re: Big Beer dresses up in craft brewers' clothing

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And the powerful lobbying of the National Beer Wholesalers Association (NBWA) works hard to keep things as they are. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, the NBWA Political Action Committee contributed $2,721,000 to political candidates for the 2012 elections, the second most by any PAC.

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On tap at the local pub were the usual suspects: Bud, Miller, Coors, and maybe an import like Heineken. In 1979, there were 44 brewing companies in the U.S. Today, there are 2,126. For the most part, there was one kind of beer available: what is derided in craft circles as "fizzy yellow beer" -- also known as "adjunct" or "corn" lagers. Adjunct refers to the addition of cheap ingredients (corn, rice) to lighten a beer's taste or lower production costs. Adjunct lagers are the boxed-wine of the craft beer world.

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Federal restrictions on home brewing were lifted in 1978, leading to increased amateur experimentation. Meanwhile, a handful of pioneering breweries demonstrated the viability of craft beer as a regional business. In 1984, Jim Koch founded The Boston Beer Company and started brewing Samuel Adams Boston Lager, the beer that arguably kicked off the craft beer renaissance of the 1990s. "You gotta remember, this was a totally different world," says Koch. "In 1984, if you were an American beer drinker, you could not get a great glass of beer. You could get mass-produced beers, which are fine for what they are, but they're not trying to be great."

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A Harvard grad, Koch (no relation to Greg Koch, mentioned above) left a job at Boston Consulting Group to pursue his family trade. Koch's grandfather was a brewmaster at Anheuser-Busch. "My personal experience with them began in January of 1996. In 1996, they began a yearlong, full-scale attack campaign focused on doing as much damage as they could do to my business. And it began with kicking us out of virtually all of the Anheuser-Busch wholesalers. And then they started a PR campaign, which attacked Sam Adams."

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The story illustrates what Jim Koch sees as a cultural difference between the craft industry and the big brewers. "Their view of business is not cooperative or collaborative. Craft brewers are very different." Citing an example, Jim Koch says that in light of a current shortage of certain types of hops needed for specific beer styles, his company decided to share some of its excess inventory. "We gave up some of these scarce hops so that 200 other craft brewers could make more of their beer, in a sense compete with us, and that mentality is completely foreign to big companies."

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Less diplomatic, but more succinct, Stone Brewing Company's Greg Koch puts it this way: "If you want to listen to Milli Vanilli., I suppose that's a choice you get to make. Just know that you're making that choice."

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