Budweiser

[sachem_head]

Today, I learned that Budweiser has a monopoly on beer sales at the stadiums of the World Cup. Only, the Germans don't like Budweiser much (if you click the link, click "gallery"). Which I understand. I'm not a big fan of Budweiser, either. But my brother, pkhentz, lives less than a mile away from the Anheuser-Busch brewery in St. Louis. We're descended

Comments

But why?

[anonymous]

Why did those perfectly upstanding purveyors of German (if you'll forgive me) savoir-faire have to go so native they added rice to perfectly good beer? Is this (if you'll forgive me) kosher with German beer purity laws? What would Goethe think? (Would we forgive him?) Did they do it to punish the Irish-Americans, who didn't notice till they'd had a generation of the stuff to sober up? (You can forgive me-- I'm Irish. Just don't kiss me.) I know you, oh great Varnando, to be an expert in things beery. Please explain it, brother! Just don't make me drink the Bud. I mean, what with the German heritage, it could have been Shiner Bock instead. Then the world, even those German bastards, would love us.

Seamus

[sachem_head]

Monsieur Heflito, I blame it on the Cold War. Budweiser belongs to American consumer culture now. It's the McDonald's of beer. The Wal-Mart of beer. Or something. Pax Americana requires a certain clinical plasticity, a utilitarian flatness. It does not require robust flavor or ethnic heritage.