Word: beers
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Adolph Coors Co. of Golden, Colo., everything seemed to be going right in the early 1970s. Though it was a regional beer produced in a single brewery, Coors won a kind of trendy following among everyone from college kids to Henry Kissinger and was carted in suitcases and backpacks across the U.S. Annual sales gains averaging 10% carried Coors to fourth place among brewers nationwide, but in 1977 disaster struck. The brewery was hit by a long and costly strike. The firm's poor labor-management relations brought on both bad publicity and a union boycott of Coors products...
...brewer's attempt to expand nationally by taking over Pabst has been stymied by the Milwaukee firm's defensive maneuvers to fend off acquisition. Moreover, the Justice Department has threatened antitrust action against the takeover because both Heileman and Pabst already have sizable shares of the Midwest beer market...
...their sales. Too insignificant to get pushed around much by bigger brands, they concentrate on developing products with a unique taste and appeal. Among the best: Stevens Point Brewery of Stevens Point, Wis., which makes what a tasting panel assembled by Chicago Newspaper Columnist Mike Royko called the finest beer brewed in America; Leinenkugel of Chippewa Falls, Wis., which has been operated by the Leinenkugel family for 115 years; and Geyer Bros, of Frankenmuth, Mich., which last year turned a profit by brewing and selling a mere 4,500 bbl. of beer...
Perhaps the most glamorous small brewer is Anchor Brewing Co. of San Francisco, which was saved from bankruptcy in 1965 by Frederick Maytag, the great-grandson of the washing machine company founder. Maytag has developed a national following for his Anchor Steam Beer even though only 25,000 bbl. of the brew were produced last year. The beer, now available in 19 states, including Massachusetts and Georgia, is much praised by savants for its distinctively European taste, which imparts a somewhat heavier bouquet than is common among American brands...
Though some local and boutique brewers may continue to do well, the shakeout among larger beer companies will inevitably mean fewer and fewer choices for consumers. That is something that no beer lover can welcome. These days, when the bartender asks, "What'll you have?" the options seldom if ever seem to include such familiar names as Rheingold, Knickerbocker, Hamm's and Falstaff. Thus as the industry grows more and more concentrated, with fewer companies ruling more of the market, bits of Americana itself will continue to disappear. -By Alexander L. Taylor III. Reported by Stephen Koepp/New York...