InBev Eyes Anheuser-Busch?

According to a report in today's St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the world's largest brewer, Belgian-based InBev, is looking at a takeover bid for St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch. This news has not been officially confirmed and, according to the report's author, representatives from the two companies have not commented.

As most of you know, A-B already has a distribution deal worked out with InBev to handle their imported brands (Stella Artois, Beck's, Leffe, Hoegaarden, etc ...) in the U.S. This deal would be groundbreaking to say the least. On first blush, I'm skeptical a deal like this would actually go down, but stranger things have happened. As I hear more news, I'll be sure to pass it along.

Beer Review - Anheuser Busch Beach Bum Blonde Ale

You've likely seen them on the shelves at your local retailer or on tap at the corner pub ... six packs of brightly colored bottles depicting a snowman in sunglasses and green stocking cap holding a pint of ale or maybe a purple-capped, pumpkin-headed scarecrow figure standing atop a brightly enameled tap handle. These are not the marketing creations of the newest small-batch craft brewer on the scene though your palate may try to convince you otherwise. Despite the whimsical characters and the full-flavored brews that emerge from these eye-catching bottles and taps, these are the limited-release seasonal beers from the company that made the American lager famous - Anheuser Busch.

Lagers these are not, however. The beer-drinking snowman belongs to Anheuser Busch's winter seasonal called Winter's Bourbon Cask Ale - an oaked winter warmer with sweet vanilla notes. The pumpkin-headed scarecrow accompanies the fall release of Jack's Pumpkin Spice Ale - a pumpkin ale infused with spices like cinnamon and cloves. In the spring, you'll find a frisbee-carrying dog on the label of Sun Dog Amber Wheat (which replaced Spring Heat Spiced Wheat in the seasonal rotation, since Spring Heat Spiced Wheat has become a year-round offering and been given a name change to become Shock Top Belgian White Ale - got all that?) - Sun Dog is an American style dark wheat ale.

Summer's seasonal is called Beach Bum Blonde Ale. This one is an American blonde ale and it has the distinction of having taken the bronze medal in it's category at the 2006 North American Beer Awards. Oh, it's obligatory cartoon character? A blonde-headed surfer beach bum, of course. This one manages to hold on to his surf board in one hand and a pint of Beach Bum Blonde in the other.

I'm going to be completely forthright and admit I'm not a huge fan of the imaging campaign concocted for these seasonal beers. The characters on the labels and tap handles are colorful and amusing, yes, but I think they're a little too whimsical if anything and border on downright cheesy in my mind. I have a hard time taking these beers seriously when I'm staring at a snowman in sunglasses, but thankfully there is more to these brews than a cartoon-inspired label. To give you an idea what these beers bring to the table, here's a short synopsis of Beach Bum Blonde's credentials followed by my review in it's totality.

Originally released in May of '06 and available seasonally around mid-May, this American Blonde ale is brewed using American cascade hops and German Alsace and Hallertau hops. Another interesting fact is that this is a 100% caramel malt beer - no adjuncts were used in brewing this ale. To further impress the beer geeks among us, Beach Bum Blonde Ale is also dry-hopped in order to impart additional spicy hop aromas to the brew. How did it all come together? Read on ...

Beach Bum Blonde pours a bright and lively golden color with brilliant orange highlights when held to the light. A tight, rocky head of pure white crowns the beer and holds in the active carbonation bubbles racing up from the bottom of the pub glass. As the head diminishes slightly, solid rings of lace surround the inside of the glass. A very nice-looking beer with impeccable clarity.

The nose is pleasingly spicy thanks to the dry-hopping, and also carries with it some nice floral and citrus notes. Underneath the aroma of fresh hops a warm, bready malt foundation can be detected giving this beer a good balance between drying hops and sweet malt. This beer smells very clean and is devoid of "heavy" aromas which would be counterproductive to a summer brew.

