Beer
The Reverend and the Czar walk into a bar
By Mark LishersonWeb posted: August 17, 2005
A couple of breweries, one of them large and one of them small, made announcements last week that perfectly illustrate the state of the American beer business.
Anheuser-Busch, the brewery that churns out more than 3 billion gallons of what they insist is beer, unveiled Tilt, a raspberry-flavored malt beverage with caffeine. Tilt is designed for a target audience, ages 21 to 27, transitioning from the end of their workday to their night out. This is the way publicity people talk.
In the past year, Anheuser-Busch has also issued something called B-to-the-E, which also features berries and caffeine with a ginseng kicker, and Budweiser Select. Of Bud Select, industry magazine Modern Brewery Age said, "If no-aftertaste, low cal, low carb is the future of beer, then it is a bleak future, indeed."
Perhaps it isn't the future. Recently, the company announced its sales for the first half of 2005 were off 3.2 percent. While the American brewing industry was flat in 2004, sales of beer brewed by microbreweries and brewpubs grew by seven percent, according to the Brewers Association, a national trade group based in Boulder Colo.
Sales for Avery Brewing Co. of Boulder, Colo., for example, are up 23.4 percent and are expected to jump another 20 percent this year, founder Adam Avery says. Dozens of craft brewers posted double-digit sales gains last year, including St. Arnold in Houston and Real Ale in Blanco.
Avery says his sales growth is fueled by a line of full-bodied beers in more sophisticated styles than he has ever brewed. Two Belgian styles, the Reverend and Salvation, and an India pale ale, the Maharajah, in 22-ounce bottles ($5), are available here. Avery announced that Samael, an oak-aged English strong ale, the Czar, a Russian Imperial Stout and the Kaiser, a bulked-up Oktoberfest, will be here by the end of this month.
At current capacity, it would take Avery 16,000 years to brew what Anheuser-Busch makes in a year. "The difference is," Avery says, "we're about making beer, not about making money."
Where to buy them: Monarch Food Mart, 1402 E. 38 1/2 St.; Wheatsville Food Coop, 3101 Guadalupe St.; QP Food Mart, 5625 West Gate Blvd.
mlisheron@statesman.com
