2 posts tagged “style”

As mentioned in an earlier post, I will cop to having purchased a pack of domestic macro brew this week.

The aforementioned beer was in fact Michelob Amber Bock (Anheuser-Busch product).

I have had it before, a long time ago at a university far, far away.

It was in my exploratory phase.  I tried one of everything I could get past my liver.

There being so many options in the wide world of suds, and it being widely available, I just never circled back.

Standing in the beer aisle there were always other options that I'd never tried before that called to me instead of something that I'd had before.  And I figured it'd always be there if I needed it.  Afterall, it seems every store carries the majors and their sub-imprint labels.  The benefits of a massive distribution logistical empire and marketing machine.

And you know, Michelob Amber Bock is not bad.  It is actually quite a good beer.  Roasted, caramelized malts with Bavarian hops, rich and smooth.

Here's why I generally avoid macro produced beers: 

I harbor a streak of beer snobbery combined with conspiracy theory.

Even though the macro producers are now serving up alternatives to the ubiquitous light American lager (Coors, Bud, Miller), I simply don't trust them to continue doing so if the little guys weren't there taking market share.

It's not that I think the big brewers have inferior product.   They produce a reliable product on mass scale efficiently and at low cost.

They are very good at what they do best, mass-produce to the lowest common denominator and marketing blitz.

My problem with them is that I find their motives for producing alternative craft styles suspect.

They didn't offer anything other than a lightweight lager style until the small craft guys challenged their domination and proved that their was a market for the alternative styles.

If the beer consuming public begins to choose the Macro alternative versions now instead of staying loyal to the innovators that revived the craft styles, then the small guys will dry up and blow away.

This would leave the market in the hands of the big macro producing giants again, and they might just as easily cease production of anything other than their light rice-beers again, having regained the market share and seeing no point in continuing to produce expensive smaller niche alternatives to their main brand recipe.

There shareholders might well demand that they do so, to drive expenses out of the business.

This is a concern because unlike most of the smaller houses they are all publicly traded entities and are beholden to shareholder interest.

Note:  Sam Adams Boston Beer Company is publicly traded and yet is defending the high cost basis of their quality ingredients and broad lineup as integral to their product and brand.  For the purposes of this conspiracy theory and snobbery, I'll classify them as a craft brew house, not a macro brew.

So, I try to buy the small craft brews as a way to keep the market for choice open and to force all the players to provide more than one style of beer.

However, my selection at the local grocer here is alas, limited and I'd tried everything else multiple times.  So, I gave in and grabbed an Amber Bock sixer.

I will only regret my decision if I hear that one of the three local micros is going out of business because I didn't purchase their product instead.