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A-B Buys Rolling Rock

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Last week it was just a rumor, today it’s now official. Anheuser-Busch, in it’s drive to pick up new brands, has agreed to purchase the Rolling Rock brand from rival brewing giant InBev for $82 million.

Since Rolling Rock is not technically a craft brewer, buying them is perhaps a little more curious than their courting of other craft brands. But Rolling Rock was sold, nationally at least, beginning in the 1980s as if it were a microbrewery. This was done quite successfully and it did in fact create a pretty good image for itself when their weren’t very many national micros. Those of us who grew up in Pennsylvania weren’t fooled but generally speaking the unsophisticated beer consumer believed — and perhaps still believes — Rolling Rock is a craft beer. And I think it’s that very quality, it’s status as essentially a faux micro, that makes it ideal as an A-B product. A-B is very good as selling brands as much more than they are in reality so this will, I think, be a marriage made in heaven, albeit a heaven with no real beer.

From the press release:

Introduced in 1939 by Latrobe Brewing Co. and acquired by InBev’s Labatt U.S.A. in 1987, Rolling Rock is an historic American lager that is well-known for its distinctive, full-bodied taste and painted green bottle. Rolling Rock has established itself as an authentic, iconic American lager with a loyal following.

Anheuser-Busch acquires the Rolling Rock brands and recipes with the transaction, and will now start to work with the existing Rolling Rock wholesaler network and Anheuser-Busch wholesalers to define plans for the future. Anheuser-Busch will begin brewing Rolling Rock and Rock Green Light in August using the brands’ same time-honored recipes, maintaining Rolling Rock’s craftsmanship and heritage that its fans expect and appreciate. Internationally, Rolling Rock will continue to be sold in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

“We have an ideal opportunity to grow this historic brand,” said August A. Busch IV, president of Anheuser-Busch Inc. “This beer is not like others, and its consumer following is equally distinctive. We live in a diverse world where consumers are hungry for variety. Acquiring Rolling Rock enables us to reach a new audience and to continue building our broad portfolio of products that meet the wide-ranging needs of consumers.”

InBev plans to sell its brewery in Latrobe, Pa., separately to focus its U.S. business on imported beers. It is in discussions with potential buyers to determine the best available options for the brewery and its employees.

“The decision to sell the Rolling Rock brands was based on InBev’s strategic approach to the U.S. market, which is to focus on the high-growth import brands in our portfolio,” said Doug Corbett, president of InBev USA. “Our sales and marketing efforts will emphasize our leading imported beers, including Stella Artois, Bass Pale Ale, Beck’s, Brahma and Labatt Blue.”

Glen Hay Falconer Foundation Scholarships Announced

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The Glen Hay Falconer Foundation announced today the two recipients for this year’s brewing scholarships to the Siebel Institute in Chicago. This year congratulations go to Chad Kennedy, the newly named head brewer of Laurelwood Public House & Brewery and Ben Millstein of Kodiak Island Brewing. Kennedy and Millstein will attend the World Brewing Academy’s Concise Course in Brewing Technology held at Siebel Institute of Technology’s Chicago campus this November.

From the press release:

The Selection Committee, consisting of Tom Dalldorf of Celebrator Beer News, Jamie Floyd of Ninkasi Brewing Company, John Harris of Full Sail Brewing, John Maier of Rogue Ales, Ralph Olson of Hopunion, Shaun O’Sullivan of 21st Amendment Brewery, and Chris Studach of Cascade Brewers Society were tasked with selecting only two recipients from a deep and talented group of 25 deserving candidates. Speaking for the entire committee, one member highlighted the challenge: “The group of applicants was just too big and too talented to chose only two. It was the toughest decision that I have faced in years!”

