What a ghastly thing to say.

Flights are another thing I don't understand for beer*. But I think that stems from there's zero chance I'm going to like any stout, bock, IPA, or almost any other type of ale. I also find that if you are at the bar you can usually get the bartender to give you a sample of something that is new to you and you're not sure about.




*But there is a meadery in town where ordering a flight is pretty much our standard. Though in almost all cases it's because we're with someone that has never been to one before.

Yeah, you really have to like a variety of styles for flights to make sense. For my part, there are only a few types of beer I don't like, so I can find a flight's worth that I wan to try often.

My buddy started making mead a while back in 5 gallon jugs. They'd be laying around his house everywhere.

We'd go out, end up at his place and drink mead to end the night. I never really cared for it but drank it anyway. There were 2-3 different types.

I recently saw his booth at a local trade show and tried his mead fresh and it was considerably better than warm out of 5 gallon jug from above the fridge.

He turned those jugs of mead in his kitchen into a fairly successful meadery in Baltimore. Dreams can come true.

Again, we just have completely different views on this. The article clearly lays out how giant multi-nationals use anti-competitive business practices to lock out any competitors from using a level playing field. I'm obviously biased, but I've also had an insider's perspective for going on two decades now. I can't count the number of times I've heard of a bar owner saying, "Well, if you'll buy us X, we may put you on tap." That's against both the spirit and the letter of our distribution system, but is a reality of the industry, and one that the typical consumer doesn't know exists. Again, it's a deliberate anti-competitive strategy that ABInbev/MCoors knowingly executes because it makes them money.

Can you elaborate on this? I think I know what you mean but could be wildly off.

There are enormous capital barriers to making beer. The equipment is expensive, period. Think of brewery expansion at the margin like a staircase: once you hit your capacity, you simply cannot make any more until you save enough money to buy really expensive equipment. So your production is a flat, horizontal line for a while, and then you've saved enough money to buy new tanks or filtration or whatever you need to expand, and then you've got enough pent-up demand where your production can go pretty much vertical. You make beer until you hit capacity, and then have to wait until you've got the capacity to expand again. Stairs.

I don't necessarily agree here. If you define "quality" as flavor stability/flavor profile, big beer is pretty much unrivaled in the history of food. I could walk in a random C-Store here and buy a Bud and it would taste the same as somewhere halfway across the world. That's crazy quality.

Again, we just have very different political views. How's the big cell phone/mobile data merger going to work out for consumers? Great for the C-suite though! IMO there's tons of evidence that market consolidation is great for big players and shitty for everyone else, and my experience in beer is no different than all that evidence.

Beer is food, and all food is better fresh. There's actually no such program you describe, but you're right on that if you keep any beer in your garage, warm, for 3 months, it'll taste differently than something packaged fresh and kept cold. Beer is just a miracle in that, unlike other food, if it's not fresh it won't kill you.

Someone once asked me what my favorite Sam Adams beer is. Another former employee was in the conversation, and before I answered I looked over at him and said, "This is the most insider answer to that you'll ever hear: Morning sensory on fresh Boston Lager during Oktoberfest season." He was a sensory scientist by training and laughed and agreed it was both very insider and also correct. When we were making Oktoberfest, sensory panel would lead with all in-process Oktoberfest before moving on to Boston Lager and then whatever else. Oktoberfest is very malt-forward, and Boston Lager gets a charge of hops during aging, even though it's not at all a "hoppy" beer by today's standards. But after a few samples of Oktoberfest, that first Lager sample had noble hops that just hit you right in the nose and was so good. It's a distinct sense memory I've got... up there with a Natty Light.

No, as stated most contract brewing is done by City Brewing, in Memphis, Latrobe, and... LaCrosse maybe? Can't remember. And I'm not sure "most" is accurate either, the PA and OH breweries combined put out like 4m barrels of product rusty on that as well.

They must be pretty incompetent with the two of them only having 2/3 of the market tied up.

I don't know of anyone who cannot obtain beer from a producer of the remaining 1/3 of the market.

