Been awhile since my last post I have been spending the holidays in Spain and there has been nothing really to write about.
That being said I have been looking high and low for some good beer. I can find lots of German beers and a smattering of English beer but it pales in comparison to the flavor of good American craft beer, it's often not fresh and not at all local. I did finally try the local light lager in an act of desperation.
The mahou brewery was founded in Madrid in 1890 by a French entrepenuer. In 1953 the brewery partnered with Philipino owned San Miguel brewery, in the 1960's and again in the mid 1990's Mahou built modern production breweries. In the year 2000 the brewery bought out the 30% ownership stake held by San Miguel making the brewery wholly Spanish owned (amazingly no ABIvbev or SabMiller ownership).
So, how does it taste ?
Surprisingly it tastes like a light lager should, I have yet to get a skunked or light struck glass. It's light and highly carbed, of course, but it has some bready malt character and a nice slightly sweet finish. I can see how it would be good in the oppressively hot Spanish summer months.
It's still not what I like though, it's too light on flavor and really given another good, even acceptable choice I would not drink it. I have been trying to explain the notion of American craft beer to the Europeans but it makes no sense to them, the mention of American beer gets the response of "you mean Budweiser ?, that's crap." .... I know it's crap have you not heard anything I just said ?
Thankfully the wine is really good (and dirt cheap) usually wine gives me a pounding headache but here it seems to not have the effect. I plan on visiting at least one local vineyard/ winery while here.
.... I'm really Looking forward to an imperial IPA and a nice roasty porter as soon as I'm back in the promise land....

Belgian/ Brazilian brewing giant ABInbev (AKA. World Beer Co or as they see it "the worlds local brewer") recently set its sights for its Belgian Beer Cafe restaurant chain on the United States. Belgian Beer is growing in popularity in the U.S right along the with the growth of craft beer. Belgian Beer Cafe will be a chain restaurant that evokes the feel of a 1920's belgian cafe, it will serve all Belgian beers alongside Belgian food.

The Belgian Beer Cafe in Dubai

Already the chain has been spreading around the world, locations have opened up in 50 cities across 19 countries many of them are found in larger cities but are also found in airports and hotels.
Belgian Brewers not associated with ABInbev have a love hate relationship with the enterprise, on one hand they are appreciative of ABInbev spreading the culture of Belgian brewing around the world, however, they are worried that the mega brewer could do more harm than good to the image of Belgian Beer.
While I'm sure the chain will be immensely popular it would be better to support the small bar specializing in Belgian beer. Hopefully soon a belgian style bar will be opening in downtown Schenectady, From what I hear they will be focusing on belgian as well as craft beer. Supporting the small business man rather than the global brewing giant will ensure small craft Belgian brewers can continue to grow without getting into bed with ABInbev.

A post on probrewer.com alerted me to the state of the 2011 malting barley harvest and prompted me to do some more digging.
The American Malting Barley Association issued a report in September citing an alarming drop in the 2011 harvest. The 2011 crop year is predicted to produce 115,050,000 bushels, this is down 14% from the 2010 harvest (180,268,000 bushels) and down approximately 18% from the 2009 harvest (227,323,000 bushels).  These are the lowest harvest/ production levels since 1936. Additionally the planted acreage in the 2011 crop year was 2,559,000 acres, this is down from 2,872,000 acres in 2010.
Barley is an important crop for the U.S. From 2000-2009 the barley growing industry employed 1,885,175 people and contributed $25,029,000.00 to state and local taxes.
As the chart shows the use of most of the domestic barley crop goes towards the beer industry, however, a significant portion of the crop goes towards feed for livestock. The beer/ brewing industry generates many billions of tax dollars and pays several billion dollars in wages as the chart below shows.


The money invested in planting malting and brewing with domestic barley keeps money in the U.S economy. A shortage of barley will drive up the cost of malt for many small brewers, potentially exponentially.(Anhauser-Busch/ INBev as well as SABMiller own their own malt houses) These small brewers are generally running on lower margins than the mega milti-national brewers and in many cases rely on lower prices for raw materials to male payroll.
During the hop shortage of 2006-2007 brewers were able to make substitutions for the hops they were unable to source, however if malts are too expensive for small brewers to source they are unlikely to make substitutions to other sources to fermentable material. Perhaps these brewers will produce foreign produced malt from Canada or even China, draining money from the U.S economy.
Any way you cut it the decrease in production of malting barley needs to stop, brewers large and small rely on malt to make their product. If less barley is available the largest brewers will undoubtedly receive their raw and malted barley first spelling nothing but trouble for the smallest of breweries.

There has been talk all over the internet financial and brewing sites lately of Anheuser-Busch Inbev (currently the worlds largest brewing company) making a mover to acquire SABMiller.
This deal would be huge, it would create a brewing juggernaut with sales on every continent (even Antarctica).
The acquisition is rumored to be priced somewhere in the neighborhood of $80 billion, and would become a reality somewhere around 2013. SABMiller's recent takeover of Australian brewer Foster's for $10 billion slowed down the acquisition.
The merger could spell trouble for ABInbev though, anti trust lawyers are rubbing their palms together in the U.S and China. The new company would likely have to sell off its recently acquired U.S holdings in Miller and Coors brewing companies as well as its control of Chinas CR Snow. ABInbev already has very large holdings in these markets so the selloff would only help.
Some think this deal is highly unlikely to end up going down due to the high price of the takeover. However, when Inbev acquired Anheuser-Busch that was the largest merger to ever take place so the company has shown that they are not afraid of large dollar takeovers.
The craft brewing community does not seem too worried about the impending acquisition. Ours in somewhat of a niche market and many people who drink craft beer are aware of who owns what and actively decide not to drink products owned by large multi national companies. It's not necessarily to say that all brands owned by these companies are producing sub par beer (ABInbev recently acquired Chicago craft brewery Goose Island) but many people working in the craft beer industry and supporting the craft beer industry would rather support their local brewery or a brewery that remains independent.
The numbers don't lie. The brewers association reports that in 2010 the craft brewing industry grew 11% by volume and 12% by dollars with 1,716 operating breweries, compare this to the U.S domestic beer industry which in 2010 was down 1% by volume. The craft brewing industry is rapidly approaching a 10% market share with the increase in a knowledgeable consumer who is looking for something more than a multi-national brewing conglomerate.

Here are some relevant links
Brands owned by SABMiller
Brands owned by ABInbev
Where I got my info 
http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=154420
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-06/sabmiller-shares-surge-on-report-of-ab-inbev-takeover-talks.html
http://www.probrewer.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=22500
http://www.brewersassociation.org/pages/business-tools/craft-brewing-statistics/facts