In making its final decision, the Selection Committee members were impressed by Chad and Ben’s demonstrated accomplishment and dedication to furthering their brewing skills. In the words of a committee member: “Chad’s accomplishments in a fairly short time are only overshadowed by his clear desire to succeed in brewing. Perhaps even more important is his understanding of the open and sharing nature of the brewing community and his strong motivation to give something back to it.” And for Ben: “Ben’s dedication to the art of brewing is hugely obvious. To overcome the obstacles he has from a beginning homebrewer in remote Alaska, to successfully found and operate a homegrown, Alaskan brewery is inspiring.”

The Foundation extends congratulations to Chad and Ben and sincere appreciation to all the applicants for their interest and enthusiasm for the brewing scholarships. The Foundation also thanks the Selection Committee for its dedication and energy and wishes to express its deep gratitude to the Siebel Institute for its co-sponsorship and its continuing support for the Foundation’s brewing scholarship program.

The foundation honors the memory of iconoclastic brewer Glen Falconer, who died in a tragic accident in 2002. He brewed at Wild Duck Brewery in Eugene, Oregon.

Samuel Adams Brings Back the Longshot

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Back in the mid-1990s, Boston Beer Co. sponsored a contest for homebrewers. For a couple of years, homebrewers submitted their efforts in the hopes of seeing their beer in a six-pack. That’s because the two winners for each year’s contest would have their beer commercially brewed and sold under the Longshot label by Boston Beer. Some of them actually sold fairly well. When I was the beer buyer at Beverages & more, the Hazelnut Brown did okay, as did the Pale Ale. It was a fun promotion and did a lot to publicize homebrewing and brewing in general, I thought.

So I was happy to see that they’re bringing back the Longshot contest this year. Three lucky homebrewers will have their beer brewed and released commercially in a six-pack. The top five beers will be available to taste at the Great American Beer Festival this September. Festival attendees will choose the three winners by voting for their favorite. In February 2007, six-packs will be available for sale with two bottles each of the three top vote-getters. Beers must be submitted between August 1-18. For more details, there is additional information about the promotion on the Sam Adams website.

 

Good News for Modern Beer Drinkers

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I know Stan already posted this, but it was too good not to talk about again. Story so nice we mentioned it twice. The Publican, a magazine for the British pub trade, reported on a recent conference in Brussels that focused on the health benefits of beer. As if great taste wasn’t enough, many individual health benefits have been reported over the last few years with the increased research, especially in the EU, on beer and health. But the conference brought all the disparate research together and presented a new, more complete, picture of health benefits that moderate beer drinking brings to the table. These have been ignored and will doubtless continue to be ignored by the American press because in this country scientific research isn’t enough to overcome prejudice and puritanism. Still, it’s great to know that out in other parts of the civlized world, beer is being recognized as not being the evil the neo-prohibitionists would have us believe it is.

From the Publican article:

Many of the health benefits of moderate beer drinking are unique to beer because of its ingredients such as hops and malted barley. Of all the alcoholic drinks on the market beer is also relatively low in alcoholic strength.

Chairman Professor Jonathan Powell of the Medical Research Council Human Nutrition Research in Cambridge said: “The media and public tend to focus on wine. However, the emerging evidence is the real benefits are related to the alcohol itself and so the positive story also relates to other drinks such as beer.

“Drinks such as beer have other nutrients and properties that can also be beneficial in terms of health. This conference is about redressing the balance.”

The nine health benefits of moderate beer drinking hightlighted at the conference:

  1. Reduces the risk of heart disease
  2. Helps keep blood pressure down and reduce the risk of stroke
  3. Benefits the immune system meaning healthy adults are less prone to get infections
  4. Has anti-inflammatory effects which contributes to heart health
  5. Could play a role in the battle against osteoporosis as it …
  6. Improves bone mineral density which contributes to healthy bones
  7. Helps fight cancer because of compounds in hops called flavinoids
  8. Decreases the risk of dementia due to its beneficial effect on preserving brain function in old age
  9. Can protect against type II diabetes

SABMiller Reports Drop in Profits, Rise in Earnings

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The Associated Press (AP) indicated today that “SABMiller reported a 5.3 percent drop in full-year profits.” Though confusingly, only a 4% drop in pre-tax profits is listed in the press release from SABMiller. The decline is blamed primarily on Miller’s price wars with A-B and Coors.