In most of the country, beer producers must sell beer to a distributor, who then sells it to a retail account (ie a bar), who then sells it to drinkers (ie you buy a pint). Over the past decade plus, there's been massive consolidation in distributors - again, literally the only customer for a brewery - to the point that in most markets a brewery can only sell to a distributor that also sells Bud or Miller/Coors. While "pay-to-play" is illegal, distributorships will get money from ABInbec or MolsonCoors to do "promotions," where they'll, for instance, give a bar all the ABInbev-branded glassware they need, on condition that they keep five out of six tap handles for brands from that distributor - again, the big brewery. There's literally no incentive for that distributor to ask the retail account to sell Your Local Brewery, and Your Local Brewery legally cannot sell beer to anyone else. The article I linked lays it out very clearly.

Or, for grocery stores, they'll offer to provide all the labor of stocking the shelves for their beer for free. Naturally, all AB beers are constantly rotated, stocked, and given prime placement like end-caps. Again, completely against the spirit of distribution laws, but loopholes multinational conglomerates can leverage that small, local business cannot. Your local brewery sales rep will go into Kroger and find his beer has been moved out of the cooler to a warm spot on the floor in a far corner of the aisle, but what's Kroger going to do, tell Budweiser to **** off?

Yeah, outside of the 66% of the market those two have, about 24% of the market are other multinational conglomerates, like Diageo (Guiness) or Constellation (Modelo), who enjoy the same advantages.

Let me know what your thoughts are after you read the article linked. The entire beer distribution industry is, as HT would say, "per se" unfair, most people have no idea (or care!), and it's a big enough business that it can buy political influence to keep things that way.

Literally days ago the TTB handed down a fine for this stuff for ABInBev in Colorado. But the fine is nothing compared to the revenue the company made on it. If the fine is less than the profit, it's not a penalty, it's a cost of doing business.

Link

A little research shows my info was dated. 20 years ago Miller brewed, if not most, at least a good chunk for Sam Adams. Source - my in-laws lived next door to a retired Miller executive.

In a fun knot, the Hudepohl brewery in Cincinnati brewed Blue Moon - a Miller brand - when it first ramped up. As heritage brands were dying, that brewery did a lot of contract brewing of other brands, including Sam Adams. Jim Koch's family being from Cincy along with the existing business relationship was a major factor in them buying the Hudepohl-Schoenling brewery outright in the late 90's.

When I see someone order a Blue Moon, I immediately label them as having poor taste. Not saying it's true, but I do it.

I like beer. That as much thought as I’ve ever put into it.

Mike's Hard Lemonade is another good beer

Of course business isn't fair. It is weird that you think that there are others who will be enlightened. We all know that regulatory capture and other unfair practices are par for the course in every industry.

I don't have any problem getting beer from various small producers whenever I want, so I (as part of most people) don't particularly care. The point of anti-monopoly laws is to protect consumers, not small producers, so I don't care on that front at all. I could possibly be convinced otherwise if there were some beer innovations being held back by big beer, I guess.

You know far more about the beer industry than I do, but the per se rule generally applies only to so-called "horizontal" agreements between competitors. An example here would be Diageo and Constellation agreeing to split bars in the twin cities where each one would agree not to compete for the sixth tap left over from the two majors. If found out, that would certainly be a material class action and potentially a criminal case. As for the sort of activity you describe, if that is taken unilaterally by a single actor without "market power," it might or might not be a problem, depending on whether "consumer welfare" is impacted. Those definitional terms can be slippery and occasionally complex.

I'm not defending the conduct you describe, but rather laying out a general description of the applicable legal landscape.

Well done, Brett Kavanaugh!

Right or wrong as a matter of policy, this is a correct statement.

A blue moon paired with a bacon-wrapped filet does paint a picture of a rube.

I simultaneously agree with this and would also happily indulge in a Blue Moon with a bacon-wrapped filet.

(I very likely wouldn't choose it given any reasonable options to the contrary, but still.)

This.

Blue Moon is never my first choice, but it is always a decent fall-back in a place with limited options with less appeal.

Blue Moon is the only beer I usually have in my house.

I don't much drink beer. To the extent that I do, I'm another jmakin. Back when football was still a thing, I would pick up Bud Light before a lot of the games. If I find myself stuck going to a brewery, I'll sample one of their offerings, but all I really hope for is that it's not gross.

I'm very fond of whiskey. If I'm going for something softer, I'd sooner drink wine.