Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

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It’s Good to Be the King: Greene King Takeover Bid for Hardys & Hansons

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Greene King, the pub and Brewery conglomerate, has made a takeover bid of just under a half million dollars for Hardys and Hansons. It looks like it’s all but a done deal, as Hardys family shareholders control about 50% of the voting stock and support the deal. Hardys and Hansons owns 268 pubs which will bring the Greene Total to over 2,400 pubs.

Greene King also owns Abbot Ales, Belhaven, Old Speckled Hen and Ruddles. According to the BBC, “Greene King will continue to brew Hardys beers although the future of the brewery has not been disclosed.”

Latrobe Rumor Mill

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On Tuesday I heard that the buyer for the Latrobe Brewery was rumored to be D.G. Yuengling & Son of Pottsville, Pennsylvania. Recent news reports from local Pittsburgh media discuss that possibility plus address other potential buyers.

Sierra Nevada Brewing:

Steve Harrison, vice president of the Chico, California, brewer, said his company was not interested in the plant.

Ken Grossman, president of Sierra Nevada Brewing, said yesterday his firm was initially contacted by InBev after the sale.

“We had some casual interest when it first came on the market, but the facility is way too large for us to consider,” Grossman said, “and without a brand, well, it just doesn’t fit into our plans.”

Sierra Nevada produces 600,000 barrels a year of its own beer and does not do contract brewing for other beer companies. Latrobe Brewing produces 825,000 barrels annually but has capacity for 1.3 million.

Boston Beer Company:

Boston Beer Co. had conversations with Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell and because of opposition to its plans to build a brewery in Freetown, Massachusetts were considered a good candidate. “However, voters in Freetown on Monday approved a lucrative tax-increment financing proposal, an agreement that will give Boston Beer tax breaks averaging 33 percent for 20 years, said John S. Ashley, chairman of the Board of Selectmen in Freetown.”

“In addition to building a plant, Boston Beer Co. purchased a brewer in Cincinnati, Ohio, last year and spent $11 million on improvements. The company sold more than 1.3 million barrels of beer last year, according to its annual report.”

Boston Beer Company is “too far down the line” with plans to construct the new brewery in Massachusetts to be a serious contender for Latrobe.

D.G. Yuengling & Son:

The “chief operating officer for D.G. Yuengling & Son of Pottsville, Schuylkill County, said yesterday it already operates three breweries and is not actively seeking to add beer-making capacity.”

“It’s not us who is moving close to a deal. We already have a lot on our plate. But we never say never,” said David A. Casinelli, who pointed out the company operates two breweries in Pottsville and bought a former Stroh’s plant in Tampa, Florida, in 1999.

Further, “the governor said Yuengling did not express interest in the plant, to his knowledge.”

This had been the strongest contender in my mind because I’d heard their name from a friend who’d heard it from an industry insider. So either these news sources are smoke and mirrors or in fact Yuengling is not the potential buyer.

Pittsburgh Brewing Company:

Pittsburgh Brewing was an early name mentioned in reports but being in a Chapter 11 bankruptcy made that possibility more remote. They have not been seriously mentioned as a potential buyer for a couple of weeks now.

Conclusions:

Governor Rendell said there has been interest in purchasing the Latrobe Brewing plant from two brewers and four or five investor groups, but the investors were unable to come up with financing. As to who they are and who ultimately buys the Latrobe Brewery, if anyone, will still have to wait for an official pronouncement. Until then, it’s anybody’s guess.

Talking Beer Cans

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Miller Brewing’s summer promotion will be called Open Up: The Great Taste of Summer and apparently specially marked packages of Miller’s two most popular beers, Miller Lite and Miller Genuine Draft, will include a talking beer can! The talking can will tell you if you’ve won one of several music or sports-related prizes. Frankly, that seems a little scary to me. I love Tony Magee’s expression “Beer Speaks, People Mumble” but I’ve never taken it literally. If someone told you their beer can talked to them, would you believe them? Or would you think they’d had one too many?

Yuengling Rumored Buyer of Latrobe Brewery?

