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Top Ten Tuesday: Top 10 Brewing Nations

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For my third Top 10 list I thought I’d tackle something global. For many years, decades and longer, which countries were known for their beer was fairly staid, and didn’t change much at all. And for most of that time, the U.S. wouldn’t likely make the list at all. But over the last thirty years, that’s all changed, I’d argue. Many of the same players are around, including many nations with rich and long brewing traditions, but there are also many new players, who were not really known for their beer until very recently. So here are my choices for the Top 10 Brewing Nations, which I’ve based on the overall quality of their beer, along with the diversity and innovation they bring to it. Anyway, here’s List #3:
 

Top 10 Beer Countries
 

Czech Republic

It’s hard to ignore the Czech Republic. Not only do they have the highest per-capita consumption of beer, but the Eastern European nation also contains the birthplace of pilsner. But most of what we get from there has a certain sameness to it, not that most of it isn’t of a high quality. I’ve tried some of their more obscure beers that have been hand-carried to the states and while there have been a few interesting examples that are different, not enough to make me rank them above number ten.

Italy

When you think of Italy, it’s usually their wine or food that comes to mind. Up in the northern part of Italy, near the German border, there have been some fine, largely obscure, breweries making decent lagers for many years. But in the last two decades, their craft scene throughout the country has really taken off and is, if hasn’t already, about to reach a tipping point. Using many unusual and local ingredients, Italian craft brewers are truly making some outstanding and unique beers.

Sweden

Sweden is another European country that saw something spectacular going on in America and decided there was no reason they couldn’t make beer just as great. They were right. The rest of Scandinavia is doing well these days, too, but Sweden, I think leads the pack there.

Australia

While most people think of Foster’s when they contemplate beer down under, it’s not even a popular brand there. And while there are plenty of bland Foster’s-like beers to disdain, there is also much to love that’s flying under the radar. They have a long craft tradition that’s nearly as old as our own, though very little of it reaches us, sad to say.

Scotland

Scotland, much like their neighbor to the south, has a long tradition of fine ales. Like England, their story lately has been one of mergers and closures, but with a growing craft scene that includes such rising stars as Brew Dog and Harviestoun Brewery, though the latter has been purchased by Caledonian. Plus, Traquair House is still there. As long as that’s true, Scotland will remain in my heart, or at least my liver.

Canada

Like America, Canada suffers from having a few bland macro beers that everyone identifies with the country’s beer. But there is a wonderful array of small craft brewers toiling away in more obscurity than they should be in a more just world. Unibroue alone makes me love Canadian beer, though there are plenty of examples of it being beyond Molson, Labatt’s and Moosehead.

Germany

When you read the next selection, this may seem contradictory, but being immersed in Germany’s beer culture is a wonderful experience. Their styles are perfectly suited to the national cuisine so that when you’re there it’s hard to imagine the beer being any better. That seems especially true in the small town breweries, many of which, while struggling, are still around. Many of those beers are hard or impossible to find outside Germany, which is a tragedy. And it’s wonderful to see how seriously the Germans take their brewing heritage. You don’t see that as strongly in many places.

England

This was a tough one, but I have a soft spot for ales. I certainly love a fine pilsner and can appreciate many types of lagers, I love the flowery flavors of a warm, especially cask-conditioned, ale. Ales were, o course, some of the first beers I enjoyed that were beyond the bland lagers that I grew up with and were some of the first craft beers I enjoyed, too. And while England’s beer scene is on the ropes these days, many new small craft brewers are emerging there, as well, riding to the rescue, as it were. Many of my favorite styles are all ales that began in England’s rich traditions.

Belgium

A decade ago, this would have been my number one. Belgium certainly used to hold the title for most styles brewed in a single country. I suspect there’s still pretty close, given that so may of their beers are completely unique and different from one another. It’s often hard to even pin down the style of a Belgian beer, not that there’s really any point to trying. But the sheer number of truly world-class wonderful beers makes Belgium my favorite brewing nation outside my home.

United States

There was a time, not so long ago, when this idea would have been laughable. But not anymore. I may be a little biased, but there is now more diversity in American beer than any other country in the world. It may be a small part of the total sold, but craft beer in terms of its quality is now second to none. Where once U.S. brewers followed other nations’ brewing traditions, we are now setting the pace, with several burgeoning brewing renaissances taking place around the world who are looking to us for inspiration. Craft beer is one of the things Americans can genuinely still be proud of.

