(Chicago, IL) – Just one day after the Chicago Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup, AB-InBev got label approval for a limited edition can featuring the winning team. Die-hard collectors may be tickled with excitement to be able to find these on shelves soon. Others, like myself, wonder how it is possible that a process that can drag on painfully for weeks for many craft brewers can be so quick and painless for AB-InBev. Note that there was no ‘backup label’ approved in case the Philadelphia Flyers won so this appears to have taken place in mere hours on Thursday. Just another display of the awesome power that the big brewers have . . .
Let me speculate: This will make Dudweiser taste better or less filling? Oops, wrong conglomerate.
There are tons of alternatives near the Windy City: Two Brothers, Goose Island, Bells, etc.
I agree. I won’t be buying this swill.
It may seem easy for AB-InBev, but it’s probably because they’ve been through the label approval process many thousands of times, not because of any preferential treatment from the government. AB-InBev knows the rules and regulations. Most of their labels tend to be recycled pieces from their extensive library of prior approvals. Anything controversial was likely hashed out and smoothed over a long time ago, so that now it’s just another simple, familiar Bud Light/Budweiser/whatever label with a new logo or font. They’re not into a lot of fancy ale brewed with espresso beans excreted by the Kyrgyzstani Bean Goose stuffed in free range mission figs covered in bacon chocolate sauce. No Double Imperial Turkish stouts (brewed in California). To review all of that stuff takes more time than the label at issue.
So yes, the process can be painful for craft brewers, but the experimentation and envelope-pushing that leads to some delay is also what makes their products different and exciting.
I definitely see what you are saying and can understand that some of the barrel-aged brews take longer but same day processing? I think you’d be hard-pressed to find a craft brewer that has ever achieved this even if their beer was as plain as Original Pale Ale.