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FAKE CRAFT BEERS
That craft beer you like, it's pretty good.
You get to avoid the cheaply made domes
tics, impress (or irritate) your friends with
your refined taste and support independent
craftsmen all at once. Except that supporting
independent business doesn't always happen
when a beer drinker picks up a six-pack of
craft beer.
The reason? Snakes in the grass in the
craft beer Garden of Drinkin'. Specifically,
these snakes are the so-called "crafty" beers.
While marketed as independent craft brews,
these beers are actually owned by the large,
multinational beer companies Anheuser-Busch
InBev and MillerCoors.
The most popular brands of crafty beer
are well-known: Blue Moon and Shock Top.
Owned by MillerCoors and ABI, respectively,
these two wheat beers try
as much as possible to
obfuscate their origins. Blue
Moon's tag line is actually
"Artfully Crafted," a sneaky
phrase that implies that it
is in fact a craft beer when
the opposite is true. Hooray,
marketing!
What You Should Drink
Instead: Monday Night
Brewing's Fu Manbrew is
locally produced in Atlanta,
and it's a wheat beer made
with ginger for an interesting
kick. If you dislike ginger, go
for Allagash White instead. I
don't often cite BeerAdvocate
scores when reviewing beers,
but the difference between
Allagash and Blue Moon is
striking: out of a possible
100 points, Allagash gets a
93 overall. That's outstand
ing. Blue Moon's score? A
lowly 78.
Jacob Leinenkugel
Brewing Co. is perhaps the
original crafty beer. Once an
independent brewery, it was
purchased outright by MillerCoors all the way
back in 1988, when Ronald Reagan was presi
dent and there were two Germanies. While its
website lists all sorts of different styles, rang
ing from a double IPA to something known as
a "Big Butt Dopplebock," the style they are
most known for here in Athens is their Sunset
Wheat, commonly referred to "that beer that
tastes like Fruity Pebbles."
What You Should Drink Instead: If your
preferred drink is a beer that tastes like Fruity
Pebbles cereal, you should probably just stick
with what you're doing. You have the intricate
palate and sophistication of a small child. If
not, Third Shift Amber Lager doesn't get as
much attention as Blue Moon or Leinenkugel,
and for good reason. It's just a simple, easy-
drinking lager that has a fuller taste than its
ownership, MillerCoors.
Or try Yuengling Traditional Lager.
Seriously. While Yuengling seems like a gigan
tic brewery along the lines of Budweiser and
Coors thanks to its ubiquitous television
ads, it's actually much smaller than ABI and
MillerCoors. The brewery that's closest in size
to Yuengling? Sam Adams. Yuengling actually
overtook Sam Adams as the largest American-
owned beer producer in 2011. (Anheuser-
Busch InBev is actually owned by Belgians,
and after several mergers, MillerCoors is now a
Canadian-British joint venture.)
If Yuengling doesn't strike your fancy,
check out Heavy Seas Cutlass, an amber
lager that won multiple medals at the Great
American Beer Fest between 2006-2010.
Redd's Apple Ale is an irritating creation.
It tastes marginally like apples, it's branded
with apples and seems designed to appeal to
cider drinkers. While not a problem for most
cider drinkers, those with gluten allergies will
have a negative reaction to this beer, as it was
brewed with malted barley alongside apples.
What You Should Drink Instead: Almost
any cider. If you want an apple flavored alco
holic beverage, it just makes sense to get a
drink brewed directly from apples without any
messing around with any extra nonsense. But
beware: Crispin Cider and Foxbarrel Cider
are owned by MillerCoors and Angry Orchard
is owned by Sam Adams, so your best bets for
independently produced ciders are Jack's Hard
Cider and Hornsby's Hard Cider.
So, casual beer drinker, why should you
care which beers are independently owned?
Independent craft brewers are constantly
innovating and refining their products and
have created a sizable market for connoisseurs
to enjoy. Crafty beer only came about when
ABI and MillerCoors realized that craft beer
was growing at a much faster rate than tradi
tional American light lager.
Moreover, many of these crafty beer compa
nies only produce one style: an OK wheat beer
flavored with different fruits that's presented
as refined and sophisticated. If you care about
varieties of style, supporting microbreweries
just makes sense.
When in doubt, a general way to recognize
which breweries are independent and which
aren't: national advertising. If you see a TV
commercial for a product, it's probably not
independent. (Yuengling and Sam Adams are
exceptions to this rule.) Billboards around
Athens telling you to drink Henry Weinhard's?
Surprise! It's owned by MillerCoors.
When in doubt, you can whip out your
phone and run an Internet search. You'll find
the beer's owner pretty quickly.
Jacob Yarbrough
Allagash White
4TH ANNUAL
HANDMADE HOLIDAY MARKET
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