 
Note: This was a tough one to rank for the bottom five. Some countries I considered, but ultimately left off the top ten include The Netherlands, Ireland, Austria and Japan. All of those are making progress but still do suffer from a lack of innovation and diversity, at least for now. Each have examples that that is starting to change. It’s possible that any of those could have been substituted for my choice for number ten but I had to make a decision in the end. As for Scandinavia, Denmark and Norway are also doing quite well, I just felt that Sweden had the edge on them, at least for now.

 

Also, if you have any ideas for future Top 10 lists you’d like to see, drop me a line.
 

Beer, A Week At A Time

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I love the growing trend of entire weeks devoted to celebrating local beer or at least beer in a specific place. This is a terrific trend that should be encouraged, and I say that not just because I’m involved with organizing SF Beer Week. With local beer scenes having their own unique personalities and dynamics, each has the potential of being an organic celebration that takes on as many forms as there are places willing to host one. And that means we’re moving away from the relative similarity of the beer festival to more imaginative, inventive and ultimately personal ways of presenting beer to the converted and unconverted alike. But I think the beer week concept, with its reliance on a diversity of events, has the greatest potential of introducing hordes of new people to craft beer who might otherwise not have attended a beer festival. With literally something for everyone, this seems like a great way to reach new people and introduce them to craft beer. The interest is definitely there, and these beer weeks provide an attractive venue.

As far as I can tell, there are now nearly a dozen “official” beer weeks and at least three more “unofficial” ones. And I also understand a Chicago Beer Week is being discussed. But there are, of course, 52 weeks in a year and so there’s plenty of room for more beer weeks and no reason we can’t fill up the year with beer celebrations. After all, every day is a good day for a beer.

 

Beer Weeks

  1. SF Beer Week (February 6-15, 2009)
  2. Philly Beer Week (March 6-15, 2009)
  3. Charlotte Beer Week (April 17-25, 2008**)
  4. CBC Week (unofficial*; April 19-25, 2009)
  5. Seattle Beer Week (May 7-17, 2009)
  6. American Craft Beer Week (May 12-18, 2008**)
  7. Beerden Week, Japan (May 25-31, 2008**)
  8. Indiana Beer Week (July 10-19, 2009)
  9. Ohio Brew Week (July 14-19, 2008)
  10. Portland Beer Week (unofficial*; July 23-26, 2009)
  11. New York Craft Beer Week (September 12-21, 2008**)
  12. GABF Week (unofficial*; September 21-27, 2009)
  13. Baltimore Beer Week (October 9-18, 2009)
  14. Syracuse Beer Week (November 2-8, 2008**)

 

If you know of a beer week that’s missing from this list, please drop me a line. Thanks.
 

There are also other types of beer weeks, more celebratory in nature, like holidays rather than a series of events. Here are the ones I’ve come across. Please drop me a line if you know of any others.
 
Weekly Beer Holidays

 

  • 3rd Week of February: Community Pubs Week (UK; sponsored by CAMRA) [now retired]
  • Last Week of February: National Pubs Week (UK; sponsored by CAMRA)
  • 2nd Week of April: National Cask Week (UK)
  • 3rd Week of August: Ranger Beer Week (Tulsa, Oklahoma)
  • 2nd Week of December: Lager Beer Week
  • 2nd Week of December: Organic Beer Week (UK)

 

Footnotes:

* The three “unofficial” weeks are during other beer events that last nearly a week. The main events spawn side events that rival the primary reason people go to these festivals or conferences. So in that sense, they become beer weeks all their own, even though they’re not organized as such. These are often more for the trade, that is people with some involvement in the beer industry. This also makes them bad weeks for a community beer week to take place, because too many brewers and media would be unable to attend, so I think it’s good to block them out for that reason, as well, at least in terms of planning other beer weeks.

** 2009 dates have not yet been announced.

Note: The top graphic was adapted from the New York Craft Beer Week logo. I hope they won’t mind.
 

Sierra Nevada To Make Torpedo IPA Year Round

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Sierra Nevada Brewing is justly famous for their use of big, aromatic hops and helped to popularize Cascade hops in the 1980s. But as palate shift has moved the bar every higher, they’ve never had a packaged IPA, only the occasional draft offering. That’s about to change with the release of Torpedo IPA in six-packs beginning at the end of this month.

