Someone should pass a beer concerning this disturbing affort to american brewers!

(Burp)

.

I wonder how much McCain can really make an issue out of beer companies when he's married to a beer heiress.

First they came for our car companies, but I didn't speak because, well...American cars are crap. Then they came for our airlines, and I didn't speak because I don't care. But taking over Budweiser?

Cold, dead hand, Belgians. Cold, dead hand.

No need to worry; McCain has already made it clear that he will veto this merger. At least, I think that's what he said. Maybe he meant that if the merger goes through, he will veto every beer they try to sell afterwards. Damn, I guess he didn't make anything clear, after all.

I am somehow frightened by that poster at 4:20, even though a fear nothing else.

It will start with your beer; next your Jack Daniels will be made in a sweat shop in China.

It's not that hard to brew your own beer that's a lot better than Budweiser.

I fear nothing else.

(Jokes work better if you spell them right.

I have family that work for Busch and the workers are very concerned. There will be job loss as indicated the managers are there for cost cutting - meaning jobs - which usually means getting rid of older workers and those making the most tohire younger and cheaper.

InBev offers Anheuser Busch shareholders a lot of money...

Good. Because that's what I worry about every day that I go to work. How much the shareholders are making.

While there may be some cuts in employment, and locals worry about how good a corporate citizen a foreign owner will be, it is Buttwiper beer we're talking about. If it went away, who cares? However, European ownership might even improve their horrible product.

Bundweiser is American?

Well, at least the beer couldn't get any worse...

I wonder if this is what John McCain meant when he said he would veto your beer.

First they came for our car companies, but I didn't speak because, well...American cars are crap. Then they came for our airlines, and I didn't speak because I don't care. But taking over Budweiser?

Cold, dead hand, Belgians. Cold, dead hand.

In the whole history of beer, I'd say the American contribution has been pretty much an embarassment. (Maybe I'd amend that if microbrew started here.) The truth is, Budweiser makes better beer commercials than beer.

After all, who better to take a stand on this than a guy who dumped his first wife 30 years ago in order to marry a wealthy heiress ...

I would like to establish here and now that the proper term for this is "gingrich," as in "30 years ago McCain gingriched his first wife." I admit that the need for a verb meaning "to divorce one's spouse in order to marry a younger trophy spouse, when original spouse is in hospital or near-hospitalized condition" doesn't come up that often. But since there is such a perfect term for it, we should make full and generous use of it when the opportunity arises.

Obama's a PBR man, anyway.

Evan Newmark:

If Obama weighs in on the “battle over Bud” with more anti-free trade sentiment, McCain should take the opportunity to make a stand. Just like Margaret Thatcher did.

First, the only misnomer stupider than "free trade" is "anti-free trade." Trade is managed -- and it isn't managed to benefit workers.

Second, am I the only one who immediately thinks of the Falklands?

It isn't the first time that feriners took over the lil company:

From Wiki:

"Anheuser-Busch began as a small brewery located in St. Louis, Missouri. In 1860, Eberhard Anheuser, a German-born prosperous soap manufacturer, became owner of the struggling brewery."

Anheuser Busch

Fine, thanks. How's yours?

I would like to establish here and now that the proper term for this is "gingrich," as in "30 years ago McCain gingriched his first wife."

Yes, but will there be any talk of Santorum* this election season?

*Caution -- not for the feint of heart.

Traditionally American beer has well, um, er, sucked due to the legacy of Prohibition. There was a tradition of well crafted beers and much institutional knowledge was lost as many breweries went under due to the inability to brew beer for sale. The need to transport beer cross county also lead to crap brews....

The microbrew movement did begin in the US -- Europeans always had mom and pop brewing making craft brews in small batches for their local pubs. I don't drink Bud, I'm a beer snob but I can't possibly see how the takeover good be good for the average Anheuser Busch employee. Good god, are the business writer that dense not to realize this?!

So the WSJ is calling for McCain to use his political influence to smooth the way for a corporate takeover that McCain will personally benefit from in a way that's very easy to explain to voters?

They really do want to lose in November, don't they?

BEER WARS...

With the increasing cost of grains, the worry of national security strategists should be about beer riots. Pete's Wicked Ale is no longer affordable, and that motivates society's discontents to act out their DT's politically.

