July 11, 2002 -- I. AMERICAN BEER MONTH TAKES AN UGLY TURN, COURTESY OF AN 800-POUND GORILLA IN ST. LOUIS.

In last week's Publicanista! bulletin, I noted that July is American Beer Month and revealed that Rich O's had agreed to take part in a draft beer promotion called the Challenge Cup.

The Cup competition involves pubs designating ten brands of American-made beer, then reporting how much of each was sold during a three-day period. It's up to the participating pub to design a promotion that will move lots of draft beer. The winner gets the cup, but the real winner - or so the concept goes - is the image of homegrown American beer.

When the promised promotional coasters and posters arrived in the mail, it was revealed that the Challenge Cup is being staged with the help of a corporate sponsor ... Michelob Amber Bock. For those who don't already know it, Michelob Amber Bock is a shameless mockrobrew dispensed by Anheuser-Busch, who intends for it and the other Michelob mockrobrews to take shelf space away from genuine craft-brewed American beers.

That's right, American craft-brewed beers - the sort that have come into existence as a necessary alternative to the palate-numbing hegemony of Anheuser-Busch in the American beer marketplace, and without which there would be no American Beer Month to even bother celebrating.

Speaking only for myself, as a proponent of good beer in general and good American beer in particular, we can and must do without tainted blood money from an industrial megabrewer when it comes to promoting craft beers, microbrews and good American-made beer.

It's bad enough that Charlie Papazian's sacrosanct Association of Brewers fiefdom must rely on the cash and logistical extortion of the megabrewers in order to stage the GABF. Now, when we should be celebrating our achievements in empowering American brewing, we must do so with the mark of Anheuser-Busch pinned to our lapels.

Needless to say, Rich O's will not be participating in the Challenge Cup competition, although we will continue to feature - and bureaucratic paperwork willing, very soon to brew - the best American beers.

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