From the press release:

Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. is proud to announce the release of Torpedo Extra IPA as the newest addition to its year-round roster of beers. This is the first full-production IPA to come from the brewery and the first change in its year-round lineup in over a decade.

Why did it take so long to introduce a year-round IPA? The brewery has spent years experimenting, searching for a way to highlight bold flavors without resorting to hop extracts or pellets. Sierra Nevada has brewed with 100% whole-cone hops for 29 years with the belief that it makes a better, more natural tasting beer. Whole-cone hops offer subtle flavors and complexities that are unavailable in processed form. Rather than sacrifice flavor, they invented a way to do it better.

Torpedo celebrates the brewery’s dedication to 100% whole-cone hops all the way through the brewing process. The name itself comes from a device called the “hop torpedo” that was conceived, designed and developed at the brewery. The result is a revolutionary method of dry-hopping that harnesses the vital hop oils and resins that lead to an unusually flavorful and aromatic beer featuring the full, nuanced range of spicy complexity that hops have to offer. Designed with a mixture of hop varietals, each with their own unique character, Torpedo Extra IPA has layers of flavors ranging from citrus, herbs, black pepper and pine, with delicate hints of tropical fruit.

Torpedo is an assertive American IPA deep reddish-gold in color, with a smooth and bready malt presence and over-the-top hop aromas. The beer has a solid bitterness and a massive hop flavor, yet remains easy drinking with a pleasant dry finish. Torpedo Extra IPA will be available for hop fans nationwide in 6-pack bottles starting late January 2009.

 

The Donut Theory

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Warning: this post has nothing to do with beer. It’s about the media, politics, economics and other mundane stuff that makes the world work the way it does. Those are all subjects I revel in but usually try to restrict to talking about only if they have some relation to beer. But occasionally I stray. This is one of those times, because I found this too interesting not to share. If this isn’t something you’re interested in, please feel free to ignore it. We will return to our regularly scheduled beer posts again shortly.

If you’re a regular reader here you know I’m skeptical that the mainstream media has our best interests at heart or is making any real effort to inform the populace in an honestly open manner. Big media is itself big business and so they tend to report in such as way that serves those same interests. I think the model of how this works, as described in the book Manufacturing Consent, by Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky, is largely correct. But Glen Greenwald, writing on Salon, brought to light another very interesting way of looking at how the media functions. It originally came from a book examining how the media covered the Vietnam War. That book, by Daniel C. Hallin, was titled Uncensored War: The Media and Vietnam. In it, at Page 117, is the Holy Grail, or in this case the Holy Doughnut. Using a very simple diagram, Hallin neatly describes a continuum with three spheres of public opinion and how they affect public debate, especially by the media. Jay Rosen, a professor at NYU’s Journalism School, has written a wonderful analysis of Hallin’s model at his blog PressThink. Entitled Audience Atomization Overcome: Why the Internet Weakens the Authority of the Press. I highly recommend it. It’s slightly different than, but entirely compatible with, Manufacturing Consent. In a nutshell, here’s Rosen’s description.

It’s easily the most useful diagram I’ve found for understanding the practice of journalism in the United States, and the hidden politics of that practice. You can draw it by hand right now. Take a sheet of paper and make a big circle in the middle. In the center of that circle draw a smaller one to create a doughnut shape. Label the doughnut hole “sphere of consensus.” Call the middle region “sphere of legitimate debate,” and the outer region “sphere of deviance.”

 

 

Here’s how Rosen explains each of the three spheres.
 

1. The Donut Hole or Sphere of Consensus

The sphere of consensus is the “motherhood and apple pie” of politics, the things on which everyone is thought to agree. Propositions that are seen as uncontroversial to the point of boring, true to the point of self-evident, or so widely-held that they’re almost universal lie within this sphere. Here, Hallin writes, “journalists do not feel compelled either to present opposing views or to remain disinterested observers.” (Which means that anyone whose basic views lie outside the sphere of consensus will experience the press not just as biased but savagely so.)

Consensus in American politics begins, of course, with the United States Constitution, but it includes other propositions too, like “Lincoln was a great president,” and “it doesn’t matter where you come from, you can succeed in America.” Whereas journalists equate ideology with the clash of programs and parties in the debate sphere, academics know that the consensus or background sphere is almost pure ideology: the American creed.

