Back to Ron Pattinson’s suggestion that we shouldn’t expect pale lagers to dominate the world for another 100 years.
That Anheuser-Busch InBev may be shopping the Rolling Rock brand brings to light this fascinating fact: Between 2003 and last year, Rolling Rock production fell by 45.7 percent to 475,000 barrels.
Dang, that’s taking a lesson from the buffalo.
(Thanks to Jack Curtin for pointing to this story.)
Do you think you know where in the beer world this photo was taken?
Please leave your answer as a comment.
I’ll be up front and tell you I posted this picture just because I think it is pretty. I can see why many of the brewers I know get excited about copper vessels.
The St. Louis Business Journal has the scoop on what a bunch of men until recently employed by Anheuser-Busch are up to.
Five months after Belgium-based InBev completed its acquisition of Anheuser-Busch Cos., former senior and mid-evel brewery executives are launching new companies, teaching at universities around the world and taking their skills to other organizations eager to tap their expertise.
For instance, Doug Muhleman, the brewery’s former group vice president of brewing operations and technology, and his wife are growing grapes in Sonoma County.
The Business Journal reports other former brewery employees are taking more time before making their next move. Nearly all of A-B’s 17 former strategy committee members have left the company. Roughly 2,400 salaried employees, or about 40 percent of its St. Louis workforce, took early retirement buyouts or pink slips in December and January.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Anheuser-Busch InBev NV is exploring the sale of the Rolling Rock brand.
You may recall that InBev sold the Rolling Rock brand to A-B in 2006, only to end up owning it again after buying A-B last year.
One possible suitor could be North American Breweries Inc., owned by New York private-equity firm KPS Capital Partners LP. KPS formed its beer company in February after reaching deals to acquire two upstate New York beer companies: High Falls Brewing Co. and Labatt USA. It bought Labatt USA, which imports and markets Canada’s Labatt Blue, from Anheuser-Busch InBev for an undisclosed price. A KPS spokesman declined to comment.
You may also remember that Labatt used to own Rolling Rock. Or not, because this has little to do with the beers you and I drink.
So I was looking for this quote from Fred Eckhardt:
“Winemakers are so serious. Beermakers are frivolous.”
Which sent me into my archives — deep, this one was stored on a portable drive and in a version of Microsoft Word old enough I had to “import” the story. Once I’d gone to that trouble I decided to post this article I wrote for All About Beer magazine in 2001.
Another line I’d forgotten: Michael Jackson described homebrewers as the “the shock troops of the beer revolution.”
Also note: Maureen Ogle and Charlie Papazian continue to add to their posts about the early days of the American Homebrewers Association.