The palate is wholly consistent with the nose and delivers a nice hop attack right up front that is aggressive but not overwhelming. The floral and citrus flavors are quickly balanced out by the slightly sweet caramel malts and leaves a very well-balanced and expertly crafted flavor profile. The malt character is decidedly bready and substantial enough to give this beer a smooth and substantive mouth feel. The finish is clean and dry, thanks again to the hop additions. In some ways, this beer reminds me of a good Czech pilsner (hop profile) but it also has the warm and bready character of a mild, though without any of the fruitiness produced by the ale yeast. Possibly a little hoppy for a prototypical blonde ale but this isn't necessarily a bad thing. The generous hops give this beer a lively and interesting aspect missing from a lot of blonde ales I've sampled. Over all, a very good and extremely drinkable summer ale. I'd put this one right up there with many of the better craft ales released this time of year.

So, while it is true I don't care for the label, I can't deny this particular beer makes up for the offense. For my die-hard beer geek friends, who will be wondering why I'm reviewing an A-B product ... favorably no less ... I'd propose a challenge. Pour this beer into a nice clean pint or pub glass, swirl it around a bit, and then sniff. After you've done that a couple of times, give it a sip and let the beer linger on the tongue for a moment ... now, forget for a moment you know that this is an Anheuser Busch product going in ... I think if you're able to suspend your biases for a moment you'll have to admit this is a credible and enjoyable summer ale in every respect. Let's face it, it could be easily confused for a "true" craft beer. I'm in no way suggesting you give up your craft beer scruples, or sell out, but I am suggesting we all give a little credit where it is due sometimes. This, and several other Anheuser Busch beers, are very well-crafted, tasty brews in their own right.

Admitting this won't cause your beer snob license to be revoked. I don't think.

A quick parting shot ... Check out this video introduction from Anheuser Busch brewmaster, Florian Kuplent about Beach Bum Blonde Ale.

Grolsch Hand-Off

Anheuser-Busch has been distributing Grolsch beers (owned by Royal Grolsch NV) in the United States since April of 2006. It appears, however, that A-B will terminate its U.S. importing rights by August 1st of this year, according to an announcement on Wednesday. SABMiller, who acquired Royal Grolsch in February of this year, will become the importer of the Grolsch brands which include Grolsch Light Lager, Grolsch Blonde Lager and Grolsch Amber Ale.

For more on this story, click here.

American Craft Beer Week

We are smack dab in the middle of American Craft Beer Week. My apologies for being late in posting anything about this terrific commemoration of the American craft beer industry and the culture that surrounds it. If you're in to reading full press releases, you can read this year's release right here. This year, the addition of Savor will add another facet to an exciting time for craft beer-lovers everywhere. Can't make it to D.C. to attend Savor in person? No worries, we'll have a recap here and I'm sure other beer bloggers (some attending the festivities) will post their recap as well.

Let's all do our part to promote great American craft beer, locally and everywhere! Drink it, share it and educate your friends about it whenever you can. The success that the craft beer industry has enjoyed, particularly in the last several years, has been due in large part to consumers just like you with discerning palates and a willingness to try something new! Let's all keep it up and celebrate craft beer in our own ways this week!

Or, how about every week!

My Goodness, My Guinness is Downsizing!