1. The Donut or Sphere of Legitimate Debate

The sphere of legitimate debate is the one journalists recognize as real, normal, everyday terrain. They think of their work as taking place almost exclusively within this space. (It doesn’t, but they think so.) Hallin: “This is the region of electoral contests and legislative debates, of issues recognized as such by the major established actors of the American political process.”

Here the two-party system reigns, and the news agenda is what the people in power are likely to have on their agenda. Perhaps the purest expression of this sphere is Washington Week on PBS, where journalists discuss what the two-party system defines as “the issues.” Objectivity and balance are “the supreme journalistic virtues” for the panelists on Washington Week because when there is legitimate debate it’s hard to know where the truth lies. There are risks in saying that truth lies with one faction in the debate, as against another— even when it does. He said, she said journalism is like the bad seed of this sphere, but also a logical outcome of it.

3. Off the Donut or Sphere of Deviance

In the sphere of deviance we find “political actors and views which journalists and the political mainstream of society reject as unworthy of being heard.” As in the sphere of consensus, neutrality isn’t the watchword here; journalists maintain order by either keeping the deviant out of the news entirely or identifying it within the news frame as unacceptable, radical, or just plain impossible. The press “plays the role of exposing, condemning, or excluding from the public agenda” the deviant view, says Hallin. It “marks out and defends the limits of acceptable political conduct.”

 
To me, this is catnip, fascinating stuff to think about and talk about. The Rosen piece is long, and has plenty of interesting ancillary bits, like the original author, Hallin chiming in with his own thoughts, along with plenty of interesting comments from journalists and academia.

Greenwald, which is where I originally read about this also interviews Rosen on the radio, and there’s a transcript of it if you want to read it. It’s also quite interesting. I know where I am on the donut, nibbling on its outer crust. Off the grid, as usual.

There you are, read on if you like. Otherwise, back to the beer.

 

Gnarly Takes Alaska

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Tom Dalldorf, publisher of the Celebrator Beer News, just e-mailed me from the now embarrassingly named Ted Stevens Airport, with the results from the Alaska Beer & Barleywine Festival. Here are the Top 3:

  1. GnarlyWine, Lagunitas Brewing, California
  2. Old Gander Barley Wine, Sleeping Lady Brewing, Alaska
  3. Big Woody Barley Wine, Glacier Brewhouse, Alaska [Note: link is down]

Congratulations to the folks from Lagunitas for their big win.

 

Beer in Art #11: Juan Gris’ Glass Of Beer and Playing Cards

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art-beer
Today’s work of art is by a Spanish painter, who painted as Juan Gris, though he real name was more of a mouthful: José Victoriano González-Pérez. Gris was a contemporary of Pablo Picasso and was also one of artists to found Cubism, though people like Picasso and Georges Braque are more well-known. Though born in Madrid, Gris spent worked most of his life in France, and was a friend of Henri Matisse, Braque and others. Most Cubists painted using a monochromatic palette, but Gris — possibly because of his friendship with Matisse — went in a slightly different direction, preferring bold, varied colors. His style of Cubism became known as synthetic cubism. His use of color is evident in today’s painting, Glass of Beer and Playing Cards, painted in 1913. The painting is in Ohio, at the Columbus Museum of Art.

Gris_glass-of-beer

Christine Poggi had this to say about the painting in her book, In Defiance of Painting: Cubism, Futurism, and the Invention of Collage:

Gris organized Glass of Beer and Playing Cards according to a dominating pattern of vertical strips. … A coherently silhouetted beer mug might be established by shifting the vertical band that constitutes the right side of the mug upward so that the white outline becomes contiguous with the outline of the fully modeled form of the mug to its left. But this realignment would in turn disalign the continuity between the blue curvature on the orange wallpaper and the edge of the sand to the right, both forms constituting a view from above of the beer’s foam. Changes or transformations in the appearance of an object seem to occur in a number of directions: they follow the alternating rhythm of vertical bands but also the contrapuntal system of horizontal bands. Occasionally there is also a sense of transformations occurring in depth, as if Gris had peeled away the surface of certain vertical bands to reveal an alternate mode of representation or point of view beneath.

There is a little more information about Juan Gris at Wikipedia and more biographical stuff at the Art Archive. You can see over 100 of his works at the Athenaeum and also there are many links at ArtCyclopedia.

