Giving Away Beer Before You Have to Throw It Out

 

Bud Light is making a big deal about giving away their beer to distributors for free.  What many know is that the beer industry often has “best by” dates, few know what happens when the beer gets to or near that date.

Standard operating by brewers and their distributors is to remove from retailed shelves any beer that is within two weeks of the “sell by” or “best by” date.  These beverages are then recycled back to the brewer, and replaced for the retailer with “fresher” beer.  The recycled beer is distilled down to ethanol, and often sold to power plants for conversion into electrical energy.

Now that Bud Light sales have tanked, Bud is stuck with massive inventory overloads, that if not given away or sold, will simply be tossed into the recycling bin of history.

This is no wonderful, “we’re sorry” moment by Bud Light.  It is merely a use it or lose it moment.  They give it away, or toss it in the garbage. They hope free beer might make a few deplorables forget the insults from the past.

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  1. Caryn Thatcher
    Caryn
    @Caryn

    Never forget; never forgive!  It’s also crappy beer, so that’s really, REALLY easy.

    • #1
  2. Seawriter Contributor
    Seawriter
    @Seawriter

    I can’t join the Bud Light boycott because I never drank light beer. Even in my teens (and it was legal to drink when you were 18) I’d drink bock beer, or IPA or something imported from Germany. If it didn’t have flavor, why bother?

    • #2
  3. TBA Coolidge
    TBA
    @RobtGilsdorf

    Hope we get a follow-up story where the distributers have to throw a bunch of it out too. 

    • #3
  4. Henry Castaigne Member
    Henry Castaigne
    @HenryCastaigne

    I love the suffering. It is delicious. Perhaps it is indecent that I delight in it so but I can’t help it.

     

    • #4
  5. tigerlily Member
    tigerlily
    @tigerlily

    What I love about this is how Bud’s attempts to placate the conservatives, Republicans and also plenty of generally apolitical types who showed their displeasure with Bud’s embrace of the trans-insanity by stopping the purchase of their product has backfired on them. With the drop in sales, Bud put out a couple of somewhat patriotic ads which 1) didn’t help them with their core consumers and 2)  has now irritated the LBGT mob who have turned on them. One of the reasons big corporations virtue signal for progressive causes is that they expect conservatives and Republicans to behave like they usually do – which is to support the market and be business friendly. There’s a name for what has happened to Bud with this Bud Light/Dylan Whatisname debacle. I think it’s called cosmic justice.

    https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1653406195342794753

     

    • #5
  6. Steven Seward Member
    Steven Seward
    @StevenSeward

    I think I’ll take up drinking beer just so I can boycott Anheuser-Busch!  I’m enjoying the spectacle as much as Henry Castaigne.

    • #6
  7. navyjag Coolidge
    navyjag
    @navyjag

    Seawriter (View Comment):

    I can’t join the Bud Light boycott because I never drank light beer. Even in my teens (and it was legal to drink when you were 18) I’d drink bock beer, or IPA or something imported from Germany. If it didn’t have flavor, why bother?

    Even 3.2 alcohol Coors in college was too light after I got in the Navy and drank real beer.  Coors Light?  You are kidding, right? Only thought was: do they drink this because they can down 5 before they get close to the 0.08 alcohol level  instead of 2 real beers? 

    • #7
  8. John H. Member
    John H.
    @JohnH

    I am skeptical about the distillation of beer to recover its alcohol. One would be boiling an awful lot of water just to get a little bit of ethanol. Then again, I am not a brewer. Not a commercial one, anyway!

    As for the purpose of these “public” “relations” exercises, I thought I read somewhere – was it right here on Ricochet? – that their purpose is not in the least to enchant consumers. It is to enchant regulators. So if, say, you’re a brewer hoping to acquire or conglomerate with another brewer or with any other big corporation, but such a transaction can be vetoed by a big government, you strive to appease or flatter that big government. Specifically its unelected lawgivers. Who may adore fashionable posturing, and with the stroke of a pen give you what you want. Any truth to that?