Although Mesopotamia may have been the birth place of beer, perhaps America should have continued its occupation of northern Europe after WW II to ensure plentiful supplies of the proof of God's existence.

Traditionally American beer has well, um, er, sucked due to the legacy of Prohibition. There was a tradition of well crafted beers and much institutional knowledge was lost as many breweries went under due to the inability to brew beer for sale.

Actually, traditionally, American beer didn't, well, um, er suck. Prohibition had nothing to do with "knowledge lost." That was only a few years, for goodness sakes. What happened, did all the Germans who had emigrated to the Midwest return to the Fatherland in preparation for WWII?

A friend has a picture of his grandfather seated at a drinking establishment of some sort in St. Louis prior to or just after Prohibition. The table is populated with empty and partially consumed bottles of Bud in clear glass. I know this to be the case because those bottles not empty contained dark beer. Beer didn't go to hell in the U.S. until after WWII, and reached is nadir in the 1970s.

The microbrew movement did begin in the US -- Europeans always had mom and pop brewing making craft brews in small batches for their local pubs.Posted by: HokieAnnie

Didn't you just contradict yourself? Aren't U.S. micro breweries, particularly those with their own pubs, pretty much like what has existed in much of Europe for about four-hundred years?

i don't know what this has do do with the presidential campaign, but gosh, i hope cindy isn't adversely affected economically.

your pal,
blake

I can't manage to get too worked up about this. A-B is just getting a taste of their own medicine, for one thing, since their entire business since the mid-twentieth century has been to buy out and/or destroy all the local and regional brands in the US. They got very cocky, because their brands have done very well, but like the rest of the big breweries in the US (the few that are left) their sales have been flat for years and they've been cannibalizing each other's customers without creating any new ones. Craft brewers and imports have been chipping away at A-B, although they were originally dismissed as being irrelevant, and A-B has passed up many opportunities to get into that market properly.

A-B has been throwing its weight around for years and suddenly all that power is disappearing and a bigger guy is on the block. InBev has an enormous brand portfolio including some beers comparable to Bud and a lot of truly excellent beers. Personally, I'd rather trust a Belgian company on the subject of beer than Augie Busch IV.

Didn't you just contradict yourself? Aren't U.S. micro breweries, particularly those with their own pubs, pretty much like what has existed in much of Europe for about four-hundred years?

The movement to modern craft brewing really did get started in the US (mostly the west coast and PNW), which was an attempt to emulate what was available in Europe (not that Europe hasn't had its own trends toward mediocre beer). The microbrewery movement in the US sparked an answering movement in the UK, Belgium and Germany where traditional styles were fading out or had disappeared altogether. And, no, brewpubs were not particularly common in Europe 25 years ago.

The microbrewery movement in the US sparked an answering movement in the UK, Belgium and Germany where traditional styles were fading out or had disappeared altogether. And, no, brewpubs were not particularly common in Europe 25 years ago. Posted by: gummitch

You and Hokie are arguing semantics. If the Latona Pub and Big Time Brewery and Ale House aren't pretty much the same kind of establishment as you'd find in a village in Somerset (and have found for decades), I don't know what is.

http://www.3pubs.com/3Pubs.html

http://www.bigtimebrewery.com/

Hell, Anheuser Busch might get bought by the real Budweiser; the folks from Ceske Budejovice in Czechia found at http://www.budvar.cz/index.html

Now THAT would be something ... at least in the realm of good taste. Though an Urquell trumps the Czech Budweiser anytime it would nevertheless be a triumph for man.

Absent that this might bring an end to all the st00pid lawsuits AB has filed against Budejovice, trying to get the Czech dudes who's been brewing beer in Budweis (the original german name for Ceske Budejovice) for like 700-800 years sentenced for trademark infringements.

One can dream, right?

It's just another example of cut-throat big beer monopolization. Pretty soon we'll be paying 10 dollars a can and congress will outlaw the retail sale of yeast and malt.

Miller is already owned by the South Africans and no American seems to care. So I doubt Americans will care about this takeover.

a new-and-improved management team....

Oooh, wow, how wonderful. Seriously, unless your previous managers sucked, how is this a boon to the workers??? Does labor really have it so bad in America that people try to pass stuff like this off on us as ice cream and candy? Unfortunately, yes.

