In the past couple of years, I have seen a few flavored beers hitting the shelves from the two major brewery’s in the United States. Miller Chill, Bud lite Lime, etc. Personally, I think flavoring beer with a fruit is the big two’s (Anheuser Busch and MillerCoors) way of trying to get more women as customers. Come on, really, how many men do you know go on a beer run during half time of the big game and return with a twelve pack of Michelob Ultra Pomegranite Raspberry Pilsner? Anything less than Coors light and you’ll lose your man card for a week, not to mention that you will be laughed at for months, maybe years. “Hey remember when Bob went on that beer run twelve years ago and came back with that Pomegranite Orange crap?” “Yeah he stopped by Bath and Body works on the way back and that’s why he missed the third quarter.” (NOTE: Bob’s name used to be “Slayer” but he lost rights to it too, now he’s simply known as “Bob, the guy that botched the beer run”) These flavored brews are targeting the female gender and that’s fine for their place in the business and kudos to their marketing teams for having more than a little success at this. Heck, if this is what it takes to get a new customer, then more power to them. Besides, if more women drank beer, our dinner bills will be cheaper. A flavored beer has to cost less than a daquari.
But lately I have seen something in the beer world that has grabbed my attention, an influx of “specialty” beers. Anheuser Busch, through their Michelob line, has introduced some brews that until now have only been available through micro-brewery’s. Pale Ale, Porter, Marzen, Dunkel Weissen etc. They even have seasonal brews, Beach Bum blonde ale for the summer, Jacks Pumpkin spice ale for the fall and Winter Bourbon Cask Ale for the winter. They also have a yet to be announced brew coming this spring, I can oly assume it will be an ale. (yawn)
I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that the big two are now owned by foreign company’s and they are trying to keep the allegiance of the American beer drinker. This would be a pretty transparent, albeit logical, reason for the sudden release of so many different brews in such a small time frame. I have tried a few of these brews and will be posting my reviews soon. I promise I’ll keep an open mind when writing my notes and forming my opinions. I will give it my all to be as objective as possible. But please keep in mind that the big two have lots of money and resources that micro-brewery’s just don’t have.
Of the ones I’ve seen and tried, the labels are fairly attractive and the commercials are pretty cool for the novice beer drinker. The more experienced beer drinkers, however, are not fooled by catchy phrases and clever ads. For example, in one of the Michelob ads it shows someone, supposedly an employee of the brewery, explaining how they are looking for a thick head and “lacing” down the glass. I find this remarkably similar to the Samuel Adams commercials. Besides, aren’t all thicker, darker beers supposed to have this lacing? My opinion is that this will only steer most beer drinkers to their product once, then they will come back to their favorite brews. Yeah, the big two have the money and resources to give out a marketing campaign that will certainly steer some beer drinkers away from their favorite micro-brews for a time. After all, most experienced beer drinkers will try anything once.
My fear is that because of the aforementioned marketing campaigns, it might put a squeeze on some of the smaller micro-brewery’s in the United States. I, for one, would hate to see a small entreprenuer be put out of business because of the greed of another huge corporation. I had a conversation with a very good friend of mine the other night and he is of the opinion that the big two might be doing the American beer drinker somewhat of a service. He says they would be making different types of brews available to the entire population. Think about it, if you tasted a Bock beer while on vacation in Texas, and you really liked it, but you live in Idaho and had no way of ever getting it again unless you go back to Texas, what do you do? The big two have the money and resources to make that type of brew available to you. This is a good thing, and it make sense.
Now, the other side of the story. If you had a bock beer in Texas, who’s to say that MillerCoors Bock is as good as the micro-brew you had in Texas? Oh, sure, you’ll try it once, but you will always yearn for the bock you had while in the micro-brewery’s back yard.
Now, these specialty beers that are being produced by the big two might catch on for a small period of time, I really don’t think they will ever take a considerable amount of business away from other brew crafters. In fact, in time I think they will serve as gateway beers and turn more people on to the wonderful world of micro-brews. Once you’ve had an ale from a name you trust (ie. Budweiser American Ale), you will be less apprehensive to try a Stone Brewery Pale Ale. I must admit, at first I thought that this situation may prove detrimental to the American micro-brewery, but in retrospect I think it may turn out to be a good thing for them. Time will tell.
Posted by Mr. Porch
