Big Beer Finally Sobers Up
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It was originally Prohibition that produced the uniquely weird landscape of American beer today. It wasn’t the result of evil corporate collusion between the big brewers. It was just the way things turned out.
Prohibition killed off the vast majority of the smaller regional brewers. Only the biggest brewers had the resources to come roaring back after a 13-year ban on beer production. Thus Anheuser-Busch, Coors Brewing and Miller Brewing could begin retraining American taste buds in favor of their light lager beers.
They were aided by newcomers familiar with the genre. “Lighter styles like lagers and pilsners began to squeeze heavier ales out of the market, thanks in large part to the influx of German immigrants … who brought their country’s penchant for the pilsner to America,” Natasha Geiling wrote for Smithsonian magazine in an exploration of American brewing.
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