Budweiser American Ale on NPR

Yesterday I was out and about most of the day (shaking hands with Barack Obama, among other things). I rarely get out and so I rarely listen to the radio, but in late afternoon I listened to "All Things Considered" on NPR -- and discovered that Budweiser American Ale is one of its sponsors.

The commercial was smart: emphasizing the flavor, malt, and hops of the beer. Just the kind of thing to appeal to NPR's "upscale," educated, more-hip-than-average audience. (*1) So that's good news for Anheuser-Busch and American Ale: if the company wants this "different" beer to succeed, it's going to have to go places A-B has not gone before.

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*1: Or at least that's supposed to be the demographic for NPR. Personally, I can't stomach the stuff. Way too pretentious, most of it, and the "news" coverage is extraordinarily lop-sided. No one there pretends they want to present both sides of any argument. NPR is the yin to the yang of Fox News. Well, I guess MSNBC is the yin to Fox's yang, those both being television. But you get my point.

Craft Beer In Brooklyn

From today's Times. Nice to see a journalist place craft beer in a larger historical context -- but who knew there was a "Brooklyn boutique beer aesthetic"? Or that Brooklyn Brewery is (apparently) too big (too successful?) to embody that "aesthetic"? Anyway -- for those who are interested.

Side note: I loved Steve Hindy's book (which he co-wrote with co-founder Tom Potter). I think it's the best book on the business of craft brewing.

Good Reads (Warning: Political Stuff)

Good reading all the way around. (And no, not all these folks are tofu-eating liberals.) (Frankly, I doubt any of them eat tofu.) Frank Rich in last Sunday's New York Times. Stanley Fish, also in the Times. Christopher Hitchens in Slate. Anne Applebaum in the Washington Post.

Budweiser American Ale = Starbucks? Maybe So.

Finally, a reasoned and thoughtful analysis of A-B's new Budweiser American Ale. (No surprise, however, given that it's Jeff at Beervana who's the commentator.)

I'll just toss this into the mix: The "Starbucks effect." Many people believe and assume that Starbucks has destroyed or will destroy locally owned coffeeshops. In fact, the opposite is true: When Starbucks comes to town, the locally owned shops are not far behind. (*1)

Why? Because Starbucks functions as a "starter" coffee for someone who doesn't know much about coffee. The potential customer visits Starbucks because she's seen the stores everywhere and because the logo is familiar. (That matters when customers are new to a product: they gravitate toward the familiar; toward what they've seen in ads or commercials.) She encounters friendly employees who help her decide what to drink. She goes back again and again. She becomes more adventurous and "upgrades" from plain ol' coffee to latte with mochawhippedwhatever. (I don't drink coffee, so I have no idea what any of the coffee terminology means.)

Once she's become experienced an coffee drinker, she feels more comfortable walking into a strange coffeeshop. She's not worried about appearing foolish. She's learned to appreciate coffeehouse culture. She's willing, in other words, to frequent that non-chainstore, locally owned coffeshop down the street that she might otherwise have walked past and never entered.

Anheuser-Busch could become craft beer's Starbucks equivalent. Budweiser Ale may serve an an "entry" beer for people who would otherwise never consider trying a craft beer.

Think about it: A-B owns about half the American beer market. It has the most loyal customers on the planet. Budweiser drinkers trust A-B. Many will translate that trust into a reason to try Budweiser Ale. (*2) They get comfortable with this newfangled beer and decide "Hey. I like this. Maybe I should try one of those other, strange beers that I see in the grocery store." Next thing ya know: Bud Ale fans have become -- Left Hand fans or Summit fans or Abita fans.

Stranger things have happened. No pun intended.

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*1: I learned about the Starbucks effect in Taylor Clark's excellent book Starbucked.

*2: This is assuming, of course, that A-B does a good job marketing Budweiser Ale. That means a) the company doesn't waste time wooing craft beer drinkers, who simply won't drink it; and b) the company doesn't try the "whassup-Spuds-McKenzie" angle. Bud Ale is a different beer; the company needs to use a different approach.

Another Beer Social Network Site: The Aleuminati

And speaking of social networks and beer, I got an email from Shawn Connelly about another beer social site, The Aleuminati. Shawn is the founder of Aleuminati. He also blogs at beerphilosopher and writes about beer for helium.com. (He also, by the way, shares two-thirds of a name with my brother: Shawn Patrick.)

Aleuminati is gearing up to celebrate its first anniversary (November 12) -- members are celebrating that event by sponsoring a fund-raising drive for Pints for Prostates. PfP was founded by Solid Good Guy Rick Lyke, who was diagnosed with prostate cancer earlier this year. Rick came through the ordeal (just saw him in Denver; he looks great!) -- but he realized that he did so in part because of early diagnosis.

So he launched Pints for Prostates as a way to encourage men over forty to make regular PSA testing a part of their lives. You can donate money, too, by clicking on the "chipin" button at Aleuminati's website, or by visiting the Pints for Prostates site.

Anyway, cheers for the great folks at Aleuminati for celebrating their own good news by giving back to others -- and for providing an online forum where beer folks can gather and talk, ya know, beer stuff.

Thanks and a tip o' the mug to Shawn.

"The Real Beer"? "Dancing With The Hops"? "The Biggest Brewer"? (*1)

While rummaging through the offerings at Politico.com, (yes, I am currently addicted to all things electoral), I ran across this mention of John Hickenlooper, known to beer geeks as the founder of Wynkoop Brewing (and currently mayor of Denver):

Several politics-related pilots are currently in the works—including a reality series featuring Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper—due to the large viewership enjoyed by debates, political conventions and similar prime-time programming in this year’s presidential race.

Well, whatever some network honcho comes up with, it's got to be better than "Real Housewives" or "The Girls Next Door." And who knows? Maybe Hickenlooper and his family are the next Osbornes. *1: Added a few hours after my original post: How about "The Real Wort"?

Source: The quote is from this article.