Diageo Brews Irish Guinness Overhaul

Friday, 09 May 2008

DUBLIN, Ireland: Guinness beer owner Diageo PLC rattled an Irish icon Friday, announcing plans to lay off more than half of its brewery workers, close two breweries and shift most beer production to a new, high-tech plant in the Dublin suburbs by 2013.The British beverage company decided not to close the landmark Guinness brewery, one of Dublin's oldest businesses and a top tourist attraction, after concluding this would do too much damage to its brand image and customer sentiment.Diageo expects to lay off about 250 people, or 58 percent of its current brewery work force in Ireland, over the next five years. Brewing staff at the flagship Guinness brewery at St. James' Gate in west Dublin will be slashed from 230 to just 65.Half of the riverside St. James' Gate site will be sold for private development, and the volume of Guinness brewed there will be cut by about a third to about 500 million pints annually. This will exclusively supply the Irish and British markets, where demand has slipped over the past decade in line with pubgoers' diversifying tastes.David Gosnell, Diageo's managing director of global supply, said the move to a new suburban mega-brewery was necessary to compete with the rise of lower-cost breweries in Eastern Europe, Russia and China."The business is hugely competitive. ... Smaller breweries are consolidating and closing in Western Europe," Gosnell told a news conference inside Guinness' panoramic Gravity Bar, which offered a 360-degree view of a mist-shrouded Dublin.The new plant is expected to employ about 100 people, many of whom could come from the central Dublin brewery. Two other breweries employing more than 170 in the towns of Dundalk, north of Dublin and Kilkenny to the south would close by 2013, and few of those workers would be expected to relocate.Gerry O'Hagan, supply director for Diageo in Ireland, said the current production capacity of the Dublin, Dundalk and Kilkenny breweries was less than 1.25 billion pint glasses of beer annually, while the new plant would be able to produce more than two-thirds of that on its own.Diageo executives said they planned to spend 800 million euros ($1.25 billion) on the plan. Nearly three-quarters would go on building the new plant at an as-yet-undisclosed location, most of the rest on the costs of closing the two breweries and paying off staff.About 100 million euros ($150 million) has been earmarked to build a new brewhouse and refurbish other facilities at the St. James' Gate brewery, where English entrepreneur Arthur Guinness began brewing Ireland's hallmark dark brown, creamy stout in 1759.Brian Duffy, who travels the world promoting Guinness as its global brand director, said Arthur Guinness was a visionary, but unsentimental businessman who negotiated a bargain 9,000-year lease on the St. James' Gate site. He noted that Arthur Guinness had moved there from another location in search of better profits."I firmly believe if Arthur was here today, he would tell us to hurry up and get on with it, and would endorse it as the right thing to do," Duffy said of Diageo's plan.The company estimates that much of the cost of the project can be reclaimed by selling land at the Dundalk, Kilkenny and Dublin sites valued at an estimated 500 million euros ($775 million). Property prices in Ireland have soared over the past decade as the economy has grown, but have dropped this year in line with the global credit crisis.Officials in the two towns losing breweries expressed shock at the news.The Great Northern Brewery in Dundalk mainly produces Guinness' sister beers—Harp lager and Smithwick ale—as well as continental European lagers under license, including Denmark's Carlsberg and Germany's Warsteiner.The St. Francis Abbey Brewery in Kilkenny produces Irish-brand ales and U.S. brand Budweiser for the Irish market, where lighter beers, ciders, wines and vodka-based drinks have made steady inroads versus Guinness over the past decade.The new suburban Dublin brewery would absorb all of the beer production currently carried in Dundalk and Kilkenny. It also would produce Guinness for continental European and global export, as well as the secret-receipe "essence" extract that Guinness ships to its nearly 50 breweries worldwide.Diageo's smallest beer-related facility in Ireland, in the city of Waterford, also will continue to produce the "essence" extract. But supply director O'Hagan said staff there would be cut from 27 to 18.Production of the company's two world-recognized local spirits—Bailey's Irish Cream in the Irish Republic and Bushmills whiskey in the British territory of Northern Ireland—will not be impacted by the brewery shakeup.Diageo shares slipped 0.5 percent at 1,023 pence ($19.99) on the London Stock Exchange.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Beer Review: Jolly Pumpkin La Roja

I have been eagerly anticipating my opportunity to try Jolly Pumpkin's Ales for some time now. This brewer, along with Russian River, have been two that I have kept my eye on for some time but both have proven elusive to me until recently. Both have created quite a buzz in the beer community and both specialize in high-end American renditions of Belgian ales - with a twist, of sorts. These two brewer's beers are wood-aged (oak or otherwise, in the case of Russian River) and bottle conditioned. This process has become all the rage in the craft beer industry as of late, and for good reason. The wood, whether it be from new oak, a bourbon whiskey barrel or a French oak Chardonnay barrel, imparts a unique character to the beer that is addictive to say the least.

It's official, I am a wood-aged beer devotee.

