BEER COLUMN Goodbye Blitz-Weinhard Another piece of local history is about to be devoured by a faceless corporation. BY JEFF ALWORTH 243-2122, EXT. 348

Previous Mash columns: McBeer Beyond the Pint Glass A Bounty of Barley Wine Look Into My Crystal Ball Rising with the Tide The Benefits of Age Winter Brews Potpourri Great American Beer Festival Bizarre Brews Oktoberfest Hop Harvest

If you've been putting off that Blitz-Weinhard brewery tour, you might think about bumping it up on your list of priorities. Now that Miller has bought the Henry's label--pending an always-toothless U.S. Justice Department review--the venerable Blitz-Weinhard Brewery, that architectural and olfactory landmark of downtown Portland, has a life expectancy of about one more year. If the deal goes through, it will be another case of a faceless corporation removing a bit of local history. Miller won't be using the brewery. "Our expertise is efficiency," said Dianne Markut, a Miller PR rep, "and we'll be brewing [Henry's] in-house in one of our six existing plants." The facility could be sold to another brewery, though this is unlikely; its capacity of around 1.5 million barrels makes it unmarketably middle-sized. Or it could go to a developer, who will no doubt turn it into more lofts. Think this won't effect you because you don't drink Henry's? Think nothing could ever come between you and your microbrew? Think again. There are three very important reasons why you should care about the Henry's sale. The Big Three Anheuser-Busch, Miller and Coors control 78 percent of the domestic beer market. That kind of control inevitably leads to consolidation, as price wars and multi-million-dollar ad campaigns separate the haves from the have-nots. The beginning of the end for Weinhard's parent company, Stroh, came in 1997, when Miller started a price war to increase its own flagging market share. Easily able to match this move, Anheuser-Busch, brewer of nearly 50 percent of the beer in America, joined the fray and slashed prices. The smaller Stroh (in this scenario, 13 million barrels a year is "small") couldn't afford to cut prices and suffered huge losses. After a 15 percent downturn in 1998, Stroh has decided to throw in the towel, and now the big three will be even stronger. This kind of muscle poses a clear threat to small breweries, particularly ones that would like to become mid-sized regional breweries. Price wars, advertising, sales incentives for wholesalers--there are many tactics the big breweries can use to put a cap on craft-brewing growth. While we muse about the merits of Cascade versus Chinook hops here in our little beer paradise, we lose sight of the fact that Anheuser-Busch brews more in one day than Widmer, Full Sail, Deschutes, Saxer and BridgePort combined brew in a full year. Growth has slowed, but if this silly little "micro-revolution" starts to show that it has legs and people start drinking stout in St. Louis, the big boys aren't going to take it lying down. Nor, for that matter, are they likely to play fair. Miller's "Fair Share" Remember Anheuser-Busch's famous "100 percent share of mind" distribution strategy, wherein A-B distributors were restricted from carrying any other beers? Well, this is just one way the big three can unlevel the playing field, and it doesn't stop with Bud. Miller is currently beginning to test the waters on its own distribution policy, called "fair share," which is very similar to "100 percent share of mind." Everyone hates it when I yammer on about distribution, but pay attention: This is potentially the most sinister aspect of the Weinhard sale. Currently, Miller distributes its beer through Columbia. Mount Hood Beverage, distributor of micros Saxer, Rogue and BridgePort, is the Henry's distributor. When I asked Miller rep Markut about "fair share," her voice rose magnanimously. "We're planning on offering the current distributors the opportunity to continue to distribute [Henry's]," she assured me. But wait--buying out the Weinhard label will dramatically increase Miller's market share in Portland and the Northwest. What if Miller isn't so excited that Mount Hood is carrying these other brands? When I asked her about this, Markut was less reassuring, hastily telling me, "Again, [Miller] is not discussing the specifics." My calls to Mount Hood went unreturned. 1133 West Burnside Street The third reason's not about a threat to the craft market, but it is significant. In 1856, young German immigrant Henry Weinhard arrived in Portland. Oregon wasn't a state yet, and Portland's population was a decidedly modest 1,200. Six years later, when he was just 32, Weinhard founded his new brewery where the Blitz-Weinhard brewery stands today. By the early 1880s it was the largest brewery in the Northwest. As his business prospered, Weinhard spread the wealth, paying his workers an excellent wage and giving to various causes (the most famous of which was a failed attempt to pump free beer through the newly dedicated Skidmore Fountain). After Weinhard's death in 1904, the company continued to flourish, surviving Prohibition by brewing soft drinks and merging with a city competitor, Arnold Blitz, in 1928. By 1953 it was the only brewery in Oregon and an established fixture in the local consciousness. Beyond its historical significance, Henry's has played a vital role in the health of brewing in the state. When microbrewing arrived, beer drinkers already knew two things: There was such a thing as good beer, and it was brewed right here at home. That Oregon consumes craft beer at percentages way ahead of the national average isn't an accident; Henry's was the major factor in its acceptance. Even after the 1979 sale of the company to Pabst--which sold it to Heileman, which sold it to Stroh--drinking Henry's was a matter of civic pride. What the hell, it was still brewed here. But shifting production to California or Milwaukee and away from Burnside Street, where it has been brewed for 136 years? Well, I know I won't be drinking it. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Willamette Week | originally published February 24, 1999