This Sad Burlesque

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I wasn’t going to write about the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation spending $400,000 to manufacture a link between the internet and underage drinking, because it’s such a sad burlesque that it’s virtually meaningless. Essentially, nearly a quarter-million dollars will be used to fund a study conducted by UNC-Chapel Hill to test “how easy it is to order alcohol from the Web,” according to the Raleigh News & Observer. The entire article is opinion, paranoia and propaganda, a fitting take given the study’s results will almost certainly be more of the same.

Throughout it they admit that no one really knows if kids are obtaining much booze over the internet at all. They just don’t know, but boy are they worried. But even if there are a few that manage to get some delivered, it’s pretty clear that it’s not the primary way anyone, kids or adults, obtain beer, wine and liquor. Other normal channels are much more convenient, easy and cheaper, especially for minors. But that’s an old story. It’s easier to create attention and buzz by appealing to peoples’ fears about that series of tubes known as the internet.

As I said, I was going to pass on commenting about how this is simply an attempt to further an agenda, not a meaningful attempt to get at the truth. From the way they’re framing the study from the outset it’s an obvious fait accompli what the results will be. I really didn’t feel like going through the wearisome task of examining how studies like this are used increasingly as tools of propaganda (a trend well-documented in the book Trust Us, We’re Experts by Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber). Happily, my friend Tomme (thanks, Amigo) sent me a link to a rebuttal to this rubbish from the wine world. In The Tools of Farce, Tom Wark (writing on his Fermentation Daily Wine Blog) gives an appropriately scathing analysis of exactly what the New Drys are up to. It’s worth a read.

In case you’re curious where the title to this post came from, it’s the title of an Elvis Costello song (I’m a huge Elvis fan) that came to me as I started writing this. This Sad Burlesque was on The Juliet Letters, released in 1993. So I fired up the iPod to give it a listen, only to realize that the lyrics are eerily appropriate to this post, so here they are below.

I write in hopes that by the time you get this letter
We may live to see a change for the better
Or are we so devoted to these wretched selfish motives
When the cold facts and figures all add up
They cannot contradict this sad burlesque

This sad burlesque
With miserable failures making entertainment of our fate
Laughter cannot dignify or elevate
This sad burlesque

Now can they recall being young and idealistic
Before wading knee-deep in hogwash and arithmetic
The pitying smirk
The argument runs like clockwork
Will run down eventually and splutter to a stop

P.S. Well by now you know the worst of it
And we’ve heard all the alibis that they’ve rehearsed
The smug predictions
If it’s not a contradiction
Keep faith in human nature
And have mercy on the creatures in this sad burlesque

 

Everything Old Style Is New Again

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G. Heilman’s “Old Style Beer” used to be a very popular regional brand since its introduction in 1902. It was first advertised as being “‘fully kraeusened’ and made with pure artesian well water from ‘God’s country,’ meaning western Wisconsin.” That’s because the G. Heilman Brewery was located in La Crosse, Wisconsin.

Today the brewery is known as the City Brewing, having been purchased by new owners after Heilman went out of business in 1999. Stroh’s originally bought the Heilman brands, but when three years later they likewise folded their tent, Pabst Brewing scooped them up. Miller’s been contract brewing Old Style for sale in Great Lakes area since that time, but using the changed brewing process implemented by Stroh’s. Stroh’s stopped kraeusening the beer and Miller’s continued brewing it for Pabst unkraeusened.

Pabst announced last week that they would begin kraeusening it again and marketing it as “authentically kraeusened.” They’re also planning on raising the price and trying to position it as a a more premium brand. That may be a tough sell, as it’s been a bargain brand for a long time. And as for selling it as being kraeusened, that also seems like a concept destined to fall flat with consumers.

Kraeusening, of course, is hardly unique or magical, but a centuries-old German brewing technique. Many breweries still use the process today, including a large number in the U.S. Here’s one explanation of it, from The Brewer’s Handbook by Ted Goldammer:

“Kraeusen” is the German word used to describe the infusion of a strongly fermenting young beer into a larger volume of beer that has undergone primary fermentation. Traditionally, the wort used for kraeusening is obtained from the high ‘kraeusen’ stage of primary fermentation and added in small portions (5-20% by volume) to the green beer to start a secondary fermentation. MacDonald suggests adding a volume of kraeusen equal to 10 to 12% of the “green” beer, containing approximately 2% (w/w) residual extract with a cell count of between 10 and 15 million (29). Usually, higher gravity beers require a larger proportion of kraeusen. Kraeusen may also be made from wort and a yeast culture, or from a sugar solution together with yeast.

