The New York Times asks, "Are We In Danger of a Beer Monopoly?" (Thanks to MC for the link.) The subject of the article is the proposed purchase by InBev, the parent of Budweiser, of Grupo Modelo, the parent of Corona, Negro Modelo, and others. Those willing to pollute themselves with fizzy yellow adjunct beer would perhaps fear the prospect of higher prices from such a merger. But beer-as-big-business is obscuring the big picture: beer as small businesses.
Davidson writes, "InBev is already facing staunch competition from Denmark’s Carlsberg, Britain’s SABMiller and Japan’s Asahi. It’s not exactly worried about Sam Adams and Sierra Nevada." But the public has been fleeing watery American lagers for a generation, and not for the "super dry" Asahi. The winners are the thousands of craft breweries that have exploded unto the scene during the same period. They brew good beer, and they are legion.
The low end will always consolidate: if you can't charge for quality, you've got to make money on volume. But merger or no merger, it's never been a better time to be a beer drinker.
More than a monopoly on the beer production, one has to wonder about the post-prohibition laws on distribution. Many of the large companies have a strong hold on the distribution. Check out an interesting documentation: Beer Wars.
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