    • #8
  9. Nohaaj Coolidge
    Nohaaj
    @Nohaaj

    John H. (View Comment):

    I am skeptical about the distillation of beer to recover its alcohol. One would be boiling an awful lot of water just to get a little bit of ethanol. Then again, I am not a brewer. Not a commercial one, anyway!

    As for the purpose of these “public” “relations” exercises, I thought I read somewhere – was it right here on Ricochet? – that their purpose is not in the least to enchant consumers. It is to enchant regulators. So if, say, you’re a brewer hoping to acquire or conglomerate with another brewer or with any other big corporation, but such a transaction can be vetoed by a big government, you strive to appease or flatter that big government. Specifically its unelected lawgivers. Who may adore fashionable posturing, and with the stroke of a pen give you what you want. Any truth to that?

    doubt you may, facts I have.

    • #9
  10. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    John H. (View Comment):
    I am skeptical about the distillation of beer to recover its alcohol. One would be boiling an awful lot of water just to get a little bit of ethanol. Then again, I am not a brewer. Not a commercial one, anyway!

    Wouldn’t they boil off – and then re-condense – the alcohol, rather than the water?  Alcohol has a lower boiling point.

    • #10
  11. Seawriter Contributor
    Seawriter
    @Seawriter

    navyjag (View Comment):

    Seawriter (View Comment):

    I can’t join the Bud Light boycott because I never drank light beer. Even in my teens (and it was legal to drink when you were 18) I’d drink bock beer, or IPA or something imported from Germany. If it didn’t have flavor, why bother?

    Even 3.2 alcohol Coors in college was too light after I got in the Navy and drank real beer. Coors Light? You are kidding, right? Only thought was: do they drink this because they can down 5 before they get close to the 0.08 alcohol level instead of 2 real beers?

    Yep. Even when I was in ROTC at the various summer encampments I’d skip the 3.2 beer and drank diet Coke. If I wanted carbonized water, I’d get carbonized water.

    • #11
  12. KCVolunteer Lincoln
    KCVolunteer
    @KCVolunteer

    Nohaaj (View Comment):

    John H. (View Comment):

    I am skeptical about the distillation of beer to recover its alcohol. One would be boiling an awful lot of water just to get a little bit of ethanol. Then again, I am not a brewer. Not a commercial one, anyway!

    As for the purpose of these “public” “relations” exercises, I thought I read somewhere – was it right here on Ricochet? – that their purpose is not in the least to enchant consumers. It is to enchant regulators. So if, say, you’re a brewer hoping to acquire or conglomerate with another brewer or with any other big corporation, but such a transaction can be vetoed by a big government, you strive to appease or flatter that big government. Specifically its unelected lawgivers. Who may adore fashionable posturing, and with the stroke of a pen give you what you want. Any truth to that?

    doubt you may, facts I have.

    Things like this is one of the reasons I love Ricochet.

    But I do wonder, how much CO2 has been created by this process?

    After all the transport back and forth, skimming off the ethanol, combining it with gasoline and transporting it to distribution centers for eventual use in internal combustion engines, is it a net negative? All for some virtue signaling?

    • #12
  13. EJHill Podcaster
    EJHill
    @EJHill

    Budweiser has always advertised itself as “Beechwood Aged” but also boasts about “fresh” beer. So… is it “aged” or is it “fresh?”

    • #13
  14. Stad Coolidge
    Stad
    @Stad

    Nohaaj: The recycled beer is distilled down to ethanol, and often sold to power plants for conversion into electrical energy.

    Wait a sec . . . I’ll be putting Dylan Mulvaney in my tank?  Will that turn my paint job pink?

    • #14
  15. Steven Seward Member
    Steven Seward
    @StevenSeward

    KCVolunteer (View Comment):

    Nohaaj (View Comment):

    John H. (View Comment):

    I am skeptical about the distillation of beer to recover its alcohol. One would be boiling an awful lot of water just to get a little bit of ethanol. Then again, I am not a brewer. Not a commercial one, anyway!

