Taplines: Inside Anheuser-Busch’s ‘Microbrewing’ Skunkworks
The premise of “David and Goliath,” a tiny hero fighting and righteously conquering a seemingly invincible foe, has long transcended religion to enter the American cultural lexicon. In the ‘80s and ‘90s, as the first wave of microbreweries gained traction with full-flavored beers, contemporary media reports and industry insiders alike adopted the story’s framing to describe an antagonistic relationship between the craft movement and the corporate giants of big beer.
Like any good parable, the “David and Goliath” self-mythology of the American craft brewing industry was illuminating, compelling — and maybe a bit reductive, too. In Episodes 33 and 34, we examined this us-versus-them dynamic from the perspective of one of the “thems,” Keith Villa, who created the Blue Moon Brewing Company from within the Coors colossus in 1995.
Today, we’re coming at it once again through the eyes of New Realm Brewing Co. co-founder and brewmaster Mitch Steele, who did a substantial stretch at Big Beer’s biggest and baddest “Goliath” of all: Missouri’s pre-InBev Anheuser-Busch. After starting his career in a California brewpub, Mitch eventually wound up in St. Louis on a skunkworks-style R&D team tasked with brewing up answers to those pesky “microbrews” that would somehow satisfy distributors, the American drinking public, and August Busch III himself. Would creative extensions on the premium Michelob line do the trick? What about a new brand named for A-B’s hop farm in northern Idaho? Tune in to find out.
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