I have to get over the river to Indiana to the New Albanian Brewing Company for one of their craft beers, some excellent pizza, and hopefully a t-shirt which reads "These Machines Kill Fascists".
Hey, I'm not comparing the folks at Budweiser and Miller to Hitler; they aren't Nazis. They are, however, fascists hell-bent on destroying the small breweries that actually take the time and effort to make beers that aren't terrible.
For example, Louisville has a terrific Triple-A baseball park. Attached to this park is Browning's, a fine restaurant and microbrewery. However, if I want a Browning's beer during a game, I can't buy one at the stadium; I have to leave the ballpark and enter Browning's from their Main St. entrance. Why? Why can't I buy a beer from a place that's attached to the fucking ballpark?! The answer, my friends, is as obvious as the giant Budweiser logo on the center field scoreboard.
When the stadium was being built, Budweiser sent one of their Black Angels of Bad Beer to the owners of the baseball team. They said, "Hey, we'll spring for the scoreboard, but of course it will be dominated by the Bud logo. Oh, and you can't sell Browning's beer in the park. And if you can make it inconvenient to get to Browning's during the game, we'd sure appreciate it."
I don't begrudge the masses their crappy swill beer. Let them chug all the Bud Light they can pour down their gullets. But why can't I go to one lonely stand and order a Browning's She-Devil Double IPA? Fucking fascists.
13 Comments:
Man, I bet you dream nightly of bombing Papa Johns Stadium to pea-sized rubble, don't you? I sorta agree about the lock Budweiser has on the ballpark, but then they did shell out millions (or whatever) to help build it. Whatever their motives, it beats having taxes go up to pay for it. That's what they do here in Texas, believe it or not. They put it to a referendum, which just means the majority gets to force the rest of us to shell out to build stadiums we don't care about and will never go see a game in. Ahh, the glory of pure democracy in action! Sorry for digressing.
It doesn't bother me that you can only get Papa John's pizza at the stadium he donated millions to help build. For one thing, I don't think of pizza as ballpark and/or stadium food, so I never order it at a game. Also, there isn't a great pizzeria attached to the football stadium that isn't allowed to sell its product inside of said stadium.
Browning's is open year-'round and helps bring people to that area when baseball isn't being played. I think they deserve to have their fine product sold at the park.
mmmmmmm.........micro brew beer.
I am about to choke on these words, but...
I ... agree ... with... (gasp, cough) John (ARRRGH) about something.
It bothers me to no end when taxpayers are expected to pay to build a stadium just so other people can make money there.
No one expects taxpayers to shell out money to build a shopping mall.
as to the beer issue, I would just go to the restaurant and avoid the baseball game altogether.
Also, I don't like Indiana in general.
I blame the Busch administration.
Of Coors you do!
Budweiser is evil, nasty piss in a can..bleeeeeeeeh.
But its not the reason i refuse to drink ballpark beer.
The vendors stopped carding me about 10 yrs ago and that i simply cannot abide.
She-Devil IPA?
My heart stops.
It sounds yummy yummy yummy.
Stupid Budweiser.
Everbuddy's a comedienne now. Oh, and Ubermilf... soon I'll have you completely under my spell. Sweet dreams.
ahh....god, i love beer.
budweiser isn't beer.
There's a surprising amount of decent beer to be found inside the confines of Coors Field here in Denver. The big concession stands, of course, only offer a choice of the Banquet Beer, the Silver Bullet and sometimes Killian's Irish Swill - but the Sandlot Brewery is accessible from inside the park during games, and there are a few "Beers of the World" stands scattered around the concourses where you can get some fairly good imports.
That sucks rocks.
Good news on the microbrewery front here in Chicago. Two years ago, Bell's beer, brewed in Kalamazoo, Michigan, got in a scuffle with their distributor. Here in Chicago, there's a law that booze must go through two distributors. The rationale was to prevent bathtub hooch going to the masses. The real reason was to make Bill Wirtz, owner of the Chicago Black Hawks, and, oh yeah, the owner of the biggest liquor distributorship in Chicago, wildly rich.
The distributor for Bell's decided to stop distributing them in the midwest (including, of course, Chicago, their biggest market) and so Bell's asked them to release them from the distributorship contract they had, which had two more years on it, so that someone else could do it. They refused, and for two years you could not get Bell's beer in Chicago. Until tomorrow, when the two years is up. Oh, except at the restaurant I work at; somehow they somehow skirted it, and we had it on tap tonight. It was like Bill Clinton was president again. People nearly wept that they could get it again. The bartender estimated that we sold a quarter barrel of it tonight (the place I work at is a tiny family-owned place-- about 30 tables).
Sometimes the good guys win.
Johnny yen,
I read about the dispute. I love Bell's, and we sell a lot of it at the liquor store. And hey, Oberon being available just in time for the August heat is perfect timing.
That is, in fact, on a t-shirt! $15 at the New Albanian, I believe.
Post a Comment
<< Home