Stand fast!

So Budweiser is at it again.

According to The Tampa Tribune, Anheuser-Busch has approached Cigar City’s Joey Redner with a potential offer.  Not surprising since Bud has been buying a lot of craft breweries as of late.  They just added Seattle’s Elysian Brewery to their growing trophy case, plopping them right next to Goose Island, Blue Point Brewing Company and Bend’s 10 Barrel. 

Why are they doing this?

One might think that Budweiser (AB) has seen the writing on the wall.  The Brewers Association cites that, in 2013, though overall beer sales dipped, craft beer sales rose by about 17%.  And though Craft is only about 8% of the total market, the positive trend is significant and, of course, would be of interest to a juggernaut like AB.  They realize that they must adapt and be able to go with the flow or possibly be left in the cold.  As it is, venerable Sam Adams, a pioneer in the craft beer movement, has felt the sting of being outpaced by the industry it helped to create, define and promote.

So maybe AB is buying up these crafties so they can better learn how to create good-tasting, well-made beer!  Maybe they want to work side-by-side with Goose Island and Elysian to see how they treat their drinkers (no longer customers per se but more like friends and family) and to figure out what it is, exactly, that makes them so popular and how they generate such a loyal and fervent following.  If they mean to wade into the craft beer world, they should do so with the proper training and tutelage so as to do it well.  

Oh, the naïveté!

Jonesey, a friend of mine from college who is an unabashed PDX zealot, felt that AB was snapping up these craft breweries to use as weapons.  If a store wanted Elysian Space Dust or more Goose Island Bourbon County Stout, they’d better give Bud and Bud Light Lime-a- Rita some more premium shelf space, goddammit!  He feels that there is no real interest by AB to learn how to make a good product but rather, that their move is to create leverage.

The lack of love for craft is incredibly evident in Bud’s Super Bowl  commercial.

I know I shouldn’t have linked to it because that gets it more views but as Sun Tzu wrote, “Know your enemy”.  The ad dispels whatever faint glimmer of hope I had that AB may be trying to better themselves as it blatantly takes a swipe at the Craft Beer Culture.  They stereotype craft beer geeks as mustachioed hipsters and ridicule how we tend to enjoy the appearance and even scent of our beers.  Hey, folks.  If you’re buying a $60 steak, don’t you bother to appreciate its beauty and savor all the nuances it has to offer? Doesn’t it’s marbling, juiciness, seared bark make it all the more enticing?  Don’t you anticipate so much more?

But if you’re eating a McDonald’s hamburger (and I’ve had my share), you just plow into it.  There’s no artistry.  You know what it is and you know what you’re getting and, though it technically meets the qualifications of what makes a burger, you know, in your soul, that it’s a far cry from what a burger can be.   

Get my analogy, Bud?  

The commercial isn’t a shot across the bow but rather a purposeful swing aiming at our jawline; one that misses and only served to raise the ire of an already feisty contingent.  And it makes Budweiser’s purpose clear:  they are in it for the money.

Rather than try to create a better product, they are trying, yet again, to bolster their bottom line. Rather than try to understand what makes a good beer and why more and more people are drinking it, they would rather resort to high school “Mean Girl” tactics and paint craft beer with a mocking brush.

Look at those geeks! They’re not like us, right Bro?  They’re uncool but we’re cool, right Bro?  Right?

These days, people are demanding more from the products they consume. They want things that are organic, or local. They want things that are fresh and things that taste good. Eating (and drinking) is an experience and cultural movements as evidenced by the popularity of food trucks, locavorism, farm-to-table menus and, yes, craft beer.  And AB can’t get hip to that.

They see their numbers sag and fret that the masses that pad their coffers may be tempted to try something new, something tasty.  They don’t want them to take Morpheus’ red pill.  They want to keep them in the dark.  And so they come up with that commercial.  And they buy craft breweries.  And they take measures to keep drinkers from evolving.  But it’s impossible.

We’re only 8% of a huge market but there is simply too much craft out there to be avoided.  And, for that matter, there are too many beer geeks to be avoided as well. Everyone knows a beer geek, or has a friend who knows a beer geek and, eventually, the Gospel of Craft will be preached unto them. 

And lo, a curtain was pulled from before their eyes

And taste they could for the first time the freshness of hops and sweetness of malt

And there was much rejoicing and singing and heralding of joy

For the manacles had been lifted and discarded

And lo, the Rapture…

OK. Maybe not as drastic an epiphany will occur but exposures, and change, are inevitable.  

So AB will continue to run commercials that are meant to hold onto their waning demographic of drinkers while simultaneously insulting the craft beer segment they hope to infiltrate.  And they buy up craft breweries to leverage their position in beer stores everywhere.  But what they don’t realize is that, delicious as Elysian’s and Goose Island’s brews may be, there are other craft beers that can easily step in to take their place.

 Their strategy will eventually fail (what are you gonna do, Bud?  Buy ‘em all?).  But I think craft brewers shouldn’t roll over so easily.  Sure, sure.  It’s easy for me to say as I quarterback from behind my computer screen.  And I’ve never had to deal with the temptation of a giant bag of money.  But I would hope that sometime (sometime soon?) someone will look the silver-tongued devil in the eye and just say, “No thanks.”

I’m not trying to lay this whole thing at your feet, Joey Redner, but you are at bat.  What’ll you do when that pitch comes?

Fight the good fight, people.