    As for the purpose of these “public” “relations” exercises, I thought I read somewhere – was it right here on Ricochet? – that their purpose is not in the least to enchant consumers. It is to enchant regulators. So if, say, you’re a brewer hoping to acquire or conglomerate with another brewer or with any other big corporation, but such a transaction can be vetoed by a big government, you strive to appease or flatter that big government. Specifically its unelected lawgivers. Who may adore fashionable posturing, and with the stroke of a pen give you what you want. Any truth to that?

    doubt you may, facts I have.

    Things like this is one of the reasons I love Ricochet.

    But I do wonder, how much CO2 has been created by this process?

    After all the transport back and forth, skimming off the ethanol, combining it with gasoline and transporting it to distribution centers for eventual use in internal combustion engines, is it a net negative? All for some virtue signaling?

    I happen to share the belief that adding more CO2 into the atmosphere is a good thing. Most people don’t realize that despite the hype, we are living in the era of one of two lowest CO2 levels in Earth’s history, being close to the level where it threatens to destroy plant life.  Co2 levels of the past were as much as 30 times the current levels.

    • #15
  16. DrewInWisconsin, Oaf Member
    DrewInWisconsin, Oaf
    @DrewInWisconsin

    EJHill (View Comment):

    Budweiser has always advertised itself as “Beechwood Aged” but also boasts about “fresh” beer. So… is it “aged” or is it “fresh?”

    If I recall, wasn’t it A-B who first introduced the idea of your beer going skunky, so they added that sell-by date?

    Which would make this so deliciously ironic.

    • #16
  17. Nohaaj Coolidge
    Nohaaj
    @Nohaaj

    EJHill (View Comment):

    Budweiser has always advertised itself as “Beechwood Aged” but also boasts about “fresh” beer. So… is it “aged” or is it “fresh?”

    It is both.  After the fermentation process, beer is aged in various tanks, where sediment is removed either with clarifying agents, or filtration, and the beer is carbonated.  When that process is completed, it is packed (keg, bottle, can) and then it is fresh!

    • #17
  18. DaveSchmidt Coolidge
    DaveSchmidt
    @DaveSchmidt

    TBA (View Comment):

    Hope we get a follow-up story where the distributers have to throw a bunch of it out too.

    A distorted echo of the Boston Tea Party. 

    • #18
  19. Albert Arthur Coolidge
    Albert Arthur
    @AlbertArthur

    Nohaaj: They hope free beer might make a few deplorables forget the insults from the past.

    Never accept free Bud Light!

    • #19
  20. MiMac Thatcher
    MiMac
    @MiMac

    John H. (View Comment):

    I am skeptical about the distillation of beer to recover its alcohol. One would be boiling an awful lot of water just to get a little bit of ethanol. Then again, I am not a brewer. Not a commercial one, anyway!

    As for the purpose of these “public” “relations” exercises, I thought I read somewhere – was it right here on Ricochet? – that their purpose is not in the least to enchant consumers. It is to enchant regulators. So if, say, you’re a brewer hoping to acquire or conglomerate with another brewer or with any other big corporation, but such a transaction can be vetoed by a big government, you strive to appease or flatter that big government. Specifically its unelected lawgivers. Who may adore fashionable posturing, and with the stroke of a pen give you what you want. Any truth to that?

    I hope you don’t think green projects make sense? That would be real news…

    • #20
  21. BDB Inactive
    BDB
    @BDB

    Albert Arthur (View Comment):

    Nohaaj: They hope free beer might make a few deplorables forget the insults from the past.

    Never accept free Bud Light!

    Need captions for the first one.

    • #21
  22. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    Maybe they should just recycle the cans, while aluminum is still worth something.

    • #22
  23. Albert Arthur Coolidge
    Albert Arthur
    @AlbertArthur

    BDB (View Comment):

    Albert Arthur (View Comment):

    Nohaaj: They hope free beer might make a few deplorables forget the insults from the past.

    Never accept free Bud Light!

     

    Need captions for the first one.

    Tried to embed just the second one but Twitter insisted on including both :-/ 🤷

    • #23
  24. Chuck Coolidge
    Chuck
    @Chuckles

    Just realized – by not drinking Bud Lite I am also opposing the greeners!  And that’s cool.

    • #24
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