want to try another American drink, explore Bourbon. If you stick with the Buffalo Trace family of Bourbons you won't go wrong. W L Weller (white label) is a good intro to Bourbon. It doesn't cost much and is wheated to smooth out the rough corners. They were the first to use regular wheat instead of Rye. They also were pioneers in aging whisky. The WL Weller Antique is a very good Bourbon and not as expensive as some that are displayed on the upper shelves.

Maker's Mark is also a good product, so is Knob Creek. Knob Creek near Hodgensville Ky was where Lincoln was born.

[NRaleighLiberal]

46. Good stuff. We are big time stout drinkers - and use ratebeer.com often.

We get ideas from looking at the highest rated beers at that site.

[alfredo]

48. I used to be a stout drinker. Mackeson's XXX stout was a

favorite. Samuel Smith Imperial Stout was very good too. Now APA's and IPA's are my favorites. Tonight I am going to pick up some Schlafly ESB.

I still drink milk stouts when I can find one.

[KamaAina]

49. Schlafly? No relation to Phyllis, I hope.

:scared:

That'd be kind of like "Coors Light", politically.

[nemo137]

53. Her nephew, actually.

According to the great and powerful wiki, she is not involved in the brewery in any way.

[alfredo]

54. It is his aunt, but he is clear to state that she has no connection.

My aunt is to the right of Phyllis. She has no connection to me.

Tom Schlafly seems to value quality over profit, a very un Republican stand. He doesn't use sex to sell, very un Republican. He is sensitive to vegetarians and vegans, very un Republican.
He is sensitive to the environment http://www.schlafly.com/garden.shtml#cactus

http://rationalwiki.com/wiki/Thomas_Schlafly

[onethatcares]

26. Yeungling, the oldest American brewing company.

and I hope they keep it that way. Although Clipper out of Baltimore is pretty good too.

[Vinnie From Indy]

27. Indy has seen a large rise in local brewerys

Add the surrounding states to the mix and there are dozens of micro-brews to choose from. In fact, there are three, soon to be four, brewpubs within walking distance from my house.

I gave up big brewery beer years ago and now when I have one, it tastes like crap.

[thelordofhell]

32. The largest American brewing company

Is now Samuel Adams

[HuckleB]

35. It's Boston Beer Company.

And though it's a step above the mainstream, it's not kept up with the increasing quality of American micros.

[alfredo]

42. For a Macro, they aren't that bad. I still favor Schlafly, Bells, Great Lakes.

http://www.schlafly.com/

http://www.bellsbeer.com/

http://www.greatlakesbrewing.com/

[Release The Hounds]

33. Sprecher, New Glarus, Tyranena, Capital, Ale Asylum

Sand Creek, Furthermore, Viking, Lakefront

[alfredo]

44. Be aware that some of the fine American micro Brews can be 9% alcohol.

Great Lakes Blackout Stout is 9% Very tasty though.

[Major Hogwash]

45. And has had a direct impact on local farmers who can't sell their crops

Like hops.
We used to have miles and miles of hops fields along the interestate that the farmers grew in SouthWestern Idaho.
But no more.

[Hannah Bell]

47. dirty secret: almost everything you buy, if you follow the money, = monopoly/

quasi-monopoly.

[SidDithers]

51. Like sex in a canoe...nt

Sid