David vs Goliath in brewing

[yankinoz]

An online news and commentary site has published an essay of mine that addresses a general and mostly US audience, but may be of interest to members here. The theme is that independent and mostly small brewers created varied and flavourful beer styles, but the giant conglomerates have a history of whittling down flavor and choice. That much may be old news to beer lovers, but the essay details how and why US corporations dropped big beers to focus on bland ones, and how they are battling the craft beer movement that arose to resurrect big beers. There is a brief reference to ownership of breweries in Australia by SABMiller and Kirin (through Lion Nathan).

 

[Airgead]

Nice article but I'm not sure about your choice of publisher. Their big headline for today was "Was Malaysian flight 370 landed safely in Afghanistan?". Really? That's squarely in 9/11 conspiracy, jfk grassy knoll, royal family are flesh eating alien reptiles territory. Or their next suggestion - April 2014's cosmic cross...and how it will transform the american psyche. Whacky astrology fruitloopery.

I'm sure there are less.... out there, websites that would take your article without you being lumped in with the tinfoil hat wearing mouth breathers and window lickers.

Its a good article and I'd hate to see it dismissed because its surrounded by foaming at the mouth whackjobs.

Cheers
Dave

 

[djar007]

Interesting article mate. I enjoyed it. Thanks for sharing that. I guess when all is said and done it comes down to a smarter more aware consumer. Often friends of mine are overwhelmed by choice when they go into a superstore like Dan Murphy's and need help deciding. When they ask the store assistant they are usually given poor or I'll informed advice and come away with mega craft types. Then they blame craft beer as being not much different to mainstream beer. And more confusing. There are decent beers available to us. But as we all know here, it is hard to find them amongst the blue moons and the knappsteins.

 

[yankinoz]

Airgead-

OEN is a liberal site, but the content runs the gamut from well-thought out to pretty wacky. I've written a few articles for them. The company doesn't bother me so much as the responses to articles. I've seen very good pieces by first-rate writers on economics, politics and science, and they usually get few comments or likes. Then someone writes a screed complete with name-calling, or touts a conspiracy theory, and it draws a whole lot. But that's the US these days--highly polarised,

So far no one on the site has called me names for saying nice things about small business.

I see there's concern on thsi site about the big guys buying up large and small Aussie breweries. A tip: Anheuser Busch InBev is truly the enemy of good beer. If they acquire SABMilller, hit the panic button.