Taplines

Not to get all political on here, but historically speaking, Black people have not exactly been welcomed into the halls of power in the American beer industry. There are a dozen well-documented reasons for that, many of which stem less from endemic characteristics of beer or brewing than from the systemic racism baked into this country’s laws and institutions. But to this day, less than 1 percent of the country's ~10,000 breweries are owned by Black people — a sobering state given Black people represent around 13 percent of the overall population in the United States. So the National Black Brewers Association has its work cut out for it. Joining the show today is three-decade beverage-industry veteran Kevin Asato, the NB2A's executive director, to talk about the newly formed trade association's historic debut at the 2023 Craft Brewers Conference, the unique challenges its constituents face, and how the org hopes to tackle them. Don't forget to like, review, and subscribe! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the early '60s, a fellow named Bob Uihlein took the reins at what was then a brewery second only to the mighty Anheuser-Busch in the American beer business pantheon—the Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Schlitz was known nationwide as “the beer that made Milwaukee famous,” and an absolute heavyweight of the day. But under Uihlein’s hackneyed, hamfisted, and otherwise ill-advised direction, both its liquid and its liquidity would be in irrecoverable disarray less than two decades later. Joining the show today for her THIRD Taplines appearance is the brilliant historian and writer Maureen Ogle, author of the vital history Ambitious Brew, to talk about how, exactly, Uihlein & co. erased a century’s worth of Schlitz’s industry-leading, Milwaukee-born brewing legacy in the '60s and '70s. Don't forget to like, review, and subscribe! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Idiosyncrasies abound in this country's state-by-state approach to booze regulation, and South Carolina is home to plenty of 'em. Which is why, in 2005, Jaime Tenny — who would go on to open North Charleston’s COAST Brewing Company with her husband, David Merritt — took a cue from craft brewing colleagues in North Carolina and started Pop the Cap SC, a grassroots organization bent on increasing the state's then-limit on beers' alcohol by volume. This is a wonky one, Taplines listener, a tale of scrappy outsiders making noise in the the provincial halls of power in the Deep South, all in the name of bigger, better, beer. Don't forget to like, review, and subscribe! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In 1994, the mighty pre-InBev Anheuser-Busch made a somewhat shocking decision to do a comedic ad for its flagship brand. This was a big deal — up until then, Budweiser’s ads hewed to the heartland with sincere, wholesome, Americana themes and tunes. But when the firm’s longtime hometown ad agency came up with an idea for Bud's 1995 Super Bowl spot that called for animatronic frogs, August Busch III didn’t laugh them out of his office — he gave it the green light. Thus began the production process of one of Adweek’s “most iconic alcohol ads of all time,” built on the strength of three simple syllables: BUD-WEIS-ER. Today on Taplines, we're talking to Tom Woodard, the current creative director of Nashville's On the Avenue who in the mid-'90s found himself voicing Frog #1 in one of the most beloved beer ads of all time. Don't forget to like, review, and subscribe! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you didn’t know any better, you might assume that the whole pumpkin beer “thing” was an offshoot of Starbucks’ pumpkin-spiced-latte phenomenon. But it most certainly is not. The PSL only hit the American drinking public in 2003. Pumpkin beers, on the other hand, are typically dated to 1983 or thereabouts, shortly after one Bill Owens opened Buffalo Bill’s Brewery in Hayward California. It was there that Owens — a former award-winning photojournalist and future founder of the American Distilling Institute — pioneered the autumnal brew, based on a historical recipe attributed to George Washington, creating one of craft brewing’s most enduring calendrical calling cards in the process. Don't forget to like, review, and subscribe! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Heineken's longstanding dominance as the top-selling import in post-Prohibition America was thanks in large part to the efforts of an American importer, New York's Van Munching and Company. But by the end of the 80s, the Dutch brewer had decided it wanted to bring its stateside operations in-house, which gave third-generation Philip Van Munching front-row seats to the Heineken brand's corporate handoff. We're talking Amstel Light, Heineken Light, and agida aplenty. (This is Part 2 of a Taplines two-parter. Part 1 will appear directly after this in your feed.) Don't forget to like, review, and subscribe! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This podcast explores the challenge of marketing Heineken to modern drinkers while maintaining its prestige, amidst competition from Corona and Samuel Adams. It delves into the paradoxical nature of Heineken as a conservative yet aspirational brand, and examines the influence of yuppies in the 80s and 90s. The podcast also discusses the history of Van Munching and Company, the impact of World War II, and the lawsuit between Bush and Boston Beer Company.

The year: 2008. The magazine: The New Yorker. The story: “A Better Brew: The Rise of Extreme Beer.” Was it the most important magazine piece ever written about craft brewing? Those who know of what they speak, like Tom Acitelli, author of 2013's The Audacity of Hops, certainly thought so. Today we're joined by the author of that seminal New Yorker feature, Burkhard Bilger, to discuss the the idea, the execution, and the legacy of “A Better Brew.” This one is for the media heads, the history heads, and the Bilger heads, too. Don't forget to like, review, and subscribe! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the second installment of a Taplines two-parter about the early days of PBR’s cultural and commercial renaissance after the turn of the 21st century. Our guest for these back-to-back episodes is Neal Stewart, a former Pabst Brewing Company marketer who spent the first half of the Aughts working on the firm’s flagship beer. In this episode, we'll discuss how early signs of life for the nearly defunct brand gave way to a full-blown national phenomenon — and how Stewart and co. carefully fanned the flames from Pabst Brewing Co.'s headquarters in San Antonio. Don't forget to like, review, and subscribe! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Diehard Taplines listeners already know we're fascinated by Pabst Blue Ribbon's ascendance last decade as the ultimate insider beer for the United States' various outsiders' scenes, thanks to our earlier episode with Steve "Stix" Nilsen, who worked on the Blue Ribbon brand throughout the 2010s. But today, we kick off part one of a Taplines two-parter with former Pabst marketer Neal Stewart that’ll function as a prequel to that episode, going deep into PBR’s unlikely, inimitable rise in the early Aughts — not just as a value-priced adjunct lager, but as the red, white, and blue face of an emerging moment in the hipsterized American zeitgeist, for better or worse. Don't forget to like, review, and subscribe! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.