Pabst brand manager Keith Hill is spinning it another way. “That process more thoroughly ferments beer to give it additional flavor, along with a smoother finish.” Pabst is also claiming that this “return to its roots will appeal to 20-somethings who would rather drink ‘a high-quality, local beer’ than a beer ‘from one of the big brewers.'” But the beer, of course, will continue to be contract brewed by MillerCoors so I’m not sure I understand the distinction he’s making or how it will be a marketing advantage for Old Style. I have nothing against contract brewing per se, but I’m not sure I understand how simply changing the brewing process makes it a “local beer?”

This new push follows re-launches of Primo and Schlitz by Pabst, hoping to duplicate their success with Pabst as a retro-hip brand. Will it work? You can’t underestimate the power of advertising to convince people of virtually anything, so perhaps it will. Who knows? Maybe Old Style will end up owing the term “Kraeusening.” Stranger things have happened.

 

Iron City Announces Layoffs

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Here’s more worrying bad news in the brewing world, this time from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Iron City Brewing, fresh out of Bankruptcy and still wearing it’s post-reorganization glow announced today that it will “temporarily” layoff 25-30 workers, which represents more than 25% of its work force on March 1, when the brewery closes down its canning line. That aging canning line will then be evaluated to see if it can fixed or must be replaced. In the meantime, they will contract the canned beer at another, as yet undetermined, brewery. This process, they believe, will take from one to three months.

The bottled beer will continue as before. Hopefully this will all work out as stated, but these things have a way of not quite working out as intended, so who knows? New Iron City President Tim Hickman is upbeat, but then he would be, wouldn’t he. “We’re still committed to these products. We’re still committed to Pittsburgh.”

On the plus side, since emerging successfully from a high-profile Chapter 11 Bankrupty, sales are up 20% and sales of one of their brands, Augustiner, have increased threefold. Fingers crossed, let’s hope it all goes according to plan and those layoffs will indeed be “temporary.”

 

InBev To Open NYC Office

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InBev announced yesterday their intention to set up a management office in New York City in order to “better support the needs of the combined global organization. This office would have an operational focus supporting the business in the
implementation of the Company’s strategy under the direction of the Global Headquarters and center of strategic decision making in Leuven” [Belgium].

There’s nothing at all about this at the new AB-InBev website, which though it claims will be “developed over the coming weeks” is still wallpaper several months later. I guess communicating with investors and the public is near the bottom of the priorities list. Breaking the bad news is left to the Anheuser-Busch team which is, at least for time being, still in St. Louis.

More from the Press Release:

The creation of AnheuserBusch InBev will generate significant growth opportunities from leveraging the company’s combined brand portfolio, including its global flagship brands Budweiser, Stella Artois and Beck’s, its leading global distribution network and by applying best practices across the new organization. In addition, over 40% of the newly combined company’s earnings are now generated in the United States, which has become the company’s largest market.

The establishment of an office in New York would enable management to better support the realization of these opportunities and day-to-day management of the business. The office would host functional management heads together with members of their marketing, finance, people, supply and legal teams.

There’s no mention whatsoever of St. Louis in the press release itself, though in the AP Story they’re reporting that “St. Louis, where Anheuser-Busch was founded, will remain the head office for its North American operations.” But InBev had emphatically promised that St. Louis would remain HQ for AB-InBev in the New World, so it seems odd they wouldn’t address those concerns in the press release and leave it to reporters to suss out.

The spin is that St. Louis will remain U.S. HQ for the Anheuser-Busch brands but that New York will be an office for all the InBev brands. Apparently InBev will layoff as many as 89 Belgian workers and Carlos Brito (InBev CEO) and their CFO will split time between the New York and Belgium offices. The Belgian office will become HQ for Western Europe, St. Louis will be HQ for North America with the New York office hosting “management heads and employees in marketing, finance, supply and legal.” But InBev will continue to host shareholder meetings and most Board meetings, too, in Belgium. That sure seems confusing as to where the hierarchy will lie between Belgium, New York and St. Louis. And it sure seems like an end run around their promise to St. Louis. Since this move is being sold as a cost-cutting measure, how inconceivable is it that this is also laying the groundwork to say in the future that some or all of the functions in St. Louis will move to New York to cut even more costs? Sure sounds plausible to me.