While catching up on some of our favorite beer blogs today, we found this post on BrewBlog. We had just written about A-B’s Wild Hop Ale last week. Now we hear about the launch of Henry Weinhard’s Organic Amber Premium Ale, brewed by its parent, SABMiller. (We confess we miss a lot of news from the big guys simply because we skip over it. Alot.) The post says, “The rollout of the organic brew fits in with Miller’s strategy of tapping emerging segments.” Sure. All the while outproducing and entering markets via SABMiller’s wide distribution network faster than the fine folks at Eel River, Butte Creek, Wolaver’s and Bison (to name a few), who do it because they actually believe in sustainable brewing.

To be fair, Henry Weinhard was indeed a famous craft brewer in the mid-1800s Oregon, but can you honestly say you still brew to those standards when you now belong to a huge beverage conglomerate? What’s worse, Miller shut down the original Blitz-Weinhard Brewery in 1999, which made Portland pretty po’d. Still, they emboss some of the Henry Weinhard beers with the old Blitz-Weinhard logo. The nerve.

Note the link to a story from the Portland Tribune (for extra laughs, in the section Sustainable Life), saying retailers are “enthusiastic.” We’re not. I think the one reader comment about sums it up.

Source/Photo: BrewBlog
Source: Beer Info