This year, Anheuser-Busch, Inc., achieved record U.S. beer sales volume, pushing relentlessly toward (or over?) the 100-million-barrel mark demanded by August Busch III several years ago. A-B market share is also growing toward the 50 percent mark, the realization of which could give credence to the many accusations of monopolistic trade practices that have been made. Meanwhile, stockbroker Paine Webber rated A-B a “buy,” and market analysts noted that when the NASDAQ goes down, Bud shares go up! A great (liquid?) hedge fund! Ah, global business — the stuff of which spawns huge profits, fewer choices and products pandering to the media-manipulated mass market.

This year Miller gave up trying to be funny in its commercials, fired the brass responsible and spent the rest of the year trying to clean up its confused international arrangements for distribution and contract brewing with Molson and Foster’s. Foster’s bought Beringer Wines for $1.5 billion, and Miller bought the rest of troubled Celis Brewery in Austin, Texas, freeing the Celis family from its Austin obligations and leaving the fate of this unique brewery in doubt.

Third-place U.S. brewer Coors disengaged from some cumbersome international arrangements and remained very profitable despite an occasional beer spill into Clear Creek and the concomitant fish kill.

Meanwhile, Anheuser-Busch actually lost one when it got the bad news that it and Budejovicky Budvar, the Czech brewer, can both sell “Budweiser” brand beers in Great Britain. A U.K. court of appeals handed down a verdict that stated that both companies have legally registered trademarks in the U.K. The verdict ends a 21-year-old legal battle in the U.K. between the two companies with a Czech-mate. Lawsuits had been filed by both companies in courts around the world, trying to secure sole ownership of the Budweiser name — a battle that originally began in 1911 when Budvar attempted to sell its Budweiser beer in the United States.

And lest you think that only A-B and Corona (Barton Beers and Gambrinus) are profitable on the world beer stage, consider that Duvel Moortgat NV of Belgium reported profits up 21 percent, mostly on ales of specialty beers. The best-selling Blanche de Bruges brand contributed most toward the big profit surge.

Big beer businesses like Anheuser-Busch will smile while profits rise as U.S. inflation again raises its ugly head after a 34-year low. Having the ability to raise prices during inflationary periods is the key to profits going up as spendable income goes down, according to market analysts. There are only a handful of companies that can pass along higher prices during inflation and get away with it. Can you say “Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms”?

Meanwhile, this year the nation was asking the rhetorical question “Whassup?” The hugely popular Bud commercial became part of the language (and a T-shirt at J.C. Penney’s) thanks to relentless advertising including the spendy Super Bowl. Bud's "Whassup?" ad even added babes to the slacker crew, always a winning proposition, and then went on to win a medal for creativity at Cannes. (Hint: The French consider Jerry Lewis a “genius.”)

Also this year, Philadelphia, the home of independence, became home to a boycott of Guinness products by Guinness’s top-tier retailers: Irish pubs. Miffed that Guinness-Bass Import Company allocates significant resources to train companies that are building a network of upscale Irish-themed pubs, several traditional pubs in Philadelphia are simply refusing to carry its products. Welcome to Planet Ireland. Meanwhile, Diageo Plc, the megamorphed conglomerate that contains Guinness Brewery (heretofore known as a “cradle to grave” employer), laid off 100 Guinness workers and did a deal for distribution with Anheuser-Busch (Guinness contract-brews Budweiser for the U.K.).

Our own small breweries, meanwhile, were getting into distilling at a rapid pace that belied the lengthy process to get to market. Anchor, Sierra, Lagunitas and Portland Brewing have all gone public with distilling projects. Many other would-be spirit producers wait in the wings. Sierra had a busy year, with production up 15 percent to 500,000 barrels.

Internet sales of beer and wine continued to get slammed by the very forces that seek to limit access to the market — it’s the distributor, stupid! A few Internet companies have developed three-tier-compliant distribution, but other small wineries and breweries denied access to market by distributors are stymied in shipping to many states.

President Clinton, almost as an exit gesture, signed into law the controversial .08% BAC “national limit” that requires (extorts?) the 30-some states whose laws have the less strict .10% BAC to adopt the new standard or lose billions of dollars in highway funds. Democracy in action.

Let 2001 be the year that you single-handedly put your local brewery in the black. Vote with your wallet and support the artisan brewers that provide us with so much diversity and pleasure. Make next year the Year of the Beer!

