Adolph Kuhrs was born in Prussia on February 4, 1847. Adolph was apprenticed for a three year period at a brewery in Dortmund. He was charged a fee for his apprenticeship, so he worked as a bookkeeper to pay for it. After his father died, Adolph completed his apprenticeship and continued to work as a paid employee at the Wenker Brewery until May 1867. He then worked at various breweries in Germany. Early in 1868, he immigrated to the United States. His name was changed from "Kuhrs" to "Coors". He became foreman of a brewery in Naperville, Illinois. He resigned from his position at the brewery and relocated to Denver, Colorado. He worked in Denver as a gardener for a month, then he purchased a partnership in a brewing and bottling firm located in nearby Golden Colorado. In the same year he bought and assumed control of the entire business and renamed it Golden Brewing Company.
Friedrich Eduard Johannes Müller was born in 1824 in Riedlingen, Germany. In 1854 he moved to the United States and settled in the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He founded the Plank Road Brewery in 1855 and later changed his name to Miller and the name of his company to the Miller Brewing Company
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Adolfus Busch was born in 1839 in Belgium. In 1857 with three of his brothers, he relocated to St. Louis, Missouri. His first job in St. Louis was working as a clerk in the commission house.
He became acquainted and eventually married Lilly Anheuser, (the sister of his brother's wife) whose parents had a small brewery which her father acquired in 1860, renaming it the Bavarian Brewery. Busch eventually purchased a share in the Bavarian brewery from his father-in-law. The company was first called E. Anheuser Brewery and then "Anheuser and Company", but at the death of Eberhard Anheuser in 1880, it was changed to "Anheuser Busch Company".
Frederick Pabst
"Papa Joe" Griesedieck
Theodore Hamm
Gottlieb Heileman
Otto Koehler
David G. Jüngling
Kosmos Spoetzel
John Molsen
Joseph Schiltz
The men mentioned above are pioneers in American Beer History. Their names are associated with their products. Beer is their legacy. They came to a new country and brought with them the skills and desires. They took beer, a beverage generally associated with Western European immigrants and turned it into what it is today.
But here are the real facts. These facts are what I shall base my entire Reality Series on.1. Beer sales in America have not increased or decreased significantly in nearly 4 decades.
2. Beer sales in America reveal that imported beers account for approximately 11 percent of the annual total sales. Craft Beer or beer that is not imported and not made by either Miller Coors or AB-InBev constitutes only 4 percent of the market and the remaining 85 percent is sold by the later.
3. The Big Three or should I say the Big Two* now are tremendously proprietary and use every tool they have to deter small independent breweries. They also produce beers under labels with the sole purpose of entering into the craft beer market. AB-InBev has amped up Michelob and they own or own a huge interest in several microbreweries such as Goose Island ( I especially like their 312 Wheat Beer); Red Hook; Widmer Brothers Brewery and Margaritaville Brewing which produces Land Shark. Miller owns Linekugel and Coors makes Blue Moon White Ale. That is just scratching the surface.
SAB Miller and Molsen Coors has entered into an agreement in the United States where the two companies will join together as one company MillerCoors, to brew their various beer
s at their multiple sites. This is done to be more competitive with AB-InBev. Let me say here that we are talking about Billions of dollars in annual sales. That's right I said billions. These two mega giants are going at each other like boys from the old neighborhood. The Craft Brewers are happy for what they get. They all seem to get along and all tend to support each other.The top ten (In terms of annual sales) Craft Brewer in America are :
Boston Beer Co.
Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.
New Belgium Brewing Co.
Spoetzel Brewing
Pyramid Breweries Inc.
Deschutes Brewery
Matt Brewing Co.
Boulevard Brewing Co.
Full Sail Brewing Co.
Magic H
at Brewing Co.Now new terms are popping up lately. Beer Geek,, Beer Nerd or Beer Snob. I must admit I sort of fit in each of those categories to a certain level. Personally I would much prefer to be called a Beer Stud. I guess I can probably tell you the difference between an IPA and a wheat beer. Actually I could probably do a little better than that. I want to get to the underbelly of ThingsBeer and bring it to light. I am sure the big dogs will not be too happy with my venture. But I am there to hail them as well.
There was this guy at a bar and was bragging that he could blind taste any beer and could tell what brand it was. He had the bartender line up ten different beers and sure enough he got each one right. There were these three rednecks at the bar and upon his feat they handed him a full glass. He took a swig of it contents and quickly spit it out. Holy Shit! Thats piss! The rednecks laughed and said Hell we know that ....But whose?
As I mentioned above, currently in America, there are thee huge producers and sellers of beer. Anhauser Bush now owned by AB-InBev, Miller owned by SAB and Coor's owned by Molson's. The beer they produce is what I consider "acceptable". Let me explain. There is no question that the products that they offer are tasty and refreshing. But then again what they produce is what I grew up drinking. It is what I have to (because it is imbedded into my soul) believe is beer. So let me stop here and drop back to August of 1969. No wait, let me then go to this past weekend. This past weekend was Mother's day weekend. Two of my daughters and one of my son in laws came and visited us. They got here mid afternoon on Saturday. They came bearing gifts (and yes a finger/thumb was cut......mine) Mrs. The Third got a set of knives. We all went to eat BBQ and then we went to our fav pub O Brien's. The Prodigy, The Rock Star Mentality and The Mrs The Third went up stairs to play pool. The Jim , the Prodigy and I stayed down stairs and played electronic trivia. The Jim pretty much beat the living shit out of both of us but I must admit I got my licks in
and won a few parlays. I even won the last one which is a good thing. One of the the questions on the trivia game was about Jimi Hendrix. I made a comment I had seen him two times. Once in Shreveport and once at Woodstock. "Daddy you went to Woodstock? You never told me that." "Well yes I did actually. With my cousin Mike. You know? He is the one born on the planet Uranus" I know I told her before but I guess she forgot. Yes I did go to one of the top 50 historical events of music history. Ok I will chat more about my days in the wet farmland of New York. But it was in the summer of 1969 (No I am not referring to the song by Byran Adams.) when I returned to find in our living room a Magnovox 28" color TV. It was wonderful. It made telivision so real and natural. I mean it was not the first time I had seen color tv. Our neighbors the Hawkins had a color tv for years and we used to go next door and eat steaks and watch Hogans Heros and the Man from Uncle on Friday nights. But now we had our own TV and it was in color. Shit! it wa TV like it should be. But TV like beer was sort of what I grew up with. Color really added a lot to it. It added something I never even realized I missed. I now have a fancy widescreen high definition TV and it is light years ahead of what we had back in the summer of 69 . Watching High Def TV reminds me that good beer should be "good".Now I finish this blog and as I read it to proof read it I too much say. Holy shit!
But I think I have embedded an underlying theme and mantra of the direction of my show. Yes, sadly you just may have to re read it to find it but it is there. Trust me.
Is anybody going to San Antone?
The Third
You have made an error in this blog...the prodigy stayed downstairs and the prodigial went upstairs. You have me in two places at once. As for names you like to be called referring to beer .... I like beer aficinado. I really haven't guessed what your theme is because ....you DRAG ON AND ON... but if I had to guess I would say it revolves around beer:)
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