The Godzilla movie that is InBev vs. Anheuser-Busch took the fighting to the streets of St. Louis this weekend, beginning with a full page ad that InBev took out in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the city’s largest newspaper. I’ve been unable to find out what the ad looked like exactly, but an AP story described it as InBev trying to convince locals that “the takeover would make for a stronger, more competitive global company,” with plans to expand the Budweiser brand globally (isn’t it already in most foreign markets?) with St. Louis remaining the HQ for North American business. In addition, InBev promised to keep all of A-B’s existing breweries open (for now, one presumes, since their track record in this regard is spotty at best).

Yesterday, InBev renewed its efforts to remove the A-B board of directors and replace them. Today, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch newspaper shot back with no less than four separate articles about InBev’s increasingly hostile takeover of hometown A-B. The first, Busch IV vs. Busch IV is all about the proposed board changes and the people InBev seeks to place on A-B’s board, including Adolphus Busch IV, and uncle of August A. Busch IV. The current 13-member board is made up of 10 independents and four local residents (2 of which are former A-B execs). InBev’s proposed new board would consist of 12 independents and only one local resident.

Next up is InBev’s takeover bid could depend on a rarely used gambit, an analysis of what InBev is trying as of Monday, which is instead of suing in Delaware to have the board removed is going directly to A-B shareholders and asking them to vote to remove A-B’s current board of directors. Then there’s an analysis of A-B’s response to the Delaware lawsuit, A-B sues InBev to block move to boot board, which describes A-B’s own counter-suit.

Lastly, there’s a column about Ed Martin and his efforts to keep the A-B takeover from happening. He’s the former Missouri Governor’s chief of staff who set up the SaveAB website. As of today, 66,700 Americans signed his online petition to stop the sale, or 0.02% of the approximately 304,549,209 Americans as of the moment of this writing, according to the U.S. Census Board’s PopClock Projection. That’s not exactly overwhelming support for his mission or indicative that many people share his view that A-B is an intrinsically American brand. Hell, his petition represents less than 19% of just St. Louis’ population. And even more curious, the 66,000 figure is eerily close to half of the number of employees that work for Anheuser-Busch. Factor in that each spouse would also sign the petition and you’ve got close to a zero sum game.

Whew, it’s tiring just keeping up with what’s going on as the two titan beer companies continue to duke it out for world dominance.

I heard a rumor today that Rodger Davis, former brewer at Drake’s, was hired to be the new head brewer at Triple Rock, now that Christian Kazakoff is moving to Iron Springs. I have now been able to confirm this with John Martin, co-owner of Triple Rock Brewery, whom I spoke with this afternoon. Martin also confirmed the continuation of the Bay Area Firkin Festival next year at the brewpub.

Rodger Davis, new head brewer at Triple Rock.
 

My friend Maureen Ogle, who wrote Ambitious Brew — The Story of American Beer, weighed in with an op-ed piece on the proposed InBev takeover of Anheuser-Busch in the Washington Post over the weekend. The original version had a typically snarky quote from yours truly, but the Post editors saw fit to excise me from the final version. It’s probably just as well. Maureen’s singular voice comes through much better without side opinions mucking things up.

Like me, Ogle believes the deal is a bad one overall, but views it with a certain inevitability. I’m firmly against the takeover, but only because I believe it will be bad for the beer industry as a whole, and has the potential to really harm craft brewers’ access to market. But the whole affair seems a perfect illustration of that old saw, “those who live by the sword, die by the sword,” playing out in real time. For that reason, it’s hard to muster much sympathy for the Busch family who, like InBev right now, have invoked the “it’s just business” mantra to excuse their behavior countless times over their nearly 140-year history.