Frustrated in its past attempts to raise the allowable limits for “freebie” giveaway items used to promote beer to consumers and retailers, industry leader Anheuser-Busch instead pulled in some markers and got a last-minute bill introduced two days before the end of the legislative session.

The bill, AB 2551, had previously addressed teacher credentials and was authored by Assembly Speaker Robert Hertzberg, D-Sherman Oaks. As the session drew to a close, Hertzberg stripped the contents of the bill, inserted the beer gifts wording on behalf of brewing behemoth Anheuser-Busch and let Helen Thomson, D-Davis, take over as author of the bill. Thomson’s district includes Fairfield, Calif., home of an A-B plant employing some 500 people.

The bill has been jokingly dubbed the “trinkets and trash” bill by lobbyists and legislative aids who are not strangers to such last-minute efforts in pursuit of special-interest legislation. Obviously, the makers of Budweiser, the largest-selling beer in America, have a keen interest in the competitive advantage such “freebies” can engender in the quest for greater market share. Small brewers with limited resources for marketing “giveaways” are justifiably worried.

“We wonder what public good is served by passing a bill for one major brewer that already has all the money in the world,” complained Bob Judd, a lobbyist for the Small Brewers Association of California. Judd warned that creating a carnival atmosphere around alcoholic beverage consumption by handing out novelty items is a direct contradiction to more serious efforts to promote moderate and responsible consumption. “No public purpose is served by this amendment — the only winner would be a single major brewer,” he added.

Anheuser-Busch knows its way around the California Legislature, and its campaign contributions are also major league. The company already gave more than $216,000 to various causes in the first six months of this year, according to state records, including $22,000 to Speaker Hertzberg, $1,500 to Thomson and $10,000 to Governor Gray Davis, who is now in a position to approve or veto the bill.

The bill is on the governor’s desk as we go to press.

You may want to give up reading as well, given the extraordinary nonsense published by the “popular press” on the demise of the specialty beer market. Most recently, the Associated Press put an article on the wire titillatingly titled “Specialty beer market fizzles.” AP included a downloadable photo of David Geary sitting pensively among a mass of cases of his Geary’s Summer Ale and London Porter. The caption read, “A few years ago connoisseurs thought small breweries and their tasty ales, pilsners and stouts were going to turn the beer industry on its ear. But the demand for those specialty beers has never fulfilled expectations.” Whose expectations???

Try telling that to Sierra Nevada, FX Matt, New Belgium, Widmer, Pyramid, Deschutes, Gordon Biersch, Alaskan, Portland, Harpoon/Mass. Bay, Mendocino, Goose Island, Summit or Long Trail Brewing companies. These are 14 of the top 20 domestic specialty breweries that had positive growth in 1999. But local daily newspaper editors, eager for trendy words to wrap around their ads, grab whatever seems to be the prevailing take on any given subject without questioning the validity of the story. Dot com Internet companies, once the darling of the business page editors, are now the subject of doom and gloom articles portending the end of the dot com era. Please.

The Institute for Brewing Studies recently published a massive statistical analysis of the brewing industry in the May/June 2000 issue of The New Brewer. Among the top 20 specialty breweries, only Pete’s Brewing showed a significant decrease in shipments, down by some 30 percent. Pete’s was sold to the Gambrinus Company, and its sales and marketing force was absorbed into the Texas-based company. Five other companies among the top 20 producers were off only 2 to 3 percent — hardly front page business news. However, eight companies among the top 20 were up by double digits! New Belgium (+41%), Mendocino (+31%) and Gordon Biersch (+30%) led the way. Where’s the AP story on that?

The domestic specialty beer industry (da good stuff!) is here to stay. The tremendous growth in the late ’80s and early ’90s plateaued in the late ’90s but seems on track for continued prosperity for companies with great products, consistent and focused marketing and solid distribution. Our job, should we choose to accept it, is to support these fine producers with our purchases and by evangelizing the good beer movement to everyone we know. Friends don’t let friends drink boring beer.

By the way, D.L. Geary Brewing finished in 44th place, with a 16,133-bbl. production, an increase of some 5 percent for 1999. Tell that to your local newspaper editor.

