The Economics of Beer

~ Cheryl

Apparently the American economy has just been dealt a death blow. No, Ford is OK, so is Microsoft, and Disney. Nevertheless a disaster of incalculable magnitude has happened. Anheuser-Busch has been bought by a bunch of Belgians, and consequently the sky is falling.

For the benefit of non-US readers, Anheuser-Busch are the manufacturers of Budweiser, the brew that has become a by-word for insipid, tasteless American beer all over the globe. The new owners, InBev, have a broad portfolio of beers including Stella Artois and Becks. The Americans (or at least the Bud-drinkers amongst them) think this is a disaster. The Wall Street Journal has an example of the sort of sentiment being expressed:

“I’ll tell you one thing,” said the 21-year-old concrete worker during his lunch break at The Brick of St. Louis bar, in the shadow of this city’s storied Anheuser-Busch Cos. brewery, “if Budweiser is made by a different country, I don’t drink Budweiser anymore. I’ll go back to Wild Turkey.” (Wild Turkey, a Kentucky bourbon, is owned by French drinks giant Pernod Ricard SA.)

Well, it is easy to laugh at Bud drinkers, but the people of St.Louis are doubtless worried about what will happen to their famous local industry. It may well be that the new owners will be less interested in the local economy. They might, for example, not renew their sponsorship of the Cardinals’ stadium and lobby for the city to get an MLS soccer club instead. They might also fire a bunch of senior managers. But I suspect the ordinary workers will be OK. After all, take the example of Coors.

Anyone in the US who has watched TV has doubtless been beaten over the head by endless boring commercials about pure rocky mountain spring water. Coors is made from it. We all know that. But did you know that those commercials are shown in the UK as well. They are almost identical, except for one small item: a little overlay in one corner explaining that Coors beer is brewed locally in the UK. So does it have any pure rocky mountain spring water in it? Fat chance.

And the same, I expect, will be true for Bud. No one in their right minds is going to brew Bud in Belgium and ship it across the Atlantic for sale in America. So Bud breweries, I think, are quite safe.

What InBev might tinker with is the recipe. Again the WSJ is on the ball:

She even expects the Bud recipe to get watered down for cost-cutting purposes, though some craft-brew drinkers insist it already was watered down a long time ago.

Well quite. America has a huge range of fabulous craft beers. Many of them are really good. But none of them quite live up to my favorite Belgian beers. The folks at InBev might just know a thing or two abut brewing. They might even have employed one or two renegade Trappist monks. And if they can work a bit of magic on Bud it might even stop being a laughing stock. Wouldn’t that be something.

9 thoughts on “The Economics of Beer”

  1. Yep, it’d be a tragic shame if those darn Europeans turned bud into a good beer. Worst case – it would actually taste similar to Budvar (the original Budweiser who didn’t have very good lawyers).

  2. I learned from Mike Glicksohn that all American beer is panther piss. Then I learned from Travis McGee to drink Dos Equis. So I don’t have a dog in this fight…

  3. It’s always amused me a great deal that the big three Bud, Miller, and Coors are often referred to as domestic beers at bars while the mini brewery beers a bar might have are not considered domestic, at least in terms of pricing. Miller and Coors were bought by non US companies several years ago and now Bud is really no longer domestic either.

    Typing this at the local brew pub while sipping their ESB.

    George

  4. Bud has always marketed itself by intertwining its image with the American national identity — lots of red and blue, an eagle on the label, Clydesdale-drawn wagons in July 4th parades, etc. etc. So the media can make a story by finding people who bought into the image and are annoyed. But it’s not much of a story as long as they keep making Bud in this country.

  5. I tend toward European reds and darks anyway — and microbrewery’s over here (Henry’s when going “supermarket beer”) — so also no dog in this fight — but I find it amusing that the only American Beers will be the Micros :>.

    Only improves the taste of that which is called American Beer, if you ask me…

  6. Best graf from today’s Wall Street Journal article on this:

    “I’ll tell you one thing,” said the 21-year-old concrete worker during his lunch break at The Brick of St. Louis bar, in the shadow of this city’s storied Anheuser-Busch Cos. brewery, “if Budweiser is made by a different country, I don’t drink Budweiser anymore. I’ll go back to Wild Turkey.” (Wild Turkey, a Kentucky bourbon, is owned by French drinks giant Pernod Ricard SA.)

  8. I guess I should try to add something new:

    The folks at InBev might just know a thing or two abut brewing

    Actually the people at AB know a heck of a lot about brewing. Their quality control is legendary. US home brewers used to use Michelob Dark as a color standard because it was so reliably the same.
    So the very scary conclusion is that Budweiser tastes the way it does because they like it that way.

  9. Ultimately anything can happen, even to the most popular and successful recipe. Did anybody really want Coca Cola to be made with corn-based sweetener?

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