The king of sell outs

Big beer news last week (I know — I’m a little behind): Anheuser-Busch, brewer of Budweiser, agreed to sell itself to Belgian beer barons InBev for $52 billion. The merger creates the world’s largest brewery and, as the New York Times wrote, puts “control of the nation’s largest beer maker and a fixture of American culture into a European rival’s hands.”

As a beer nut, I’m not sure how I feel about it. The self-proclaimed “king of beers” and “great American lager” is now owned and operated by Europeans? It’s certainly a blow to US macrobrewers, who, despite their complete disregard for the regionalist tradition of American brewing, pride themselves on their red, white, and blue heritage.

A-B was, to my knowledge, the last of the Budmilloors to be completely owned and operated independently by Americans. Both Miller and Coors are owned by SABMiller (South African Breweries – Miller), headquartered in London. Sure, it’s heartbreaking to think all the major brands chilling in grocery store coolers across the country are only American in name, but A-B, Miller, and Coors played large roles in the dismantling of America’s rich beer culture, buying and closing microbreweries and replacing local favorites with their mass produced swill. In a twist of poetic justice, they’ve been eaten by the very monster they created. Only time will tell if they are absorbed as fat or expelled as shit.

But I do feel this way: A-B sold out. In April, August A. Busch IV, the company’s current CEO and great-great-grandson of founder Adolphus Busch, said the brewer would never be bought on his watch. Well, his promise lasted three months. Guess that $70 a share outweighed 150 years of family ownership. How’s that for red, white, and blue heritage?