Category: Uncategorized

Up until the early 1970s, categorizing beer was simple.  At the top were imports, with the highest PTC. By far the leading brand was Heineken.  As in most categories, the different imports were priced approximately the same.  Slightly lower were super premiums, dominated by Michelob.  In fact, in many markets, it was only Michelob in […]

During the summers of 1969 and 1970, AB brewery workers decided to go on strike.  The AB distributor in Dallas, Ben E. Keith, ran out of beer, and the Coors wholesaler, Willowbrook, was forced to allocate Coors to the retail trade.  The AB strike was nationwide, however, at the time; Coors was only in 10 […]

This post begins the third year of BeerBusinessUnplugged, and as promised, I would like to comment on what has taken place over the past year, the second year of this blog. In the last 12 months, the weekly subscribers have tripled and readership has more than quadrupled. I have truly enjoyed publishing and hearing back from each of you, […]

As a young District Sales Manager for Lone Star Brewing Co. my territory was west Texas.  While I had a number of distributors in this area, it really was all about low volume and a lot of windshield time.  Lone Star’s volume was concentrated in Austin and then moved southward. Although the territory was west […]

In the early 1970s, Miller Brewing Co. chose Austin as one of the test markets for Miller Lite.  Those of us that were selling beer at the time could not figure out why the consumer would buy a beer that had less alcohol and was priced 10 cents (yes, that’s right) higher than regular beer.  […]

In the summer between high school and college my buddies and I decided to celebrate our high school graduation by taking a road trip to New Orleans. We selected New Orleans for because in Louisiana the drinking age was 18. At that time and it was legal to drink beer, wine, and liquor.  The legal […]

By the 1980s, G. Heileman Brewing Co. had grown into the third largest brewing company in the US.  The business model enabled Heileman to own and market a number of small but successful regional brands.  The breweries’ anchor brand was Old Style, the number one selling beer in the Chicago market and surrounding states. Due […]

Beer marketing and advertising from the end of WWII, to the time when Philip Morris purchased Miller Brewing Co. was somewhat simple.  What little above-the-line marketing (ATL) existed, was composed mostly of commercials with cartoon characters or simple life style situations.  (Below) Above-the-line marketing also focused on print ads using famous people, usually athletes or […]

The Texas Brewing Company was reincarnated in 1992 in Dallas by a highly successful oil wildcatter who was looking for something new and different to create.  Originally located in Ft. Worth, the Texas Brewing Co., during its peak, grew to a 250K bbls. capacity before closing during prohibition. The oil baron who revitalized the company […]

What is significant about today’s date, May 27th?  Today is the 65th birthday of Jim Koch.  Might be difficult to believe but it is true.  The founder and head of Boston Beers is now eligible for Medicare! The numbers for Boston Beers, founded by Jim in 1984, are nothing short of amazing!  Just in IRI […]