Capitalism and Beer.
Written: Jul 25 '01
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Wonderful Micro-brew.
Cons: After getting my questions answered, I guess none.
The Bottom Line: Plagued by questions of being owned by Miller, I went to source to find out some answers.
|
|
|
| Roark_8's Full Review: Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Company |
I used to love getting my friend bgreienr* riled up. The easiest way that I found was to say, “Wow! I just got this great deal at Wal-Mart!” His face would fill with blood and snap to attention. You would then have to sit through a lecture on the evils of Wal-Mart and what it’s doing to our nation’s small towns. If he had had a couple of drinks, forget about it, your night of rational discussion was over. Bgreienr definitely felt a bit more strongly about the nature of recent capitalism trends towards conglomeration than the average American. People seem to have the happy go lucky attitude when I hear them resolve their buying decisions in a supermarket with the logic of “Well its all made by 3 companies anyway.” I tend to ride the fence on this issue. I’m fearful of the AOL Time Warners and their growing ability to use their power to control information and set their own rules, but at the same time I’m pretty apathetic about any political issues anymore. Its not that I‘m lazy, I just feel pretty defeated.
So I’m not sure what I felt when I found out Leinenkugels was owned by Miller who, in turn, is owned by Phillip Morris. Leinie’s has always been my drink of choice. My brother, who was my beer drinking role model, handed me my first one while fishing one time. It was if as to say, “This is what we drink here in the land of sky blue waters (Minnesota). We all know that those cheeseheads next door make it, but at least it ain’t Bud.” When drinking the smooth lager from Chippewa Falls, I was supporting the local economy, not some fat cat in St. Louis. And hell, if I was supporting the local economy, I might as well do what I can to keep it strong right? Ahh, the logic of drunken college student, I miss those days. So when I found out that all this time I had been supporting not only some fat cat in Milwaukee, but some even bigger fat cat in wherever Phillip Morris is located, (I’m assuming somewhere in the Carolinas), I was dumbfounded. It wasn’t even a recent acquisition either. Miller bought Leinenkugels in 1986-7. I wasn’t sure how to resolve the anti-macrobrewery stance I had taken in my beer drinking. Was I going to have to switch beers now? Well, due to my apathy, I continued to drink Leinenkugels, as I felt too defeated to shop myself around to other local microbreweries.
This summer, something changed my viewpoint on all of this. I somehow convinced my gal to accompany me on a trip to Milwaukee to see my beloved Twins play the Brewers in their new stadium. I think I enticed her with the fact that the new stadium’s roof opened and closed in a spectacular manner. Regardless, off we went. I have been trying to introduce my gal to the wonders of beer and what better way than to visit the breweries where they were made? So we made plans to visit the Miller brewery in Milwaukee and stop by the Leinenkugels brewery in Chippewa Falls on our way back through Wisconsin. First up was the Miller Tour.
I knew something was up when the exit in which the directions I had gotten from the Miller website said I was supposed to take was closed. The problem was there were no detour signs. Nothing that would tell you, “This way to the Miller Brewery.” So we wondered around until we found a ramp that seemed to have people with bags from the Miller gift shop walking into it. We followed the flow of people to what seemed to be the entrance. So instantly I was put off. Obviously, Miller didn’t really want me to come; they were basically humoring me if I did find the place. We walked in to a madhouse of people, got our wristband and were told it would be an hour before we could get in on a tour. We decided to wait it out and perused the gift shop for awhile. When our tour was ready, we were herded in a room with some video screens and seats. In all, there were 130 of us on the tour. After the propaganda videos were through, a tour guide with broken English showed us three parts of the brewery: the bottling, the shipping, and the old naturally cooled caves where they used to age the beer. But the most troubling aspect of all of this was throughout the tour, our guide kept apologizing for the length of the tour and promised that the free beer was only moments away. It was like we were school children enduring a lecture and pizza day in the lunchroom was close at hand. I’m all about free beer, but at the same time there is a reason I went there. I was generally interested in the process. I felt insulted. The tour ended and they sat us down in a big room and waves of waitresses flew by throwing glasses on each table announcing “High Life!” or “Miller Lite!” When I walked back to find my car, I couldn’t tell if the sour taste in my mouth was from the tour or the god-awful Miller High Life.
So when we took the exit to Chippewa Falls, I knew that the Leinenkugels tour could only go up from Miller. As long as I didn’t feel like I was being treated like a 10-year-old, it had to be better. We got there right as the last tour of the day was going out, (3:00 on Sunday, 4:00 every other day) and including me and my gal, there were 5 of us on the tour. Our tour guide seemed to have lived in the area all her life and was quite on the ball. Every question I threw at her she had an answer for.
Me: So you say that you are switching from a copper kettle to a Stainless steel kettle, are you concerned that this will this effect the taste in any way?
TG: Are you?
Me: (taken aback) Ahh, A little bit.
TG: Well, our brewmeister is quite picky and would never approve the switch if the taste were changed at all.
Me: (Realizing that I just sounded a little over-concerned about their beer and trying to save some dignity) Well. Its not like I’m lying awake at night.
TG: Riiiight. Up next we have the building…
Girlfriend looks at me and rolls her eyes.
Usually the tour takes you through the building in which the brewing actually takes place, but due to the before mentioned kettle change, we couldn’t through it. I was told they would open that building back to the public in September 2001. So if you are thinking about visiting, wait until after then. But, instead of going through the brewing building our tour guide took us into the shade and using pictures, charts, and jars full of malted barley and hops explained the entire brewing process to us. It was quite fascinating to me, less so to my gal. Our guide then brought us to the bottling and shipping, but instead of being up above and behind windows like at Miller, we were right on the line. Go during the week if you want to see the line in action. After the tour was over, the guide happily answered all of my questions. I pleasantly surprised to find out the information that I was seeking. First, Miller is Leinie’s parent company and mainly only helps them with distribution and advertising. The Chippewa Falls brewery makes 95% of all brands of Leinenkugels (I had originally thought that only the Original brand was made there) and has only 90 employees. Miller only helps in brewing their beer when they run short on inventory or have downtimes like when when the kettle change occurs. They also showed us a picture of how they make their Honey Weiss brand: by dumping a 5-gallon bucket of honey into the kettle. I was amazed by this. I had pictured some artificial process of many ingredients being added. It was somehow refreshing to see this primitive procedure. And lastly, I found out that filling a glass half with their Berry Weiss and half with their Honey Weiss makes a tasty drink. The free sample portion of the tour consists of going to the bar section of their gift shop and ordering what you want. They have every kind of beer they make on tap and the bartender was pretty good about helping you decide what to try.
So I left the brewery with a renewed pride in my beer of choice. Even though it was owned by the big evil macro-brewery, it somehow managed to maintain its appreciation for the people who drink their beer. This experience isn’t going to switch me to republican and have me rooting for big business, but it did give me some insight into the fact that these partnerships between companies sometime are beneficial to the small companies. Leinenkugels has maintained its microbrew status, but at the same time they are getting better distribution and advertising. So until Leinie’s loses its soul, I say drink and be merry.
*bgreienr is his epinions name. Unfortunately the epinions filter blocked his nickname.
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
Roark_8
|
|
Location: Twin Cities, MN
Reviews written: 22
Trusted by: 43 members
About Me:
I pity da fool who don't write good reviews.
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.