crafty – Ben's Beer Blog

Labatt is planning an expensive, intentionally misleading ad campaign for Shock Top

Posted on September 22, 2014September 22, 2014 by Ben

ShockTopCorp

Shock Top is a beer made by the massive, multinational brewing company AB-InBev.

People who drink craft beer know that Shock Top is a beer made by AB-InBev and its local consortium Labatt, and those same people who know that Shock Top is a Labatt product often speculate that the line between Shock Top and actual “craft beer” is likely left intentionally hazy so that Labatt might conceivably pass Shock Top off as craft beer–which it most certainly is not.

And while we, the stout sniffing cognoscenti, have always known in our heart of hearts that Shock Top is part of the macrobrewery effort to get “crafty” as a means to compete with (and presumably crush) small brewers, it doesn’t make it any less galling to actually see that strategy laid out on paper.

But now we can. Continue reading “Labatt is planning an expensive, intentionally misleading ad campaign for Shock Top” →

Hops and Bolts: So how’s the beer?

Posted on July 18, 2013August 4, 2014 by Ben

You may or may not have seen the intriguing art that festoons the can of Mad and Noisy’s Hops and Bolts at your local LCBO store or plastered on walls around the city and in print ads in newspapers and magazine. And you may or may not have, like me, seen the cool art and the word “hops” figuring prominently in the name of the beer and thought, “Fuck yeah” and happily bought an eight-pack of tall cans with no hesitation.

And if you’re like me, you were thoroughly disappointed. Continue reading “Hops and Bolts: So how’s the beer?” →