The Telegraph Picture of the Day from May 6, 2009.
(via Brookston Beer Bulletin)
Beer bottle colosseum
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Tag Archives: heineken
Are big beer mergers good for craft brewers?
Speaking of Heineken’s purchase of FEMSA, Public Radio’s Marketplace had a story on how consolidation of brewing giants can help craft brewers.
Marketplace: Are beer mergers a good brew for biz?
Uli Bennewitz owns the Weeping Radish Farm Brewery in Jarvisburg, N.C. He also runs a butchery and an organic farm.
Everybody is wary of “where does this stuff come from?” There is clearly a move towards local, local, local. And I think that is an advantage for small breweries.
They also follow up with a bit of analysis on the Marketplace blog:
Maketplace Scratch Pad: One world, one beer company?
Paddy [Hirsch] recently visited Stone Brewing Company near San Diego, and they told him they loved it when the big companies merged. The mergers turn off beer-drinkers, perhaps in principle but also because something bad seems to happen to the flavor of a decent beer when it gets swallowed up by a mega-corporation. People start looking for alternatives.
Beer news sampler
A sixer of news items on beer that we spotted recently.
BBC News: Anheuser-Busch InBev to cut 800 European jobs
That’s about 10% of their European workforce and is ” a response to falling beer sales”. Well, if they made any products I’d want to drink…
Idaho Statesman: It’s been a good decade for craft beer
Patrick Orr talks about some of the gains and newsworthy items in craft beer during the aughts.
Heineken to buy FEMSA beer operations for $5.5 billion
Fomento Económico Mexicano, S.A. de C.V. is the Mexican brewer of Sol, Tecate, and Dos Equis. This deal gives the Dutch giant a larger foothold in the Americas. I don’t expect much innovation here. In fact, I just expect the same old fairly bland mass-produced beer, just produced by fewer companies.
Counterfeit beer in China
Apparently, “fancy” beers like Corona and Budweiser are being substituted with cheaper lagers. Fleeced customers apparently don’t notice.
UK beer drinkers should expect beer prices to go up
Brewing giants InBev and Diageo both cite sluggish economy as the need for the increase.
Mid 18th-Century beer mug may auction for upwards of $100K
“A 268-year-old beer mug that was spirited to Canada during the American Revolution by an iconic Loyalist refugee — Rev. John Stuart, the future founder of the Anglican Church in Upper Canada — hits the auction block this month in the U.S. and is expected to sell for close to $100,000 because of its remarkable provenance.”
Heineken bottle Christmas Tree
As seen on Nanjing Road in Shanghai, China.
(via Boing Boing (via Inhabitat (via Recyclart (via Chine Informations))))
Kalik
Beer-a-Day #346 
It bills itself as the “Beer of the Bahamas” and is brewed by Commonwealth Brewery, a subsidiary of Heineken International.
Clear pale yellow. Aroma is slightly floral with a little of that lager “funk”. Taste is, well, typical of a European-style light lager. I’ll gladly have some time next time I’m in the Bahamas (like that’ll ever happen) but don’t feel any need to ever have it again.
Heineken
Beer-a-Day #204
Taking a break from domestic macro lagers, it’s time to try one from Europe. Might as well go with the biggest.
Heineken’s a bit of a whipping boy around here. I have never, ever, had a Heineken–or even encountered one being drunk by someone else–that wasn’t lightstruck. It’s so consistent, in fact, that it seems like the Heineken people are doing it on purpose. Do they hate Americans? Or is it just a big joke? “Look what we convinced those silly people to drink!”
True to form, it’s skunked. I suppose there’s no point in telling you that it’s straw colored and clear, with a white head and nice lacing. Besides the skunky aroma there’s a distinct taste of boiled vegetables. I can’t believe people actually think this is the way it’s supposed to be. I can’t finish it.
I suppose I need to get it in the “keg can” or, better, get overseas and have their offering in the brown bottle, which I’m told is actually pretty good. But I’m done ever trying the import in the green bottle.
The difference between men and women
I’m not a fan of Heineken, as you must know by now, but this is a pretty amusing illustration of the difference between men’s and women’s priorities.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1ZZreXEqSY
(via Geeks Are Sexy)
Heineken gobbles up Belarus brewer Syabar
Heineken has made a number of acquisitions in Eastern Europe recently, the latest of which is Syabar, the number 2 brewer in Belarus.
International Herald Tribune: Heineken buys No 2 Belarus brewer Syabar
The move is part of Heineken’s strategy to obtain leading market positions and compensate for low growth rates in Western Europe and the United States, a group spokeswoman said.
Heineken in Cute Keg Can
I was at bar-b-cue on the Fourth of July and the hosts had Heineken that come in those cute cans that resemble a keg. We’ve discussed in length before about the drawbacks of packaging beer in clear or green bottles and the advantages of cans. Heineken has always been the poster child for skunky beer as they seemed to take the image of their packaging more seriously than the taste of their beer. So, I was actually eager to take a taste of Heineken from a can, hopefully sans skunks.
As expected, this beer didn’t taste like Pepé Le Pew. It was clean and crisp and very refreshing, much like a cold club soda. You could faintly taste the malt and hops. I would have to do a side-by-side comparison to determine if it was any better than Budweiser, or about the same. With that, I found it passable and without another choice of beer to have, I toughed it out. That lands it directly on a “two” of the unofficial Hop-Talk beer rating system.
[rating: 2.0/5]
Beer News Sampler
Baltika eyes Heineken’s No.1 spot in European beer
Baltika, Russia’s largest brewer, wants to dislodge Heineken from the top of the European beer market, despite a recent slowdown in the Russian domestic market.
Biofuel boom sparks beer price fight
As German barley farmers abandon their usual crops in favor of subsidized biofuel crops, like corn (maize), brewers scramble to keep costs in line to prevent alienating their consumers.
Brewery workers walk off job
More than 100 workers of the Canadian Autoworkers Union walked off the job early at Edmonton’s Molson Coors brewery the morning of May 30. While the company says it has plenty of supply, union leaders think beer drinkers in Western Canada may have a bit of a time of it this summer.
Quick Tip: Leftover Beer
Not that this would ever happen to any of us, but leftover beer can be used to give some extra nutrients to your plants.
Teamsters brewing boycott of Yuengling beer
A typical “he said, he said” scenario. Yuengling workers vote to leave the union. Teamsters strike. Marketplace yawns. The Teamsters claim management threatened to shut down the company and want lawmakers to intervene. The company says that workers decided to decertify on their own.
Anheuser-Busch Brewing Drinking Water
A-B is canning potable water to have available in the event of a major hurricane or other large disaster.
