Catching up on a few things:
- Adjunct usage seems to have really stepped up post-Prohibition and WWII here in the US. Desire for lighter, less "heavy" beers with drier finishes really pushed that change
- The Van Nuys plant - the second largest in the company - produces over 250k BBLs of beer per month - that's more than all but the biggest craft breweries do in a year - and they do it with 6 brewers per shift - 2 each in the brewhouse, fermentation and packaging.
- Nov. 5th - Pabst officially closed on the soon to be ex-MillerCoors plant in Irwindale for $150M
1. im basing this not on data, but intuition admittedly - but the public's "desire" may come second to or at least be eagerly encouraged because "drier" generally means cheaper. a reason why there are frequent trends in alcohol - "dry beers" in the 90s, low carb beers and hard seltzers now. less total ingredients for a similar amount of alcohol to make it a "drink".
2. yup, it is crazy, also considering the number of bud producing factories that exist around the world. hite or OB (cant remember) in gwangju korea got licenses to make hoegaarden and budweiser a long time ago, the budweiser was imho noticeably different than the north american one but the hoegaarden was always good and not really distinguishable from it in north america. factories of it in china at least im sure too.
3. i feel sad for these "homeless" old brews, that are just sort of contract brewed from place to place and year to year until their inevitable death.
One reason that people complained or tuned out of this style is that when you walk into a store (this was especially true many years ago) you just saw different brands of the same style. Why? Corona, Stella Artois, Miller, Rolling Rock, Sol, Coors, Bud, Landshark Lager, PBR, Lone Star, Red Stripe, Old Milwaukee, Modelo, Dos Equis, Keystone, Busch, Michelob Ultra. Ugh. Too much of the same style over and over again. It's a style like any other but it's been done to death.
yup, the illusion of choice. i mean yes, they are slightly different, but there isnt even another real comparison of any product that are so generally similar yet differently branded. i dont know, potato chips? even they have much greater differences and there are some that are legitimate quality products, but every one of the ones listed above i would drink grudgingly if i was at a party with a good atmosphere and/or it was free. theyre nothing products, just marketing really. say red stripe, thats a good example - it isn't owned by a beer conglomerate, (apparently its company is owned by diageo admittedly though), it is a small player aiming at trendy/"true"/unique and it is still complete crap. i dont really have a strong interest in the style, i dont think i can be convinced to when a german helles or pilsner, an "original" pale lager is actually good. why not look at their systems instead? ie. warsteiner