Tuesday, July 26, 2005

Beer Hits $1.29 a Gallon

Another war is looming. This war, unlike the other one, has SERIOUS consequences for those of us not stationed overseas. This war affects the price of beer. Fortunately, it looks like prices might start going down during the next seven months as breweries vie for a shrinking pool of beer drinkers. Word on the street is that consumers are drinking more wine (thanks Sideways!) and mixed drinks.

Here's an interesting (okay, not so much) quote from the article:
The survey also found that 69% of the wholesalers "have seen more growth" in sub-premium brands compared with a year ago.

Those brands include Anheuser-Busch's Natural Light, Molson Coors' Keystone Light and Miller's Milwaukee Best.

In addition, 80% of the wholesalers said they "saw an increase in marketing and promotions behind these brands during the second quarter," Herzog said.

If consumers are "trading down" to less expensive beers, she said, that also could hurt profits.


What I find interesting is that switching from, say, Bud Light to Natural Light is "trading down." Has no one figured out that "premium" beers like Miller, Coors and Budweiser are all crappy? They suck. Sure, you buy them when you have to bring alcohol to a BBQ where you don't like the guests, but otherwise, you have to go with actual beer.

This weekend, my good pal Annie turned middle age. She's now 26 years old. She had a birthday BBQ. I thought about getting a 12 pack of Bud or Miller, but I realized that friends would see me bringing a 12 pack of Bud or Miller. I have a reputation. So instead, I brought a 6 pack of Newcastle. I chose flavor and prestige over quantity.

A lot of the best beer is in Europe. It may or may not have something to do with the quality of Europe's hops. Here's what I propose: Preemptive war on Germany. We invade Germany, take control of Bavaria and install a puppet regime to lower prices of good beer.

Who's with me? We need to fight the beer makers over there so we don't drink bad beer over here.

7 comments:

VagabondLoafer said...

Americans in recent decades have increasingly “settled” for tasteless expensive American beer. The tiny micro-brewery revolution not withstanding. There is a science behind the brewing of beer. But it isn’t rocket science. Anyone that can bake a cake can crank out a small five or ten-gallon batch of beer that far surpasses the quality and taste of any mass-produced American beer. And good beer is cheap to make. Barley - a cheap cereal grain. Hops - a crazy vine that grows like kudzu. Add water and a pinch of yeast. Only four ingredients! Hell, you don’t even have to age it but a few weeks. The trick is not so much using “the finest, best, best, better than the rest” ingredients” like they say in commercials. But, just using enough of them. Don’t skimp. American brewers have seized upon the prohibition custom of getting wasted and its been with us ever since. We’re left with all of the alcohol and none of the flavor. To my knowledge Europeans never had our prohibition and thus drink better beer much more responsibly.

Treat Annie to a day at the city park with ice cream. Oldsters love going to the park! Walk slowly and remember to speak up into her good ear.

Now Laura, I’m going to get wasted with the aid of Britain’s Bass Pale Ale.

Butternut said...

Newcastle Brown Ale on tap is my fave. It's tastes weird in a bottle. The bubbles taste funny.

American beer comes in two flavors. Water and bitter ass. I hate 99% of American microbrews. Widemer Bros. Hefeweizen is good.

In the international beer Olympics the winner is: England.

I'm not much of a beer drinker though. More of a wine drinker and I've never seen Sideways (although it's on my Netflix list). But we're talking beer now.

26 is middle aged? I'm so screwed. Where's my cane? You whipper snappers and your cellular telephones and sliced bread!

Butternut said...

Widmer. I speeled it rong.

Amadeo said...

As long as Guiness is still available I'm good. I will add to this conversation that Corona sucks...alot of people hate when I say that but it's Mexican piss water...bleh...if 26 is middle aged then do I have to lie down to 23 now?

Roberto Iza Valdés said...
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Roberto Iza Valdés said...
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Roberto Iza Valdés said...
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