Quote:
Originally Posted by
Alex Riviello 
Dogfish Head is great, and I really have to watch those episodes of Brew Masters. The last episode was supposed to end with them opening up their brewpub over here in Union Square but the opening was delayed. (I really, really have to go there.) Also heard rumors that the show was canceled thanks to big beer. Shitty, if true.
Your last comment got me to sniffing around, and it sounds like that's the case, at least according to Anthony Bourdain -- whose No Reservations, as pointed out in the link, shared the same production company with Brew Masters. I have zero doubts this was the case, even going only by secondhand tweeted hearsay. Watching the very first ep with a friend, we kinda goggled and rolled our eyes that the very first commercial on the first commercial break was for Blue Moon. And there were no other beer ads that hour.
Blue Moon, for the record, is Coors. Not a small brewery purchased by Coors -- it IS Coors. Coors invented the label to horn in on the craft market, and it's brewed at Coors facilities. Whenever I figure that's common knowledge, turns out someone else thought they were supporting a microbrew. But, Blue Moon is just another arm of what I've come to name The Monster. Miller, Coors (and MillerCoors!), Anheuser-Busch InBev. And the Monster is totally without conscience or remorse when it comes to keeping the little guy from clawing their way to, collectively, <2% of the American beer market. The Monster wants their 99%, and would prefer 100%, and then gnaw on each other's profits. So they will invent a "Blue Moon" or a "Plank Road" (Miller) or "Elk Mountain" (Bud) and take over the limited shelf space available -- seriously, distribution truck space and grocery store shelf space are the battlefields to which hardcore computer algorithms and long-term business strategies are devoted -- but at cost or a loss and certainly a lower price than the actual small-scale craft brewers can afford to sell what they've worked so hard to produce with much more limited resources. The purpose: Perhaps to make interesting beers that stretch beyond the much-maligned "American Light Pilsner"? Nope, these fake labels are created solely to put the small brewers out of business as best as possible. (Another strategy: multiple packaging systems. 6ers, 12s, cases, 15s, long packs, 30s, "cooler packs," cans and bottle versions of each, as well as creative bottle and can designs, etc. All those delivery systems for the exact same product aren't just marketing gimmicks, they quite calculatedly take up more of the limited shelf space from the competition.) It's mind-bogglingly cynical.
Sorry to go off on a rant there. But, The More You Know [chimes] *shooting star*
For a long time, even after I got into home brewing, I bore no grudge against the Big Guys. I've always been a beer geek and never a beer snob (and I still find beer snobs obnoxious when I meet em; they're usually as ignorant about beer as wine snobs are as compared with wine geeks, who can be fun to hang out with), and figured there's a time and place for every beer under the sun, even the ones that have to be so cold they drive a spike in your forehead to be at all palatable, because sometimes on a broiling day that works. And possibly all brewers have little minds, because our biggest hobgoblin is consistency* -- we're dealing with living organisms, here, and they have their own agendas -- and goddamn if the Monster isn't able to produce the same beer like clockwork. You'll even see the small brewers sigh and nod in appreciation of that. But the more I've come to learn about the Monster's business practices (and the general fucked-upedness of the U.S. post-Prohibition distribution system) I just can't in good conscience support em any longer. I'll go dry first. ......Once in a while at a baseball or MLS game, okay, after hunting the concourse for an alternative, but I always feel guilty after.
*Emerson's quote is actually "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds" -- and because there is nothing foolish about wanting to make consistently good beer, I think brewers should get a philosophical pass on this one.
ETA: If this isn't already among your new collection of beer books, I can't recommend highly enough Beer Captured
if you ever want to try cloning the pros. Possibly the single best organized homebrewing book I've ever come across. Hundreds of recipes, one page for each recipe, no wasted space. The recipes are primarily extract versions (90% of the time I go extract), but have sidebars on how to convert to partial- or all-mash. And, each page is crammed with details on the brewery and that particular beer, plus additional tips for tweaking the process, and suggestions for serving glass, temp, and food pairing. It's everything I've ever asked for in a recipe book/beer guide but can never find in one place. It really is a gift.
Edited by Trav McGee - 7/12/11 at 8:56am