Reuters take on this story, in contrast, was that “SABMiller posted an 8 percent rise in annual earnings.” It’s interesting to see how the same story is framed by two different mainstream news services.

Job Listing: Beer Salesmen for California

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Artisanal Imports, importers of some excellent Belgian and English beers such as St. Feuillien, De Leyerth and Meantime, is looking for part-time/independent salesmen for both the Northen California and Southern California areas. They’re looking primarily for assistance in the areas of the independent off-premise and on-premise.

Check out their portfolio, they have eight imported brands and have recently added Flying Dog Brewery from Denver, Colorado (who recently bought Frederick Brewing — and renamed it Wild Goose Brewery — of Maryland)

If you’re interested or would like to learn more, please call Sean Knoll on his cell phone at 303-564-8841. Serious inquiries only, please.

Anheuser-Busch Organic Beers Out of the Closet

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After about six weeks or so of being “temporarily down” the Wild Hop Lager website is back online. For those of you new to this story, Wild Hop Lager is actually a beer created and made by Anheuser-Busch though that fact was not disclosed on the package. It also made no mention of this fact previously on the website, though that has changed with the debut of the new (improved?) website. It’s just as slick as it was before and it’s remarkably similar in look and feel to A-B’s sister stealth organic micro, Stone Mill Pale Ale, which also recently changed its website to disclose its relationship (although they claimed it was a partnership).

Probably the biggest change is that the website does now disclose that this is a product of Anheuser-Busch. It’s right at the bottom in fine print, where it says. “Brewed by Green Valley Brewing Company in Fairfield, CA, the organically certified brewery of Anhesuer-Busch Companies, Inc.” And that’s almost the full story, although I’m pretty sure it’s the beer that’s certified, not the brewery. In my mind, they still make it sound like A-B is operating a little separate brewery called Green Valley in Fairfield, California. But unless they’ve set aside a small pilot brewery which I’m not aware of, the Fairfield Plant is a giant behemoth of a brewery that presumably churns out most of the A-B products for the northwestern quadrant of the Western United States (there is also a plant in Los Angeles). A-B operates about a dozen or so plants in the U.S., of which five offer tours, and none of them are exactly little. So while it technically may be full disclosure, it still seems a tad misleading to the majority of non-beer industry people who would not know that.

Also missing from the new website is the promise to make a donation to the Organic Farming Research Foundation of Santa Cruz, California “with every purchase of Wild Hop Lager.” It was actually a couple of days after I did a phone interview with Bob Scowcroft, Executive Director of the OFRF about the nature of the donation they were to receive, that the Wild Hop Lager website went down. And that’s a shame because it seems like a very worthwhile organization. But click on “Product Info” and you’ll see that A-B is still at least supporting the organic farming charity. And they say they’ll “join them to sponsor research relating to organic farming practices,” not that the OFRF does any other kinds of research. So while it appears they’ll no longer be donating a percentage of sales, at least A-B may make additional donations to the OFRF.

 
 

Of course, I doubt if disclosure has been made at the most important level, the packaging in the store. It may be that future packaging either on the label or the six-pack carrier — or both — will state that Wild Hop Lager is a product of Anheuser-Busch, but I’m sure there won’t be a recall. So until they sell through the initial package run, consumers will still be largely unaware of the product’s true affiliation. Until then, nothing much has really changed.

 
 

 
 

A screen capture of the new Wild Hop Lager website that has just come back online after having been down for well over a month. Click on the image to view the screen capture full size.

 
 

 
 

A screen capture of the original Wild Hop Lager website that has been down for well over a month. Click on the image to view the screen capture full size.