To swill or not to swill

As many of you know I like to pick on the big macrobreweries who overload our senses with mass advertising trying to brainwash us that beer should taste like fizzy, slightly yellow colored water. They do a fantastic job at this, just as they do a fantastic job at producing beers that taste like fizzy, slightly yellow colored water. They do such a fantastic job at this that most craft breweries are content with letting them have a near monopoly on making pale lagers and don't compete with them. Yes, the German, Dutch and Czech imports do a good job at giving people a pale lager that does have a good taste as an alternative but with the exception of Heineken they don't bombard us with a lot of mass advertising. Maybe it is because the nations craft breweries are slowly making a dent in their sales but the big boys have started making beers that do have flavor, color, contain hops and are not made with cheap inferior ingredients. This was demonstrated this year as they racked up a ton of medals at the Great American Beer in such categories as Marzen, Pale Ale, German style Hefeweiss, Smoked beer and Bock beer as just a few examples. The thing that burns me up is that these beers are not really available to the public, that they are sometimes released just as one time tests in one market and then they disappear or they are not available for sell at all. As far as winning medals go they are not competing on a level playing field as they have the money to spend to make these beers as scientifically clean and accurate as possible and leaving out the brewers art which makes craft brewing so unique.

So why am I starting out the year on this diatribe. Well. the so called 'king of beers' aka A-B has just developed a brew it has publicly stated that it has no intention of selling. Front Range Fresh Harvest Hop Ale, which uses a fresh hop brewing process, will only be available as part of the company’s complimentary sampling program at the end of its brewery tours at a couple of its breweries around the country. The beer was made at their Fort Collins brewery. One of the company’s brewers stated that they had such a great reaction when people tried this batch, that they decided to share it on a broader scale at their other breweries. I just don't get it, why in the world would you make a beer that you say is good and then not try and sell it? Is it because they are afraid that they will be forced to produce a product that costs them more than 8 cents a bottle to produce and that their profit margins would shrink or is it because they are afraid the people who drink their mass produced swill will discover that their is a world of beer out there that has taste?

Prost, Ron