Big Beer takes over the Bermondsey Bottle Shop & BeerBods but what is Big Beer#?
To effectively oppose an enemy, and Big Beer however it appears, is certainly the enemy of good beer and a choice if it, you first have to understand.
Those of us who have been around a while remember the last major push of Big Beer when the number of independent breweries in the UK fell to well under 100 and there was little choice of often in any case mediocre beer in many parts of the country.
Below is an edited version of a critique of Big Beer that appeared in CAMRA’s Good Beer Guide in 2017. It can be quibbled with but it’s a good starting point to understanding what craft beer now is
AB Inbev, along with other Big Beer global brewers, are strategically targeting the independent brewing sector following the steady decline of mass market lager brands. The scene was set last year when the third largest corporate takeover in history saw AB InBev buy its rival SAB Miller for £71 billion, effectively taking control of 30 percent of the world’s beer production and sales.
That same year the giant bought the Camden Town Brewery for £80 million and unveiled a brand-new plant for Camden in Enfield, with greatly increased capacity. AB InBev’s aim is simple – to turn Camden Town into the biggest brewery in London.
Big Beer is not only trying to dominate the independent brewing sector, but is also fooling consumers into thinking they are still drinking “independent” or “craft” beer. Thanks to clever marketing tactics and few labelling restrictions, global brewers are still able to market these beers as locally produced even when they are no longer made by the original brewer.
Roger Protz, Editor of the Good Beer Guide says: “While many consumers will not be aware that their favourite local beer has changed from looking at the bottle, the taste will invariably differ. Brewing changes under new ownership – whether this is due to long-term contracts with suppliers leading to grain or hop substitutions or because production methods are changed to maximise profits at the expense of taste.”
The Good Beer Guide warns that Big Beer is squeezing small and medium-sized brewers from the market. Not only can they sell beer at cut-throat prices thanks to low production costs and have access to eye-watering advertising and marketing budgets, but they are also attempting to monopolise the supply of raw materials to make beer.
Global brewers can afford to buy up global malt and hops supplies at 40 per cent lower cost than even big and medium-size brewers, and have recently been condemned for seeking patents on materials such as barley and hops. Despite the fact that beer and brewing have been in the public domain for thousands of years during which time raw materials have been freely available to all brewers, Carlsberg and Heineken were recently granted patents that cover two varieties of barley, along with a third patent that will allow the two varieties to be used together.
Roger Protz adds: “First Big Beer buys up a swathe of independent breweries. Now it’s attempting to control the natural ingredients used to make beer. The power of these global behemoths is frightening and has to be vigorously resisted.
He concludes: “CAMRA was first founded to challenge the handful of national brewers that had phased out good cask beer in order to promote fizzy keg beer, the quality of which would be laughed to scorn today.
“I believe we are seeing a real threat to a return to those days – on a global scale. Big Beer is on the march, and we risk losing our wealth of choice to merely the illusion of it. Not only are consumers being misled, but these global brewers are changing the very character of the beers they buy and driving genuine independents out of business….
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