Yesterday the Wall Street Journal tweeted an interesting graph they created to show how things would shake out based on the current terms of the deal, and assuming everything is approved by the relevant regulatory agencies worldwide.
Jay R. Brooks on Beer
Interesting graphic, especially the part on the brands that’ll be AMF’d (will the recipes & labels be sold off to one of the corps who now brew a lot of other national/local once-popular brands – a la Schlitz, Stroh’s, Hamm’s, Oly, Rainier, et alii?). How drastic the fall of Miller Lite, which owned that market for close to 20 yrs, as it was the 1st on the shelves. The only ones who’ll miss Steel Reserve are street drunks & crack/meth heads. For High Life & Milwaukee’s Best, it’s the bargain-hunters who like sweet & lightly-hopped lagers. MGD was a fad that rose & faded quickly. Miller Lite drinkers now will have to learn to like hop taste, or switch to alcopops. The only thing memorable about any of those is the advertising (for Lite early on, w/Dangerfield & John Madden, & the recent-past High Life ads w/the funny delivery guy).
The bad news is that their shelf space likely will go to the conglomerate’s labels instead of to other craft beer. We can hope only that Goose Island & their other swallowed craft beer brands get the biggest piece of it.