Enter the era of scan-backs. The buyers, naturally, would prefer to call them “electronic couponing.” The brewery agrees to “kick back” money for each sale (scan) in return for being featured in the chain’s set and advertising. Since the stores are not allowed to charge “slotting fees” (what they charge vendors to be on the shelves) for alcoholic beverages, the scan-backs have become a slick way to circumvent the law. Ask yourself: “Why are there multiple facings for macro-beers and a minimal selection for microbrews?”

Safeway, the store that developed the Club Card — whereby it raises its prices, “discounts” the price to cardholders back to the regular price and then tracks their buying habits to sell the information to vendors — is a major player in the scan-back game. A small brewery finds getting shelf space at Safeway to be difficult, if not impossible, unless it is willing to “post off” its regular price to the chain and participate in the scan-back program. This often results in reducing what little margin of profit the brewery might have under normal pricing to the point where the brewery makes little or no profit at all.

Why do breweries participate? For volume (to increase sell-through and maximize production) and to enhance their presence in the marketplace. Safeway has even gone so far as to insist that a brewery reduce its price to be in line with other breweries if its product is to be sold in the chain at all. Why doesn’t Safeway make a similar demand on wineries, to all make $10 chardonnay? Why the double standard with wine and beer? Do Safeway buyers actually believe that wine is priced by the perceived value to the consumer but beer is not?

This kind of “corporate thinking” is obnoxious and must be confronted. Various state departments of alcoholic beverage control should be taking action regarding these shady deals, which are cutting the heart (and profit) out of the craft beer industry.

If you don’t see your favorite beers at your retailer of choice, ask why they don’t stock them. If they seem disinterested, let them know they have lost you as a customer. Bottom line: Money talks.

American Beer Month

Remember, July is American Beer Month. Get involved and do your part to encourage local good-beer venues to do special promotions during July to celebrate the richness and diversity of American beer. Encourage your friends to pledge to “Drink American” for the month of July. If that means giving up Corona for Bud Light, so be it. The import category continues to be the fastest growing segment of American beer consumption. Let’s turn those numbers around in July. Think global but drink local. And turn a friend on to the fresh taste of a good old American brew!

Many marginal breweries have closed, benefiting the remaining breweries but diminishing the vitality of the micro category. Growth is proceeding in the brewpub sector, with well-managed and well-funded chains continuing to expand and lead the way. The fight for retail shelf space goes on, and some retailers are asking for and getting “promotional funding” for sales. It is increasingly harder for some breweries to survive, let alone profit in such a business climate.

Our ongoing theme of “drink better” has never been more important. Paying a little more for quality brewing sustains the industry and richly rewards the knowledgeable consumer. You can help by encouraging your local retailer to carry quality brands and by following up with your own purchases. You might also suggest that they carry the Celebrator Beer News and help us spread the word about good beer.

The goal was to give educated beer lovers (i.e., Celebrator readers) a broad palette of themes in the key of beer honoring the past, acknowledging the present and praising (or fearing) the future. You will find the results of this exercise scattered throughout this issue. We are delighted with the responses from some very busy beer personalities and regret that not everyone we asked could participate.

We would also like to hear from our readers on the same subject and will print selected replies in the next issue.

When the Celebrator Beer News changed hands in the summer of 1990 (seems like a lifetime ago), no one was quite sure where this publication or the industry it covered would be in 10 years. The extraordinary growth of craft brewing in the early '90s increased the Celebrator's page count (and ad base) and afforded us the opportunity to publish writings from a large contingent of knowledgeable beer journalists from all over North America and beyond.

The industry's "stuck fermentation" of the late '90s has resulted in only minimal growth for craft brewing, with fewer new brewing projects and a sickening attrition in brewery failures. This has resulted in fewer ad pages and reduced space for talented beer observers to share their enthusiasm for our favorite beverage. Sadly, we also witnessed many beer publications folding in the last few years, further reducing the opportunity to develop beer culture.

We hope to be around for another dozen years bringing the message of good beer to those who so passionately love the diversity and quirkiness of the brewer's art. We hope our readers will continue to support their favorite breweries and pay an extra few dollars for truly great beer.

The 21st century is a wonderful time to be a beer lover. Never have we had more great beer being made and distributed throughout the country. Growth of the industry depends on your enthusiasm and your ability to excite your friends regarding the life-enhancing rewards of good beer appreciation. "Drink less, drink better" might be a mantra for the new millennium. And bring a friend.