Foam Flies In Beer Label Spat Rivals Assail Brewery For Marketing Tactics

Samuel Adams beer has a lot of Boston in it - or so its drinkers think.

The long-necked bottles and detailed labels clad with the stern face of Mr. Adams himself above the “Brewer, Patriot” motto just exudes this New England city.

But many Bostonians may be surprised to learn that 90 percent of the cold drafts they imbibe aren’t from their neck of the woods. The Boston Beer Co., which owns Samuel Adams, makes most of its beer in Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York and Oregon - and some competitors now want to make an issue out of it.

Anheuser-Busch Inc., the world’s largest brewer, and a host of smaller beer makers have filed a petition with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms that would force brewers to divulge where their beer is brewed and who brews it.

“Just with the name, you’d think it was made here. It’s a shock,” said Paul Yates, a bartender at The Purple Shamrock, a popular bar near Boston’s Faneuil Hall.

“You always thought it was from around here,” he said. “You want to support the people from around here. They market it as if it were made here.”

Boston Beer and Pete’s Brewing Co. of Palo Alto, Calif., which sells Pete’s Wicked Ale, were cited in a petition filed Jan. 25 with the ATF.

The petition claims both companies fail to disclose on their labels or in their ads that brewers such as Stroh Brewery Co., G. Heileman Brewing Co. and Pittsburgh Brewing Co. have been hired to brew, bottle and package their products.

Both companies said that the petition was aimed at derailing Anheuser-Busch’s smaller, but fast-growing, rivals. Anheuser-Busch produced 87.5 million barrels of beer last year, while Boston Beer produced 900,000 barrels and Pete’s produced about 300,000 barrels.

“It’s just a bully thing,” said Mark Bozzini, president of Pete’s Brewing Co.

“It’s just one more wave of petty harassment,” agreed Jim Koch, founder of Boston Beer.

Koch admitted that only about 10 percent of his beer is made in Boston and defended Boston Beer’s decision to let other companies do the brewing.

“Boston Beer Co. selects the ingredients, brings them to the breweries, determines procedures and tastes every batch,” he said.

“The normal person’s understanding is that the brewer is in charge of all the ingredients, like the chef. If Julia Child comes to your house to make the dinner, who made it? It’s your kitchen but Julia Child’s dinner.”

But some industry watchers say that both Boston Beer and Pete’s Brewing are using somewhat deceptive methods in marketing their beer.

“They’re kind of co-opting the name … it is misleading,” said Michael Sherwood, executive director of the Oregon Brewers Guild, a trade organization that represents the state’s microbreweries.

Paul Shipman, founder and president of Redhook Ale, one of the small brewers behind the petition, said that consumers are entitled to know how the beer they drink is made.

“We have felt for a long that consumers were not given the real information about where the beer was made,” said Shipman.

But some think the petition will backfire.

“I certainly think it’s going to boomerang, because the American public always sticks up for the little guy,” said Al Ries, a marketing strategist with Ries & Ries in Great Neck, N.Y.