Utah Brewery Map

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Big Boys Feeling the Pinch

The Wall Street Journal last week revealed an interesting trend among major American brewers to add rather than remove flavor from their beers.
The story featured Anheuser-Busch's Juggernaut Budweiser, which is being brewed with more hops, thus adding bitterness, in an attempt to win back drinkers who have abandoned Bud for more flavorful micro brews and imports.

The article noted that AB's domestic beer recipes over the last fifty years have consistently been made more and more bland, as major brewers sought to market products that would offend the least amount of people with strong flavors. Recently, growing numbers of people have been put-off by the lack of flavor they find in major brands. The result has been a steady decline in sales of Bud and other domestic brews.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Anheuser-Busch actually freezes samples of its beers and periodically thaws them out to check one year’s flavor against another’s. I imagine most people will never notice the change. People who like they're Bud, or equivalent are rabidly loyal to they're brand and will stick with them no matter what.

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