The Daily Beer And Bike Log Feb 3, 2015 Budweiser Super Bowl Commercial What is a Beer Snob?

No riding as of yet so I am going to chat Beer today. While watching the Super Bowl  I know everyone wants to say aww look at the cute puppy in the Budweiser ad. I admit great ad until the fucking wolf. Really? You lost me there. I laughed at you not with you. That wolf would have eaten that puppy way before the Clydesdale's  got close. Granted they may have stomped him into the ground for eating their little buddy, which would have made a great commercial, but anyway...

But even more insulting was the attack on craft beer drinkers. Not so much that I was offended, just baffled as to why Ab InBev would do it.

Hey to each his own, if you enjoy Budweiser, more power to you, my taste is not going to be your taste (or in my opinion the lack of taste a Bud has, I have no desire to taste, I would rather drink water, since it is not that far off and I have at hockey games simply because I would rather pay 3 bucks for a water than 9 for a watered down beer)

 Anyway Budweiser or InBev as well as the other 2 of the Big Box beers enjoy a large part in the marketplace. But the "Micro" or craft breweries have been gaining steam for a while now. You wouldn't notice it in the supermarket much since the Big box beers take up a ton of real estate. (see the documentary Beer Wars great info on how this happens)  

Last I heard Craft beers have taken a almost 18 percent jump in the marketplace while the big companies have dropped a few percentage points (which for them I believe adds up to big bucks)

I am not trying to make them into the big bad corporate meanies here either. I could give two shits how much they make, More power to them it is the United States of America. But the fact that they feel threatened, although they kind of push that off in the ad, but paying millions for an ad to say they are not scared pretty much shows they are. 

 They are successful companies and enjoy what comes with that success. But there are so many other beers out there to try. Why limit yourself? Would you eat McDonald's burgers the rest of your life? We will get to that in a minute. First Anheuser Busch is trying to buy up Craft beer makers like they did with Elysian Brewing in Seattle  and you may not know it but they bought controlling interest the Chicago based company Goose Island  Back in 2011   (which in my opinion is good beer, hell even look at the bottle you would not know AB or InBev owns it, it isn't on the bottle anywhere) And then there is Shock Top, another decent summer time beer, that appears to be a craft beer but is made by Bud. 

So why the hell would AB shoot themselves in the face with an ad like this? Fuck if I know but here is my view on it.

It is like they are trying to divide people into beer drinkers and beer snobs. But who is the real snob here? Hey when I have no choice at a concert or an event I will have a Bud or Bud Select. The again if you look above I have taken the water option for my moneys worth at times. Would I rather have or try something else? Yes. But I am not saying I am above drinking a watered down beer. But they make people who like to experiment and seek out other types of beer into some Hipster snob.

 But I want the choice, and people who enjoy those beers should have the choice also, I don’t need to sniff my beer, or swirl it around (and I do know some people do that and that is fine, I don't do it with wine much either) I do smell the beer once in a while (usually the very first time I try something, it is part of your senses) but the enjoyment of drinking beer is…well drinking beer. They say Budweiser is "Beer for Drinking" and not to be "fussed over" or "Dissected"

If someone likes something, why not talk about it? Like a new movie, or book, food or Mountain biking trail? Hey, Captain Obvious, No shit beer is for drinking. You fucking tools in the end even my Imperial stout is to be enjoyed by, wait for it...Drinking!

Finding a great new beer to me is like when I was younger and finding a great new band. You spread the word and say wow the guitar playing is awesome, or the vocals kick ass. But in the end you enjoy the band for what it is. Music.

Do I really take offense to the ad itself? No. More so I look at it as AB InBev being hypocrites, if you don’t like the type of beer drinkers, who enjoy tasting and expanding their horizons in the world of beer, why are you trying to buy up the smaller "Craft Beer" companies? Or throwing out products like Shock Top (or Blue Moon which is Coors version of Craft beer) Then making a commercial that makes fun of those beer drinkers. Just strange to me.

Let’s go back to McDonald's burgers. McDonald's sells billions of burgers every year, do I love McDonald's Burgers? No. I really don't even like them at all. Would I eat it if not given a choice and I was hungry? Yes. (I can count the amount I have eaten in recent history. I have had three yes three burgers from McDonald's in the past 10-11 years)  Would I rather have a nice thick juicy burger full of flavor from a nice restaurant? Yeah, probably overpriced, but I have had some good ones. Or even better, from the grill in my backyard? The answer, every single time.  A frozen burger cooked on a grill with all the flavor taken out of it, just is not that appealing to me. I want variety and taste. Does that make me a burger snob?

 That is how I look at the beer. 

While as much as I make fun of a can of Budweiser it is not a horrible beer, but in my personal opinion, it just does not have that much taste to it, so it is not a good beer either. It is a light beer you can drink while fishing or maybe at a hot summer barbecue. So they are right it is a beer for drinking, that is all.

And how about this part of the commercial Beer Brewed the hard way....

Really? Somehow it is harder to make this beer with all the employees, and resources they have, than a batch of let's say Pumkin Peach Ale?

Now while Pumkin Peach Ale is also not my thing, (I have enjoyed some Pumkin brews but not a fan of peach)  there are plenty of Ales that are and I am sure a ton of heart soul and hard work goes into the smallest Micro brew (another knock in the commercial Bud is a "Macro Brewery" a name that makes the words AB Factory real fancy) 

While beers made by the smaller brewers (or hell even Sam Adams who has gotten to be big time yet still is a craft brewery and some of my favorite beers come from there) have in my personal opinion great taste, and I would rather support the local guy who is putting everything he has into his beer than a factory who may care about their product, I have no doubt about that, I am sure the people working there work hard, but it’s a product I would rather not drink (unless I had to) and if that makes me a beer snob, Well Fuck it! I guess I am a beer snob. And yes Budweiser "there is only one" Unfortunately for you there are thousands of other better tasting beers out there for me to try.