Middle-of-Road Beer = Big Bucks = Happy Shareholders. MOR Beer Therefore = Smart Beer

I know that among the beer geeks, this is the standard view: Big Breweries make bland beer. I'm gonna go out on a limb here and disagree (which, yes, I so hate to do. Stan is smarter than me and he'll likely chop up this post and use it to mop his floor. . . .) Big Breweries make profits. They do so in order to make shareholders happy. That's what they do, because their owners went into business to make lots and lots of money.

And the way they could make money was by making beer that appealed to the largest number of people. Which, by definition, is a beer that contains a balance of malt and hops. Not a malt-rich beer.

Not a beer stuffed with as many hops as the brewer could stuff into it using his keeno, whiz-bang, hops-stuffing device. It's a beer that hits the middle road and therefore appeals to the most potential buyers.

Ain't no one, and I mean no. one., gonna get Big Rich making beer only for the roughly 50% of the population that prefers the flavor of hops.

Ain't no one gonna get Big Rich by making beer only for people like me, who prefer the flavor of malt.

The people who will make Big Bucks (and make their shareholders happy) are the ones who hit the sweet spot in the middle. So: it's not bland beer. It's smart beer.

(Because of the book I'm working on. I've been spending a lot of brain power lately thinking about how capitalism works, and why and how big corporations grow -- and thereby attract shareholders, and then grow more by making shareholders happy.)

San Francisco Beer Week

Just a reminder, the first annual (here's hoping) San Francisco Beer Week starts today. Be there or be square. Yeah, yeah, I know. That makes me square.

The [Recent] History of Beer

This from Stan. Yes, McAuliffe is elusive. Eccentric and elusive. Or elusive because eccentric? Or, well, whatever . . . .

Beerlao On the Air

Last summer I posted a blog entry about BeerLao (which garnered more comments than anything I've ever written here). Eagle-eared reader Jeff Renner tells me that NPR recently aired a report about Beerlao. You can find it here. Tip o' the mug to Jeff -- a longtime serious homebrewer who has written some great stuff about beer, including this piece which was crucial to my understanding of 19th century American lager.

And Speaking of Drinking and Recession and Whatever . . .

A few days back, I mentioned that Jeff Alworth at Beervana had asked his readers how the recession had affected their drinking habits. His final results are here.

But then Jeff started wondering about the price of beer (it's what we like about Jeff; his mind never stops...) and that led to this and this. Make sure to read the comments.

And then Patrick Emerson, our man-on-the-economics-beat, weighed in with this. (I'm still hoping Patrick will re-think the black background....) Fascinating, all of it.

Your Drinking Habits In A Recession?

Over at Beervana, Jeff Alworth is conducting a poll of people's drinking habits in this down economy. The results are "unscientific," but interesting. His original post, which prompted the poll, is here. (Do read the comments, too.) He's bumping the poll up the blog so people can keep voting; that's here.

Then check out Patrick Emerson's take on drinking and recessions here. And, if you're still thirsty for more, my previous entries on drinking and recessions here and here.