America's Beers

choi

My comment:
(a) Though (1) is a feature story (together with two others) in this issue and (2) lists fun facts which are dispersed among pages of (1), one may want to read (2) first--or only.
(b) The essence of (1) is as follows. The Belgium-based InBev bought Anheuser-Busch in 2008 for $52 billion, which the former borrowed. Having to repay the debt and wanting to wring profits, the executives of the combined company who are financial engineers cut costs--and corners perhaps.  


(1) Devin Leonard, The Plot to Destroy America's Beer. Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Oct 29, 2012
http://www.businessweek.com/arti ... stroy-americas-beer
("Harry Schuhmacher, editor of Beer Business Daily, [said,] 'My nickname for him [Carlos Brito, the Braqzilian-born CEO of AB inBev's CEO] is La Máquina, which is Portuguese for the machine'”)

Note: Beck's Brewery
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beck%27s_Brewery
(is based in German city of Bremen; Beck's logo, a key, is the mirror image of the coat of arms of Bremen; Owned by local families until 2002 [when] it was then sold to Interbrew for 1.8 billion euros; Heinrich Beck and two others founded it in 1873)

(2) Jennifer Daniel, 99 Facts About Beer on the Wall. Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Oct 29, 2012
http://www.businessweek.com/arti ... he-wall-dot-dot-dot
("Fact #98  In the early 1870s, AB became teh first American brewer to use pasteurization, which allows its beer to be shipped long distances without spoiling")

Note:
(a) For the given name of Adolphus Busch, see Adolf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf
(Adolf, also spelled Adolph and sometimes Latinised to Adolphus; The name is a compound derived from the Old High German Athalwolf, a composition of athal, or adal, meaning noble, and wolf)

* Adolf Hitler
(b) Anheuser family
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anheuser_family
(The earliest record of winemaking by the Anheusers dates to 1627 with an Anheuser operating a winery in Bad Kreuznach[, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany])
(c) History. Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc, undated.
http://anheuser-busch.com/index.php/our-heritage/history/

* lager (n; German Lagerbier beer made for storage, from Lager storehouse + Bier beer; First Known Use 1852):
"a beer brewed by slow fermentation and matured under refrigeration"
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/lager
* Budweiser
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budweiser
(Budweiser is a German adjective describing something or someone from the city of České Budějovice (German: Budweis) in Southern Bohemia, Czech Republic)
* For Michelob, see Anheuser-Busch brands
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anheuser-Busch_brands
(section 2 Michelob: It was named after Michelob Michelob, a Bohemian brewmaster from Saaz, in the region famous for its Saaz hops)

(d) Clydesdale horse
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clydesdale_horse
(a breed of draught horse derived from the farm horses of Clydesdale, Scotland)

* The noun dale is Middle English for "valley."  
* River Clyde flows through Clydesdale.

(e) Bass Brewery
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bass_Brewery
(founded in 1777 by William Bass in Burton upon Trent, England; The main brand was Bass Pale Ale,bought by Interbrew in 2000)
(f) Stella Artois
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stella_Artois
(section 1 History)

(g) Rolling Rock
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_Rock
(a pale lager launched in 1939 by the Latrobe Brewing Company, at City of Latrobe, western Pennsylvania; InBev sold the brand (not brewery) to Anheuser-Busch of St Louis, Missouri, in mid 2006)

(h) Yuengling
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuengling
(the oldest operating brewing company in the United States, established in 1829, in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, by German immigrant David Gottlob Jüngling [who] anglicized his surname from Jüngling to Yuengling)

* The German noun jüngling (masculine) has a corresponding English noun:
youngling (n): "one that is young; especially : a young person or animal"
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/youngling
* The German adjective "jung" = The English adjective "young"
* The "j" in German is pronounced like "y" in English.

choi

American beer and spirits | Prohibition Hangover; As puritanical rules retreat, the American market for beer and spirits is growing more competitive. Economist, Sept 8, 2012.
http://www.economist.com/node/21562224

My comment:
(a) Read only paragraph 6:

"According to the Brewers Association, in 2011 there were 1,940 craft breweries in operation. In one sense, this is a novelty; as recently as 1979 America had fewer than 200 breweries in total. But it is also a renaissance: on the eve of Prohibition, which lasted from 1920 to 1933, there were around 1,200 active breweries. With refrigeration scarce and refrigerated trucks scarcer, shipping American beer was then hard; most breweries served only local markets. Today, even small brewers may range far and wide. Drinkers in San Diego can sip a Maine-brewed Allagash, and Dogfish Head, the pride of Delaware, can be bought in Seattle."

(b) While it is true: "With refrigeration scarce and refrigerated trucks scarcer, shipping American beer was then hard."

However, the greatest contribution is pasteurization, not refrigerated train or trucks. Please recall: "In 1902, the first modern electrical air conditioning unit was invented by Willis Haviland Carrier in Buffalo, New York."
air conditioning
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_conditioning
(c) "The first pasteurization test was completed by Louis Pasteur and Claude Bernard in April 1862. The process was originally conceived as a way of preventing wine and beer from souring."
pasteurization
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pasteurization