Good for What Ales You
I`m back from the beer tasting festival, whole and hallow and unhungover. The brusque May air and unusually large crowd helped to keep everyone perky and feeling well, and made for an enjoyable time.
Three of the five St. Louis Microbreweries were in attendance (Schlafly-owned by the nephew of conservative icon Phyllis Schlafly, The O`Fallon Brewery, and the new Square One), as well as old favorities such as Chicago-based Goose Island, Kansas City`s Boulevard, A-B`s pet micro Redhook, Burghoff, etc. A number of interesting, smaller breweries-such as the New Albanian Brewery from Louisville-showed to ply their wares as well. It`s good to see such a collection of small-time breweries; it illustrates how the beer industry is finally starting to recover from Prohibition and the consolidations of the 1960`s and `70`s. Good beer is back!
Unfortunately, good beer is struggling here in what used to be ``America`s Beer Capital``; St. Louis was home to over 100 breweries before Prohibition, and had numerous successful breweries after. St. Louis was home to Alpen Brau, Greentree, Hyde Park,Griesedick, Lemp, Falstaff, Anheuser Bush, etc. Across the river in Illinois was Stag country for decades. What is now the Boston Beer Company-brewers of Samual Adams-is the reincarnation of the Koch Brewery of St. Louis, Missouri (owner James Koch began The Boston Brewing Company with his family`s signiature beer.) Unfortunately, we are down to a mere five plus the Giant. It`s sad to think of the great tradition of brewing that has been lost to mass marketing. Anheuser Bush has destroyed the beer industry.
Actually, A-B can`t be blamed for it all; Falstaff started the scramble for consolidation with predatory business practices in the `60`s. Owned by members of the Griesedick family (who also owned, well, Griesedick), Falstaff decided to grow by targeting small, family owned breweries throughout the Nation. They would insert themselves in a traditional market, sell below cost to steal the local brewery`s customers, buy the plant cheaply, and close it. Other large breweries, realizing the danger of allowing Falstaff to corner the market, followed suit, and the old craft breweries disappeared. Falstaff would acquire such luminaries as Pabst, Olympia, Strohs, and Ballantine before their final demise.
As the Bible says ``He who lives by the sword shall surely perish by it``, and Falstaff was no exception; a series of lawsuits and poor business decisions left Falstaff vulnerable to a raid, and brewery baron Paul Kalmanovitz of General Brewing seized control of the company. He would ring Falstaff dry before closing the last remaining brewery in 1990.
The clash between the big bruisers wiped out the industry here in St. Louis. St. Louis has, among other names, been called the Cave City because it is honeycombed with caverns. This, along with it`s proximity to America`s central waterway, made it an ideal place to brew beer. Beer-especially the bottom-fermented Lager beer which became popular in the 19th century, needs to be kept at cool, stable temperatures. Before the introduction of refrigeration that meant it either had to be kept in an icehouse or in a cave. There is an enormous cavern under St. Louis called Cherokee Cavern, and a large number of breweries used portions of this cave for lagering chambers. (A-B, although being right over Cherokee Cave, could never get legal access, so always used ice or refrigeration. This actually helped them in the long run by ultimately making their beer more mobile.) Cherokee Cavern was also a tourist destination for visitors to the Gateway City, with tours being given and a restaurant and tavern running out of the cave! (That was VERY popular before air-conditioning!) The Lemp family owned a large section of the cave, and their mansion had a private section down below-complete with a year-round swimming pool and a theatre!
(The Lemps were something out of a Grimm`s Fairy Tale; three generations of Lemps committed suicide in their mansion. The Lemp Mansion is said to be haunted, and is now run as a restaurant and bed-and-breakfast inn. I stayed there with my wife after attending the ``Phantom of the Opera`` a few years back, but I didn`t see any ghosts.)
In typical St. Louis fashion, the caves were closed for safety reasons in the 1970`s (and perhaps from pressure by A-B?)
The behemoth on Arsenal street has fought tooth-and-nail to prevent micro-breweries from opening, and has gone so far as to buy some of them out then close them. The question is often asked, ``why are they doing this? These little breweries aren`t even competing for the same market!`` That is the whole point; A-B doesn`t want an alternate market. They want America`s taste to continue to trend toward ``drinkability``-code word for flavorless. A microbrewery may be no danger to them in terms of cutting into their market share, but that microbrewery helps change America`s taste in beer, and that simply cannot be permitted! A-B uses far less malt, less hops, less everything to make Budweiser (or Bud Lite, or what have you) and therefore makes a much higher profit from selling massive quantities of this tasteless stuff. Their plants are not configured to make craft beer, and they would have to build new ones to accomodate the changing style. In the long run, this would be a disaster for them. They need to convince people that the thin swill they brew is ``real beer``.
So A-B has fought the micro trend here and throughout the country. Our first brewpub (Schlafly`s) had a devil of a time opening, and were only authorized as part of the new winery laws which had just passed; they STILL have to brew at least one keg of barley wine to remain in business! (You have to be bonded as a winery to run a brewery in Missouri, unless your production is comparable to A-B.)
As a result, craft brewing is only now returning to the St. Louis metro area. Places such as Kansas City, Chicago, and California are way ahead of us on that score, which makes me sad since we were the Kings once. Now we have a pretender King of Beers on the throne, a tyrannt who had to steal his name from a small brewery in Bavaria. It`s such a pity.
Anyway, I had a terrific time at the festival! I hope my little discussion of the brewing industry didn`t bore you too much.