Kevin's conclusion on all the politics of the deal sounds ok to me, though. Aren't foreign takeovers pretty routine? This isn't selling our port security to Dubai or anything, it's just an over-rated beer company that has way too much power, like Biff Tannen in 2025.

McCain said he would only veto the beers that have earmarks. Are there any earmarks on Anheiser Busch beer? I don't think so.

Er, 2015, that is.

Hat-tip to Wikipedia.

> but I can't possibly see how the takeover good
> be good for the average Anheuser Busch employee.

Actually it won't be good for the stockholders either. InBev's financials - what is known of them anyway - are absolutely crappy and they are nowhere near paying off their last 2-3 acquisitions. That is why they are after A-B at this moment: the top executives need another big acquisition to stave off the call for the heads for another 5 years.

> Hell, Anheuser Busch might get bought by the
> real Budweiser; the folks from Ceske Budejovice
> in Czechia found at
> http://www.budvar.cz/index.html

You might want to read up on the actual history of the Busch family, not just the version that the beer snobs peddle. I don't like the current A-B Bud myself, but as I read the history they behaved as honorably (for a large corporation) in that 150-year dispute.

Cranky

Whenever the Wall Street Journal talks about how much workers will benefit from some takeover or other you can bet your worthless 401k that the only group who will truly benefit is Wall Street, and it will be a disaster for the workers who have provided the the real value. The same goes for tax cuts, bailouts, corporate welfare, etc. The financial parasites will never stop until the only thing left of the middle class will be bones.

Well, my favorite beer is...Hoegaarden (I fucking love it). But I am currently drinking a Busch Light. Times are tough...

I guess I have a couple contributions here, as I do and have brewed my own beer, and have drunk a fair amount of beer in my time:
1. Not about beer, but I'd like to know where the cost-cutting would or might take place. If it's upper management, or otherwise restricted to the top 10% of earners, I'd feel better about the prospects of the folks who actually participate in getting beer to me.
2. As a beer-o-phile who has traveled to Belgium for the express purpose of drinking Belgian beers - I mean, they make, like, rilly rilly good beer, 'kay?!?
3. Insofar as quality - US craft brews have won dozens of gold medals in the last decade in international competitions, in addition to the many silver and bronze medals.
Including several in Germany, which has stringent laws about what can actually be called "beer". There's some damn good beer in North America, too. Get what's made locally, regardless of where you are ...

R. Porrofatto: The financial parasites will never stop until the only thing left of the middle class will be bones.

Then it's the fertilizer business.

elmo, I saw you coming out of the Hoegaarden last week. But mum's the word.

I would like to see the Belgian or German government take over Anheuser-Busch. Sovereign wealth funds are all the vogue due to the weak dollar. This would be a really interesting twist.

The saddest part of our collective demise is that the welfare of Americans will be nil far sooner that the demise of America the brand. I personally would like to have the rights to the Bud LABEL, vs the beer. So does InBev, but they have more to offer than a very small amount of USD like myself. That they can make billions off of the bubbas of our country while the bubbas chug down gallons of carbonated piss water and back slap over not being "euro", is the ultimate irony.

"And with John Q. Public reeling from $4 a gallon gas and falling home prices, it takes a courageous politician to stand up for the one policy that is indisputably the right thing for America — free trade.

But this is exactly what the next U.S. President should do. This country has been built on free trade, and its future depends on it as well."

Bullshit, this country and this fucking prick's enitre trust fund was built on unfair trade agreements, starting with the US government vs the indigenous people of what we decided is the "united states". Free trade is not free when its your fellow man or womans job and sense of self worth are what are spent. Thats like saying I got "free" money by mugging a wealthy person, becuase I was not personally hurt.

I guess we all have entree to start talking about beer now? :D

Everything is about the "stockholders"
Geez, who cares about stockholders!
I care about the workers. Is this going to benefit them? I so doubt it.
Like others have said, it's all about Wall Street. I don't care how "Bud" tastes. I care about the people who are making the beer and have jobs. I care that they have healthcare (something I don't have) and I care that they can feed and take care of themselves and their family.
What is this going to do for the workers in our failing country.