Here is a review, from notes, of my first sample of a Jolly Pumpkin oak-aged beer called La Roja. I've heard this beer classified as a Biere de Garde, but as my notes reference, this beer presents itself to me as being much closer to a Flanders Red-style ale. Regardless of how it is classified, it is certainly unique and causes me to want to sample the remainder of the Jolly Pumpkin line of Artsan ales.

This beer pours a deep, semi-opaque burnt orange color with reddish accents in the wide-mouth goblet I'm pouring into. The head is lively and rocky, mimicking pie merange of a pale sand color. Some yeast particles are found in suspension in the glass despite a careful pour. Impressive appearance all the way around. Spots of thick lacing line the glassware as the beer's head recedes a bit.

The nose is quite complex and openly betrays the fact that this beer has been aged in oak. Predominant notes of sweet rum, caramel, vanilla and spice. Despite what I've read elsewhere, I don't detect a lot of alcohol in the nose here. Mild sweet malts meet wild yeast and collaborate to make for an interesting, but slightly disjointed, combination of aromas.

The palate is an expansion of the nose, hitting you with multiple flavor elements in a random attack of funk and smooth, mellowed malts. Although this beer is called a Biere de Garde, I'm not tracking with that descriptor at all. If anything, this is an odd oak-aged Flanders Red. The spicy aspects are nice and you can really taste the oak, but the constituent elements just don't quite come together for me. Very phenolic, but oddly flat at times. This beer has a bit of an identity crisis.

Sufficiently carbonated, but a little thin feeling in the mouth. This improves slightly as th beer warms to ambient temperature, but still leaves something lacking. A respectable 7.2 ABV is hidden well beneath the oak and bitterness - the latter of which really lingers long on the palate.As a Biere de Garde, this misses the point. As a Flanders Red, this beer has a ton of potential and might synthesize flavors a little better given some additional aging in the bottle. I'd we willing to try this again, but would like to see it sit for a couple years and round the ragged edges.

I've heard great things about Jolly Pumpkin beers. La Roja was my first sample of the Dexter, MI brewer's offerings. They didn't scare me off completely with this one, but I'd like to sample some of their other brews and hope for a little more continuity of flavor. I wanted to LOVE this beer, based on my preconceived notions, but it really didn't quite live up to the expectations I (likely unfairly) had in my mind. This was not the "oh my God!" beer I hoped it might be.

For more on this beer, and much more - visit us on The Aleuminati.

Get your Jolly's in St. Louis

Not only is the 2nd annual Brewers Heritage Festival taking place in Forest Park as we speak (the festival goes through tomorrow night), there is another good reason to be in St. Louis - or at least the surrounding area - right now. During a recent trip to Randall's Wine & Spirits in Fairview Heights, I was more than pleased to discover the arrival of Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales to the area! Sitting on a top shelf just to the right of one of my favorite barrel-aged beers in the world - Allagash Curieux - I found Jolly Pumpkin's La Roja, Bam Biere and Calabaza Blanca staring back at me!

If you're not familiar with Jolly Pumpkin beers, you might want to familiarize yourself with their operation out of Dexter, Michigan. Each and every Jolly Pumpkin beer is oak-aged and bottle conditioned, giving the ales a unique and unusual character that has generated quite a buzz among beer types. You can read more about how this process works right here.

So far, I've only sampled the La Roja. Expect a full review to be posted sometime today or tomorrow. These beers are about as hyped as they come, so you'll just have to wait and see if this beer lives up to the hype or not. Of course, you could always just go buy your own and tell me what you think!

For grins and giggles, here's a video of a tour of the Jolly Pumpkin brewery from YouTube just to get you in the mood ...

Grape vs. Grain - Who Wins? Apparently I Do!

On something of a whim I decided to throw in my idea for a caption for the photo to the left. That's Grape Vs. Grain author Charles Bamforth at a food-fashion themed cookout, in case you're wondering. The Cambridge University Press decided to have a caption contest for the photo ... and whatta ya know ... I won!

I'm excited because this looks like it'll be a terrific book and one I'm very much looking forward to reading and reviewing very soon!

Oh yeah, my winning caption - "In wine is truth, in beer is strength, in between them both is one happy man!"

Fun stuff.