Three of the five St. Louis Microbreweries were in attendance (Schlafly-owned by the nephew of conservative icon Phyllis Schlafly, The O`Fallon Brewery, and the new Square One), as well as old favorities such as Chicago-based Goose Island, Kansas City`s Boulevard, A-B`s pet micro Redhook, Burghoff, etc. A number of interesting, smaller breweries-such as the New Albanian Brewery from Louisville-showed to ply their wares as well. It`s good to see such a collection of small-time breweries; it illustrates how the beer industry is finally starting to recover from Prohibition and the consolidations of the 1960`s and `70`s. Good beer is back!
Unfortunately, good beer is struggling here in what used to be ``America`s Beer Capital``; St. Louis was home to over 100 breweries before Prohibition, and had numerous successful breweries after. St. Louis was home to Alpen Brau, Greentree, Hyde Park,Griesedick, Lemp, Falstaff, Anheuser Bush, etc. Across the river in Illinois was Stag country for decades. What is now the Boston Beer Company-brewers of Samual Adams-is the reincarnation of the Koch Brewery of St. Louis, Missouri (owner James Koch began The Boston Brewing Company with his family`s signiature beer.) Unfortunately, we are down to a mere five plus the Giant. It`s sad to think of the great tradition of brewing that has been lost to mass marketing. Anheuser Bush has destroyed the beer industry.
Actually, A-B can`t be blamed for it all; Falstaff started the scramble for consolidation with predatory business practices in the `60`s. Owned by members of the Griesedick family (who also owned, well, Griesedick), Falstaff decided to grow by targeting small, family owned breweries throughout the Nation. They would insert themselves in a traditional market, sell below cost to steal the local brewery`s customers, buy the plant cheaply, and close it. Other large breweries, realizing the danger of allowing Falstaff to corner the market, followed suit, and the old craft breweries disappeared. Falstaff would acquire such luminaries as Pabst, Olympia, Strohs, and Ballantine before their final demise.
As the Bible says ``He who lives by the sword shall surely perish by it``, and Falstaff was no exception; a series of lawsuits and poor business decisions left Falstaff vulnerable to a raid, and brewery baron Paul Kalmanovitz of General Brewing seized control of the company. He would ring Falstaff dry before closing the last remaining brewery in 1990.
The clash between the big bruisers wiped out the industry here in St. Louis. St. Louis has, among other names, been called the Cave City because it is honeycombed with caverns. This, along with it`s proximity to America`s central waterway, made it an ideal place to brew beer. Beer-especially the bottom-fermented Lager beer which became popular in the 19th century, needs to be kept at cool, stable temperatures. Before the introduction of refrigeration that meant it either had to be kept in an icehouse or in a cave. There is an enormous cavern under St. Louis called Cherokee Cavern, and a large number of breweries used portions of this cave for lagering chambers. (A-B, although being right over Cherokee Cave, could never get legal access, so always used ice or refrigeration. This actually helped them in the long run by ultimately making their beer more mobile.) Cherokee Cavern was also a tourist destination for visitors to the Gateway City, with tours being given and a restaurant and tavern running out of the cave! (That was VERY popular before air-conditioning!) The Lemp family owned a large section of the cave, and their mansion had a private section down below-complete with a year-round swimming pool and a theatre!
(The Lemps were something out of a Grimm`s Fairy Tale; three generations of Lemps committed suicide in their mansion. The Lemp Mansion is said to be haunted, and is now run as a restaurant and bed-and-breakfast inn. I stayed there with my wife after attending the ``Phantom of the Opera`` a few years back, but I didn`t see any ghosts.)
In typical St. Louis fashion, the caves were closed for safety reasons in the 1970`s (and perhaps from pressure by A-B?)
The behemoth on Arsenal street has fought tooth-and-nail to prevent micro-breweries from opening, and has gone so far as to buy some of them out then close them. The question is often asked, ``why are they doing this? These little breweries aren`t even competing for the same market!`` That is the whole point; A-B doesn`t want an alternate market. They want America`s taste to continue to trend toward ``drinkability``-code word for flavorless. A microbrewery may be no danger to them in terms of cutting into their market share, but that microbrewery helps change America`s taste in beer, and that simply cannot be permitted! A-B uses far less malt, less hops, less everything to make Budweiser (or Bud Lite, or what have you) and therefore makes a much higher profit from selling massive quantities of this tasteless stuff. Their plants are not configured to make craft beer, and they would have to build new ones to accomodate the changing style. In the long run, this would be a disaster for them. They need to convince people that the thin swill they brew is ``real beer``.
So A-B has fought the micro trend here and throughout the country. Our first brewpub (Schlafly`s) had a devil of a time opening, and were only authorized as part of the new winery laws which had just passed; they STILL have to brew at least one keg of barley wine to remain in business! (You have to be bonded as a winery to run a brewery in Missouri, unless your production is comparable to A-B.)
As a result, craft brewing is only now returning to the St. Louis metro area. Places such as Kansas City, Chicago, and California are way ahead of us on that score, which makes me sad since we were the Kings once. Now we have a pretender King of Beers on the throne, a tyrannt who had to steal his name from a small brewery in Bavaria. It`s such a pity.
Anyway, I had a terrific time at the festival! I hope my little discussion of the brewing industry didn`t bore you too much.
posted by Timothy Birdnow | 6:53 AM
2 Comments:
Too funny....glad you had such a great time!
It just made me thirsty.
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