Growing microbrewer Goose Island has been purchased by Anheuser Busch, maker of the Budweiser brand, as larger brewers are buying up more of the craft brew industry. Photo Credit: Jesster79/Wikimedia Commons/CC-BY-SA

Anheuser Busch, the corporate megabrewing conglomerate, recently purchased Goose Island, a beer brewing company based in Chicago. Anheuser and chief rivals SABMiller and Molson Coors have been buying up microbreweries for years. Macrobreweries dominate the market for beer, prompting cynics to claim corporate America is out to spoil everyone’s fun.

Macrobrewing company purchases growing Chicago microbrewery

Anheuser-Busch, the macrobrewing family which includes the Budweiser beer brands, has just announced the purchase of the remaining interest in the Goose Island brewery in Chicago for $38 million, according to USA Today. Anheuser already has a distribution partnership with Fulton Street Brewery, the company which makes Goose Island beers, and the purchase essentially moves the Goose Island line in-house for the brewing giant. Anheuser bought 52 percent of Goose Island’s shares outright, and the remaining 42 percent from Craft Brewers Alliance. Craft Brewers Alliance Inc. is a conglomerate of smaller brew houses formed by the merger of Redhook and Widmer Brothers in 2008 that has since acquired other breweries, according to BizJournals. Anheuser-Busch, which was purchased several years ago by global beverage titan InBev, owns 32.5 percent of Craft Brewers Alliance Inc.

Largest companies dominate distribution

Goose Island, according to the Chicago Sun Times, is selling control to Anheuser to expand the company’s ability to distribute its beer to customers in the face of growing demand. This is not uncommon, as it is not often advertised to the public that brewers, distillers and vintners all depend on distribution companies to sell the beer, wine and spirits they produce to bars, restaurants and stores. Since large beverage companies such as Anheuser Busch/InBev, SABMiller and Molson-Coors have controlling interests in the distribution industry, small brewers such as Goose Island often have to sell themselves or partner with companies like Anheuser-Busch InBev and SABMiller in order to keep up with customer demand, as the current distribution system is mandated by law. Microbrewers, according to Reuters, accounted for 5 percent of beer sales in 2009.

Congress tries to help small brewers

The United States Senate currently has a bill before it called the Brewer’s Employment and Excise Relief Act, which would cut the excise tax on the first 60,000 barrels of beer produced by breweries in half, according to Reuters. The bill would also reduce excise taxes on breweries producing six million barrels per year or less. Currently, brewers pay a $7 excise tax per barrel on the first 60,000 barrels, and brewers that produce more than that pay a $18 per barrel excise tax. Brewers that produce six million barrels per year would pay only $16 under the new law, which would benefit craft breweries, but not corporate mega-brewers like Budweiser or Coors. A version for the House of Representatives is supposedly in the works. A bill of this sort would help to lower the price of craft beer, making it easier for those who enjoy craft brewed beer to do so.

Sources

USA Today

Chicago Sun Times

BizJournals

Reuters

A vintage Budweiser neon bar sign. (Photo Credit: CC BY-SA/Nancy ~/Flickr)

When Adolphus Busch introduced the Budweiser “Bohemian-style” pale lager in 1876, it quickly became a hit in America. According to a 2008 report the St. Louis Business Journal, beers by the Busch family corporation Anheuser-Busch held a 50.9 percent market share for all beers sold in the United States. Later that same year, however, Anheuser-Busch sold most of its stock to Belgian-Brazilian beer magnate InBev. Thus, America’s “King of Beers” became “de Koning van Bieren” and sales sagged. In order to bring drinkers back into the fold, reports St. Louis Today, Anheuser-Busch InBev will be giving away free beer – yes, free Budweiser – on Sept. 29 during National Happy Hour.

Free Budweiser and a massive advertising push

Participating bars and restaurants will distribute about 500,000 free Budweiser beer samples in 6- and 12-ounce sample sizes as local and state rules allow. The advertising campaign “Grab some Buds” will run Sept. 25 through Oct. 3 in a massive effort to raise Budweiser U.S. market share, which had dropped to 9.3 percent after a high of 26 percent in 1988. Drinkers in their mid-20s are the corporation’s primary target, as market studies have found that approximately 40 percent of beer drinkers aged 21 to 27 have never even touched de Koning van Bieren.

“We want to close that gap,” Anheuser-Busch InBev President Dave Peacock told St. Louis Today.

If you’re ever down in Texas, get the deep-fried beer hookup

If you’re of drinking age and happen to make it to the 2010 Texas State Fair, find Mark Zable. He’ll be preparing ravioli-sized deep-fried beer, which could (in moderation) make a fine complement to de Koning van Bieren or your beer of choice. Salty pretzel dough pockets are filled with beer, then dunked in 375-degree oil for 20 seconds. That’s long enough to cook the batter, but not long enough to burn away the alcoholic content of the filling. The London Telegraph reports that diners find the treat delicious, and that Zable is attempting to patent the cooking process, which may or may not include other secret ingredients.

For the record, Mark Zable uses Guinness. Sorry, Koning van Bieren.

Sources:

London Telegraph

St. Louis Business Journal

St. Louis Today

Wikipedia

What’s up with free beer?