• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Advertise
  • About Craft Brewing Business

Craft Brewing Business

Professional Insight, Unfiltered

  • News
  • Business & Marketing
  • Ingredients & Supplies
  • Packaging & Distribution
  • Equipment
  • Webinars & White Papers
  • COVID-19

Budweiser wants to be the first beer on Mars, Martians destined to dislike earth beer

March 20, 2017Keith Gribbins

Space — the final frontier — for Big Beer. After the long-anticipated, $100-billion-plus merger between Anheuser-Busch InBev and SABMiller last year (the third largest acquisition in the history of acquisitions), AB InBev now has dominion over all of earth’s beer drinkers. The merger between the world’s two largest brewers gives this new global Beer Voltron an estimated $64 billion in annual revenue and control over a gobsmacking 29 percent of the global beer market.

In fact, with a new generation of independent craft brewers (more than 5,000 in the United States) and a host of other global beer rollups making power moves (Molson Coors, Heineken, Carlsberg, China Resources Enterprise, Sapporo Breweries Limited and onward), AB InBev doesn’t have much more room to grow in certain beer markets around the world (monopoly laws and such). Where else can AB InBev’s money-fueled rocket turn?

Extra-terrestrial beer sales.

Genius! On earth, at the recent South by Southwest Interactive Festival (which celebrates the convergence of the interactive film and music industries), AB InBev announced it wanted to make beer on and/or send beer to Mars. Why? Well, from the press release:

To bring the announcement to life, Budweiser hosted a panel discussion with Anheuser-Busch’s vice president of Innovation, Valerie Toothman, who was joined by retired Astronaut Clayton “Clay” Anderson and other space industry experts to discuss the future of space colonization. Moderated by “The Martian” star, Kate Mara, the panel covered the current challenges and solutions needed to take Budweiser on an interplanetary journey along with discussing the initial experiments and research Budweiser hopes to explore.

“With this bold, new dream Budweiser is celebrating the entrepreneurial spirit in which our iconic brand was founded upon. Through our relentless focus on quality and innovation, Budweiser can today be enjoyed in every corner of the world, but we now believe it is time for the King of Beers to set its sights on its next destination. When the dream of colonizing Mars becomes a reality, Budweiser will be there to toast the next great step for mankind,” said Ricardo Marques, vice president, Budweiser.

Bud’s calling the beer a “Microgravity Beer,” though we can’t seem to find out why or what that is (the video above is no help). Regardless, with AB InBev’s anti-competitive distributor network, it’s probably going to be slim pickings for true craft beer on Mars. I suppose just pass the vodka and Tang, and let’s get back to earth, stat.

English London beer thames big ben
Will the devalued pound affect the sale of SABMiller to AB InBev?
terrapin-logo cbb crop
MillerCoors, Tenth & Blake buy majority stake in Athens, Ga.’s Terrapin Beer
SAB Miller cbb crop Miller 64
Release the lawyers! West coast brewers sue over AB InBev/SABMiller merger
wicked weed Brewing
Beer Voltron grows fatter: AB InBev aims to purchase Asheville’s Wicked Weed

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Primary Sidebar

Latest News

  • Watch: This awareness video on human trafficking from beer wholesaler Markstein Sales will move you to action
  • Distribution updates: Massachusetts brewers celebrate franchise reform, Yuengling goes to Texas with Molson Coors and more from Bell’s, Stone and beyond
  • San Francisco’s Fort Point Beer moves from self-distribution to partner with Matagrano Inc.
  • Craft Brewers Conference rescheduled for Sept., moves from San Diego to Denver, may go online as a backup

Sign up for our newsletter

unsubscribe from list

Most Popular Today

Recent Features

  • Watch: This awareness video on human trafficking from beer wholesaler Markstein Sales will move you to action
    January 14, 2021
  • Distribution updates: Massachusetts brewers celebrate franchise reform, Yuengling goes to Texas with Molson Coors and more from Bell’s, Stone and beyond
    January 14, 2021
  • COVID19 coronavirus mask moneyWhy you need to maximize engagement during a pandemic
    January 13, 2021
  • How the Employee Retention Credit can help breweries that paid employees during the pandemic
    January 12, 2021
  • The role of market research in go-to-market planning for craft breweries
    January 12, 2021
  • Tennessee beer tax rolls through legislatureSummary of new wrinkles to the Craft Beverage Modernization tax provisions via the TTB
    January 11, 2021

Footer

  • Email Newsletter Sign Up
  • About Craft Brewing Business
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise on Craft Brewing Business
  • Media Kit Download
  • Privacy and Terms

© 2021 · CBB Media LLC

Continue ...

sponsored by