Dog has its Day

In a quite astonishing U-turn, self-appointed industry watchdog The Portman Group have abandoned their 8-month crusade against BrewDog's witty labelling.

Understandably, managing director and BBC Three star James Watt is pretty pleased with the outcome.

"It is a victory for common sense, the intelligence of the consumer, small independent producers and freedom of speech; it is a victory that BrewDog had to fight tooth and nail for. We refused to roll-over and be bullied into changing our packaging by what is basically a cartel funded by our larger competitors. We were determined and stood our ground to keep our dream and our business alive...

"We feel our victory, and the fact we were determined to stand our ground sends a strong message out about BrewDog to the rest of the sleepy, stuffy and mediocre UK brewing industry. If the result means that the Portman Group does not unjustifiably bully another independent producer then all the effort was worthwhile."

A full retort can be found here on the brewers' own blog.

Merry Christmas guys!

• For the sake of balanced reporting, Portman's press release can be found here though, be warned, it doesn't make for anywhere near as good reading.

What's Up, Bud?

So, InBev have bought out Anheuser-Busch eh? Well, well, well…

This makes InBev (to be rechristened Anheuser-Busch InBev in the wake of the deal) one of the 5 largest consumer product companies in the world, with a global beer volume of 460 million hectolitres per annum – equivalent to a staggering 80,950,800,000 pints.

Although the move was opposed by Anheuser-Busch CEO August Busch IV he was ultimately left with little choice in the matter; the family hold only 4% of the company share total, and were facing the possibility of legal action by other shareholders had they continued to resist the buyout.

In the end it took $52 billion (£26.1 billion) to secure the deal, equivalent to a share price of $70. August Busch IV will now sit on the board of directors with InBev, and Budweiser will be developed into what InBev are calling “a global flagship brand”.

So what does all this mean for the UK? Well, as far as I can see very little in real terms; it will certainly significantly strengthen InBev’s already powerful presence over here (their existing brands include Hoegarden, Leffe, Boddingtons, Bass, Murphys, Tennents and Skol), and we can probably expect even more damned Budweiser and Stella marketing, but for the lager drinkers it’ll be business as usual given the prevalence of these two core brands within the market already, and for the Real Ale community, well, it doesn’t make a blind bit of difference really – we won’t drink the stuff regardless of who owns it.

The USA on the other hand is a different matter; the land of Capitalism may smile upon hostile takeovers and mercenary mercantile manipulations when they’re being perpetrated by Good Ole’ Yankee companies, but they don’t seem to like it when the boot’s on the other foot. Already there are businesses refusing to stock any of the Budweiser range in protest at what is seen as filthy foreign conduct.

Ultimately though this is simply one more chapter in the continuing sad story of brand amalgamation and corrosion of identity within the world beer market; the only way to beat the system and ensure you can enjoy a beer with a character and identity all of its own is to keep on drinking real ale and be thankful for craft brewers who are too small to be of interest to the corporate sharks – after all, there’s always a chance that someone like InBev might decide to gobble up Greene King!

Pan-C

• InBev, based in Leuven, Belgium, traces its origins back to 1366. Today’s company, created through the merger of Interbrew, of Belgium, and AmBev, of Brazil, has more than 200 brands, including Stella Artois, Beck’s, Leffe, Hoegaarden, Skol, Quilmes and Jupiler. The Euronext-listed group employs 89,000 people in 30 countries across the Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific.



• Anheuser-Busch (AB) started life in 1860 when Eberhard Anheuser acquired the Bavarian brewery in St Louis, Missouri. His son-in-law Adolphus Busch, a German immigrant, joined the business in 1864. It is America’s biggest brewer, with 48.5 per cent of the market. Budweiser and Bud Light are the world’s biggest beer brands. It also owns stakes in Modelo, the Mexican brewer, and Tsingtao, the Chinese beer-maker.
  

(SOURCE: The Times, Tuesday July 15th, 2008)

Sticking it to The Man

I had to laugh when I saw this post on Beer Buzz today. It seems that, not content with outlawing any suggestion that alcohol is affiliated with good health, sexual prowess, wealth or success, it is now also forbidden to use any wit or humour in promoting booze.

Federal US alcohol regulators, the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, have ordered the Mount Shasta Brewing Co. in Weed, California to stop using the tag line "Try Legal Weed" on their bottle caps, as this could be "misleading" to consumers. A full report can be found here on the Fox News website. For the brewery's own take on the whole saga click here.

Unfortunately we can't just pass this off as an "only in America" oddity. This follows hot on the heels of BrewDog's recent spat with the Portman Group, reported last week by Stonch and A Swift One. In an attempt at censorship that Mary Whitehouse herself would be proud of, the do-gooder group took exception to the Aberdeenshire micro's unusually aggressive promotion strategy, complaining that phrases such as "Twisted Merciless Stout" used to describe their 8% Rip Tide associates its consumption with antisocial behaviour. Madness.

I really hope we don't end up going down the tobacco route of obscene health warnings and social exclusion. I don't fancy seeing a picture of a bloated liver or jaundiced old soak next to the beer description on every label.

Dubbel