I had the amazing fortune to see firsthand what a company like Ab-InBev can accomplish if they put some resources toward brewing something other than American-style lagers. In 2007, my brother and I won the chance to scale up an IPA recipe, and help brew it on A-B’s pilot brewery in St. Louis. At that time the pilot brewery was under the Michelob brand of A-B. I learned that they were brewing three, 10 barrel test batches, five days a week working on recipes for beers like Czech Pilseners, Imperial IPAs, German-style Dunkelweizens, Irish Red Ales and American Pale Ales . These beers were fantastic and would stand up quite well to the finest craft beer examples at that time. If you think they don’t understand the beer industry from top to bottom you are so mistaken. They have their hands in every sector of the beer industry. They reach us beer snobs by purchasing or investing in established companies like Goose Island and Redhook. They try to retain customers who are ready to leap to craft beer, by making beers like the one the original poster complained about. That beer was not made for you or me or anyone else who posts to a homebrewing forum on a regular basis. It was made for the lifelong BMC drinker that wants to try something different, but not too different. Just as Dirk mentioned if Ab-InBev wanted to make a double IPA, I have no doubt it would be an excellent beer. They have every resource imaginable to make it happen. They don’t need to do it, because they are already making those beers for us at Redhook, Goose Island and probably a couple of other breweries that I am not yet aware of. In the end, I prefer to not support AB-Inbev, SAB Miller or Molson Coors because I like to drink local or make my own.
