The Great Beer Challenge (cont.)

“They constantly have their hands out, and you can get space if you pay,” Deb Carey, who is the founder and president of New Glarus, tells Consumers Digest. She says retail stores would offer prime placement if the brewer or distributor paid for ads, and she says bars would require brewers or distributors to pay for bands that play in the bar or pay for new tap lines if they wanted their beer to be featured on a tap.  

Although the Crain’s article painted the practice as unique to Chicago, virtually everyone with whom we spoke called the practice of giving incentives to bars widespread nationwide. Only Carey and one other brewer with whom we spoke, Greg Koch of Stone Brewing, categorically denied that their breweries engage in the practice. (Other brewers whom we interviewed declined to comment on the issue.) Koch says many bar owners have asked him to give the bar a free case of beer for every four or five cases that the bar buys. “If you decline, you get a string of expletives on the way out the door,” says Koch, who is not related to Boston Beer’s Jim Koch.

The distribution games go beyond bars, however. As “Beer Wars” revealed, many supermarkets designate a distributor of one of the major brands of beer to oversee which products are sold on the limited space that is on their shelves and in their coolers. That’s right, a representative from a distributor (which often works on behalf of Anheuser-Busch/InBev or MillerCoors) actually decides what goes on supermarket shelves and how it should be arranged. Unsurprisingly, those beer representatives recommend primarily their own products.

Even if a supermarket has a huge beer section, major brewers still can flood shelves with enough selections to crowd out brands from craft brewers. That’s because Anheuser-Busch/InBev and MillerCoors have purchased many specialty brands and even created some of their own in the past 10 years. For instance, Anheuser-Busch/InBev has nine varieties of Budweiser, including labels, such as Budweiser Golden Wheat, that mimic the names (if not the taste) of craft brands. MillerCoors now owns niche brands Leinenkugel and Henry Weinhard Special Reserve, which used to be independent regional beers. )

We aren’t surprised that Anheuser-Busch/InBev responded to our interview request with a statement that didn’t address any of the issues that we raised, or that MillerCoors failed to respond to our multiple requests for an interview. In fact, it seems that both brewers are more interested in contributing to consumers’ confusion than clearing it up. Each year, these brewers introduce marketing gimmicks as a way to draw attention to their most popular products.

For instance, 2 years ago, Coors Light started selling its beer in “cold-activated” cans that change colors when the temperature of the beer supposedly is cold enough to drink. And as of last year, Miller Lite now is sold in so-called vortex bottles that have twisted glass on the inside of the neck that makes the beer spin out when it’s poured. Although MillerCoors says the vortex bottle is designed to enhance the beer’s flavor, we found no independent experts who say that such a bottle design would make any beer taste better.

Seriously? Swirling beer? That kind of bottling novelty is enough to make your head spin too. It’s another indication that big beer companies and many distributors will do whatever it takes to distract you from getting access to all of the beers that you want. And it adds a whole new meaning to the phrase, “Think Before You Drink.”

Michael Blanding has written stories about the food and beverage industry for Consumers Digest. He also is author of the book “The Coke Machine: The Dirty Truth Behind the World’s Favorite Soft Drink” (Avery/Penguin, 2010).