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A colleague of mine today heard from an industry insider that the new buyer of the Latrobe Brewery may be D.G. Yuengling & Son Brewery of Pottsville, Pennsylvania. Yuengling is the sixth largest brewer in the United States, having greatly increased their sales over the last several years. They also recently purchased the old Stroh’s Brewery in Tampa, Florida and built an additional facility in their hometown of Pottsville. By all accounts this expansion has been wonderful for their business and would give them both sufficient cash and the motivation to purchase another brewery to service the western part of the state and perhaps even expand into Ohio and West Virginia. So the rumor makes a lot of sense but only time will tell if it’s true or not.

New Buyer for Latrobe Brewery?

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InBev reportedly has a potential buyer for the Latrobe Brewery, but is keeping tight-lipped about who that buyer is, at least for now. They claim a letter of intent may be forthcoming, according to several accounts in various Pittsburgh area media. Pittsburgh Brewing Co. had been rumored to be a potental buyer but given the speed of this news it seems very unlikely that it is them since they would require bancktuptcy court approval to sign a letter of intent to purchase the brewery. My guess is that it will be an overseas brewer looking to produce their beer here in the states.

Bay Area Brewfest 2006

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Yesterday a new beer festival took place in the Bay Area. The Bay Area Brewfest was held at the County Expo Center in San Mateo, California and appeared to be a modest success. Attendance rumors were that around 1,200 people sampled the fifty or so craft and imported beers available at the festival. The music was very good and mercifully not too loud. For a first-time festival, the organization seemed outstanding. As I’ve said before, the Bay Area could really use a big outdoor festival to showcase the area’s wonderful and many contributions to the beer scene. Is this is? Not yet, but the potential is definitely there. I would have liked to see more local breweries there, but perhaps next year?

Even though attendance was good, it never felt crowded at the Expo Center, and there was plenty of parking.

Festival organizer Jeff Moses, who’s also GM of Coast Range/Farmhouse Brewing Co. of Gilroy, California.

Music was sponsored by the local radio station 107.7, The Bone, who had a stage with seating set up on one end of the festival area. You could hear the music throughout the festival, but it was never too loud, a rarity at these type of events.

Jeremy Cowan, of Shmaltz Brewing, shows off his new 10th anniversary brew Genesis 10:10.

J.J. Phair, owner of the award-winning E.J. Phair Brewing.

The wold looks rosier when seen through beer goggles.

Jack Curry, co-owner of the Prince of Wales, a San Mateo institution and great beer pub.

Fellow writers Lisa and Mike Pitsker, along with their son James, my table-mates at the festival.

Anheuser-Busch in Dirty Water

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According to yesterday’s Worcester Telegram (Massachusetts), the Sixties band The Standells are suing Anhueser-Busch for copyright infringement. Apparently A-B used their 1966 hit Dirty Water in advertising without first obtaining the band’s permission. Dirty Water is usually assosciated with the Boston Red Sox because the song is played at Fenway Park every time the Red Sox win. The Standells filed a federal lawsuit on May 31 claiming that Anheuser-Busch used their song Dirty Water “without permission in commercials to try to tap into the song’s connection to the team.”

Bud Goes for Silver

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Currently being test-marketed in Scotland, Anheuser-Busch, will be rolling out Bud Silver throughout the United Kingdon beginning next month. Bud Silver is a “European-style beer with a fuller premium flavor,” according to the UK trade magazine “Checkout.”

It comes in a blue and silver can and is 4.1% abv. According to A-B’s UK managing director, David Dryden, “Bud Silver represents an exciting opportunity for us to compete in a growing category.” Since the UK is Bud’s third-largest market outside the U.S. and Budweiser is the number one premium packaged lager in bars, pubs, clubs and restaurants, I’m not sure what “growing market” he’s talking about. I presume he means beer with flavor — or “fuller premium flavor,” as he put it — is the category that’s growing. But back up a second, how sad is it that marketing is so effective that Britain’s youth has abandoned the country’s rich heritage of ales and made Budweiser their number one drink? But I digress.