Who are the stormtroopers in the beer wars? The guys who brew cheapo beer?

And what is the Death Star?

Is it Anheuser Busch corporate headquarters?

In any case, his main point is that "it would be politically untenable for Obama to welcome a takeover," so John McCain should take the bait and position himself as a champion of free trade, even if it does mean letting a Belgian company run by a Brazilian dude take control of good 'ol American Budweiser.

Who cares? Budweiser is a horrible beer. Nothing this foreign company could do to it could possibly make it worse. Heck, the Belgians make, arguably, the BEST beer in the world. Maybe they could introduce the average Schmo to what real beer tastes like.

Budweiser is to beer what

Wonderbread is to bread and

Yuban is to coffee

The city of St. Louis and its suburbs relies strongly on both the employment provided by A-B as well as the extensive charitable contributions the company makes. If McCain wants to support a foreign takeover, which would be a disaster for the people of that city, he's welcome to, but it might cost him Missouri.

Oh, and while Belgium is known for great beer, InBev isn't so much; their Stella Artois is probably the most mediocre beer that the country produces (though they do own a few excellent brews that they have not yet ruined). The reason for the prominence of Stella, by the way, was that the InBev chair was annoyed at the huge success of a mediocre Dutch beer (you know the one), did a bit of marketing research and found out that a lot of people go for bland, watery lagers. Hence Stella.

HokieAnnie and Gummitch, of course the consolidation of breweries in the UK was answered not by microbreweries, but by the local breweries (30 miles radius) answering the challenge with taste and quality. CAMRA, anyone? Microbreweries are for the tasters, not consumers.

So the semantic of "microbrewery" is extremely deceiving in terms of the answer to be able to drink a draft bitter better than the big companies product.

The popular drafts and bottles in this country -- as stated above by HokieAnnie -- declined because of prohibition, and they all suck as far as beer is concerned. As far as I remember, there were 900 breweries in NYC before prohibition. I know you Yanks love bottles, but a cask beer has so much more complexity, generally speaking. Every beer has a different attraction. If, as I do, you love a good complex cheap pint, Summit Brewery of St. Paul comes as close to perfection as I'd hope for semi-large production. In the UK I could recommend Adnams, Greene King, Youngs, Morrells, Fullers and a host more that have been around longer than any microbrew here and have survived the industry conglomeration of the 60s and 70s by becoming ultra-competitive and tasty.

So, don't talk out your arse about beer. Microbrews are great. What's really great is the survival of viable middle-sized breweries. In the UK CAMRA did that. Here in the US there are fewer mid-sized breweries every year and many more small and over-priced micros. There's no tradition or loyalty to good, cheap beer.

Joe Buck, I used to go to the Queen's Club Tennis Tournament in the 70s and I'd swear that Stella Artois (they sponsored the tournament) was a fuller, sharper taste than the insipid taste now. ?

I forgot to say that Anheuser-Busch tried, a few years ago, to sue the original Czech Budweiser for their own name. Who, other than a US company, would have the gall? Ugly American, anyone? They failed.

As a result, in Europe, Budejovice (Budweis) Czech Republic put out a (very much cheaper) beer labelled "Bud" (still 7.6% alcohol, i.e a real pilsner) but definitely less tasty than their brand leader.

Go to their home CZ base. The original Budweiser.

Last word before bed:

Like sneakers with a vaste overhanging advertising budget, we have a low quality product sold as a quality purchase. Bud, Miller and Michelob have been branded in exactly the same way as cigarettes. Not by quality or taste but association. Sports and team association particularly. Coors, the little attention I pay, to fresh air, clean water (cigarettes light), and sports.

None of them, none of them actually are selling their actual product.

I may have over-stretched here, but tell me why I'm wrong.

If this happens and things go true to form, U.S. workers of Budweiser will take a beating. This has been the norm for deals of this type for quite some time. The typical case involves taking dollars from workers and giving them to shareholders. It's that simple and just as obvious.

This just got more interesting, from a cultural perspective.
There are two short blurbs in the What's News section on the front page of today's WSJ.
Anheuser is looking into an arrangement with Mexico's Grupo Modelo as a means of fending off the bid by InBev.

