SABMiller Taps Australian Craft Beer Market

Or so they say.

Upon further investigation, this so-called craft brewer "in American parlance" doesn't seem to be making compelling beers. As if you couldn't tell by the names of the beers that Miller found them to be making - "Premium Lager", "Premium Light", "Traditional Pilsner", and "Blonde". All the types of beers that Bud Miller Coors (I guess this is just MillerCoors) can relate to. Now to be fair, the Traditional Pilsner gets a bit of love from the BeerAdvocates, but the rest are as highly rated as a B-movie being reviewed by a dozen stodgy grandmothers.

It is just funny what Miller considers to be a premium brand. I guess they must be referring to "premium" in the sense of an elevated cost or profit margin, not "premium" meaning of a higher than average quality.

One more note on the concept of premium: they note at the end of the story that this Pacific Beverages (are they a distributor or what?) has a bunch of "premium" spirits brands such as: Jim Beam, Canadian Club, Remy Martin, Cointreau, The Famous Grouse, and Absolut. I don't know about The Famous Grouse, and I don't know much about Cointreau or Remy Martin, but I can say for certain that Canadian Club, Absolut, and Jim Beam are not exactly premium brands. To me, they are the Bud Miller Coors of the spirits world. Especially CC - that stuff is really bad. Absolut isn't much better (although they have much better marketing). Jim Beam at least has a few premium lines, I think, like aged or special reserve blends or something like that.

Man from reading this Brew Blog, it just seems like the kind folks over at Miller are just living in a totally different reality than I am.

So which reality are you living in? Give me a comment and let me know - do you think a "Premium Light" sounds like a craft brand?

Widmer and Redhook Unite...yawn

Unless you don't read any other beer news outlets, you already know that Widmer and Redhook are teaming up to become the third largest craft brewer, and break into the top ten overall, with about 600,000 bbl annual production. All I have to say is "yawn".

The only Widmer I've had is the hefeweizen, which was fine, but not really spectacularly memorable. Based on their ads, I thought they were less micro and more macro, sort of like a Blue Moon, or even whatever Micheolb calls their beers in different styles. And while Widmer is owned by Anheuser-Busch, they apparently maintain some craft cred overall.

Back in the day, like mid-90's, Red Hook was cool. They were one of a few, and I got a lot out of them in those days. To me, they sort of remained in my past, and perhaps I now take them for granted. To me they are just unexciting and verging on mild. I group them with Harpoon, Sam Adams, Otter Creek, etc. I would drink them if offered them, but for the most part, I am not likely to buy them. Although at least Otter Creek has their big beer series, which is commendable.

In fact, today at the local liquor store (not any sort of special beer store, but above average), I was going to buy a Sam Adams Winter Ale just to try it again. I found Sam Adams to be $8.29 for any style. Then I noticed Dogfish Head was $7.99. I just could not resist my first six pack of Indian Brown Ale at 7.2% ABV for less than a plain ol' Sam Adams Winter. What ever happened to economy of scale? Shouldn't Sam Adams' beer, which is made probably at tenfold the volumes of DFH, be at least the same price? And I always felt DFH had a reputation as being overpriced.

So what are we to do when two "boring" micros merge? Nothing. This is really about the same as Miller and Coors joining forces. It just seems somehow pointless. Consolidation helps them run their businesses at a better profit margin perhaps, and could widen their customer bases. But it is a fact in this country today that people like new beers that taste exceptional. Until Widmer-Redhook do something new and interesting in the product department, it won't make a difference.