Last Saturday I was at the second rate package store (it happens to be in the parking lot of where my favorite 10 mile course starts) picking up some post-run basketball watching beers. The selection was pretty poor (it’s a really small place), nearly 100% macro, and about the best he ever carries is Sam Adams seasonal. Anyway, long story short…I grabbed something I hadn’t seen before…I sort of knew it wasn’t what it seemed – but I really wanted something different...anyway, Third Shift. Ends up to be Coors in disguise. It didn’t say Coors anywhere on it, and the packaging was just a little too slick to be a real micro, but I couldn’t be sure. It said it was from Texas somewhere, and had some name like Band of Brothers Brewing or something.

I bought it, but I had a bad feeling like something was amiss. Just in case, I grabbed some Sams Spring too. A few hours later, I saw a TV ad for it. Doh.

Looked it up on the internets to learn of its Coors parentage. Haven’t tried it yet. Just sitting in my fridge. I’m sure it’s okay, I just hate being fooled like that.

Rant over. Continue to drink wonderful beers, please…

Yes, that is becoming a big issue. Large breweries have several fake craft beer brands out on the market. It gets extra confusing now that the big brands are buying up many of the true craft breweries out there. For example, Anheuser-Busch Inbev now owns goose Island. And Sam Adams long-ago went over to the Darkside.

FTFY.

GI still makes a good Sophie, Jaques Peros and Matilda though. Certainly not Budweiserish (yet)

 

AB Inbev has ruined some decent beers.  It may only be a matter of time that GI gets soiled.

 

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-10-25/the-plot-to-destroy-americas-beer

I said this somewhere else on here, but InBev is Satan.  Perhaps Goose Island has not been affected yet but other than the Sophie and Matilda known to me, I've started walking by the ones I have not tried since I learned that InBev got its horns into them.

 

I said this somewhere else on here, but InBev is Satan.  Perhaps Goose Island has not been affected yet but other than the Sophie and Matilda known to me, I've started walking by the ones I have not tried since I learned that InBev got its horns into them.

I was talking with a bartender/buyer who works for Trappeze here in Athens. He's been on some trips where he met the GI brewers. If I remember correctly what he said, they now brew their mainline beers using AB facilities, but they still do special/small-batch releases at their original facility. AB pretty much leaves them alone to do their thing.

I guess I see the bigger problem being control over distribution, not AB getting involved in the craft market. Of course, the mega-brewers are the ones who fight to keep an archaic distribution system, so screw 'em anyway.

MTA: Haven't drunk Sam Adams in a long time and don't know what's up with them lately. But I remember reading that they shared several tons of hops during the shortage a few years ago and helped keep a number of craft breweries running.

 

 

In the words of my brother (who is a German citizen) and to which I agree - "No self respecting German would ever drink Becks destined for America. It's like drinking the sweat off a mule"

 

I cannot speak for Germany having not been there yet, but Austria shares some heritage and I must say I was extremely disappointed by the beer in Austria.  The main line beer in Austria was every bit as crappy as it is here.

 

Austrians are good at making deserts, Pez and schnapps (really good at schnapps). Beer not so much since they prefer Marzen which is a lighter version of decent Bavarian stock.

From what I could tell, this was the most popular beer around Vienna.  The Bud/Coors of Austria, if you will.  And it tasted like it.

We went to a beer garden and tried a larger variety....most were not very good at all.  I tried to get the marzen they had but our waiter...a real piece of work...outright refused to serve us anything on the menu HE didn't want us to try.  So we spent the night drinking European Budweiser, which was only marginally better than the mostly unrelated American swill.

But yeah, I generally don't drink Sam Adams these days...same reason. Plenty of true craft beers out there...

Me either, but it does have its place.  In many restaurants (chain type places) if it wasn't for SA the only choice would be the swill.  So while their beer is not the best out there it works in a pinch.