It's clearly a nefarious plot to slowly introduce good tasting beer to unsuspecting Americans.

It will never work.

Kevin,

Of course this merger can also be a tax scam. Having a foreign parent presents the US subsidiary all kinds of opportunities to move income out of the US and away from the tax collectors.

Regarding Stella, my friends love it, and I occasionally have one with them. It doesn't taste as watery to me as Bud. But I wonder if it is made with all malt (barley) or if, like the American lager de rigueur, it is comprised of 40-50% rice and/or corn. That is the most telling difference in "watery" versus "hmmm, flavor" in lagers.

It's funny how opinionated people are on beer flavor. I have been brewing for 17 years, and I can remember some blind taste tests that our homebrew club held. Think you really know what you're drinking? Try a blind test. It may surprise you.

FWIW local water has a lot to do with the distinctive taste of locally-produced beers. No matter where the particular A-B brewery, though, Budweiser all tastes the same. I think of it as the "default standard."

Cue the music

Bud Light presents: Real American Heroes
(Real American Heroes)

Today we salute you, Mister Big Company Corporate Board Member
(Mister Big Company Corporate Board Member)

You started a glorious career with only one thing in mind. To reach the top. And clawed your way up the corporate ladder, stepping on, I don’t know how many people to get there.
(Get out of my way)

It takes a lot of really hard work to turn a five foot cubicle into a fifty foot long table. And while your coworkers were being thrown out onto the street, you didn’t falter one bit. Not you.
(I made it)

It must be comforting to know that when the employees merely sell the goods, you can buy and sell the company.
(The whole enchilada)

Anyone can learn how to read spreadsheets and count profits. But it takes real talent to light up a big cigar and make those really tough decisions.
(Whatever, Dude)

So polish up that parachute and crack open a cold one ‘o surrogate of the shareholder.
(Wax on…)
Because when it comes to No. 2; well, that’s really for everyone else.
(Number two)
Bud Light Beer, Anheuser-Busch, St. Louis Missouri

Budweiser is American?

Posted by: Brojo on June 12, 2008 at 4:52 PM | PERMALINK

Budweiser is beer???

American beer tastes cheap and watery because of American beer drinkers' tastes. American beers are brewed for people who slam down a 12-pack at one sitting; you just can't do that with a good European beer (or a quality microbrew) because after two or three you'll feel full. That unique American invention, the "light" beer, wasn't invented because the breweries were concerned with their customers' calorie count.

The old cliche is mostly true: Europeans drink for pleasure, while Americans drink to get drunk.

dr. s: Europeans drink for pleasure, while Americans drink to get drunk.

I used to drink for the pleasure of getting drunk. Of course, that could be why I had to stop.

Q. How is American beer like screwing in a canoe?

A. They're both f-ing close to water.

Cheshire11 wins the thread, IMO.

I wrote Bundweiser. :)

The city of St. Louis and its suburbs relies strongly on both the employment provided by A-B . . .

Not really, especially when compared to other "national brands." Budweiser employs about 6,000 people in the St. Louis area. Locally, Boeing and Microsoft employ tens of thousands. Hell, Nordstrom employs more than 6,000 people in greater Seattle. St. Louis has lost more jobs than that in the last 18-months or so.

. . . as well as the extensive charitable contributions the company makes. If McCain wants to support a foreign takeover, which would be a disaster for the people of that city, he's welcome to, but it might cost him Missouri. Posted by: Joe Buck

This is the question - with foreign ownership, will A-B still be the same corporate citizen it is now?

I'm a POW of the beer wars, I'd say, but I'm scratching and clawing my way home to freedom.

After the take over, beer workers in St. Louis will be sadder bud wiser.

From an old Mad Magazine joke.)

It's not a trade deal, it won't send jobs overseas

Really? Because mergers tend to be accompanied by (1) slicing headquarters jobs from the affected firms, often moslty from the acquired one, and (2) consolidating headquarters functions to one location, most often the headquarters of the acquiring firm.

#2 would seem to send jobs currently performed in America overseas.

Obama's a PBR man, anyway.

I think you're confusing him with Kerry.

Stella can't hold a candle in 'bland' or 'watery' to the beer my old friends used to call "breakfast in a red and blue can."

Bud does been Curs all to shit, tho.