If you pick up a beer menu at a bar or restaurant in the United States, there’s a solid chance the ones made in America will be grouped together in the “Domestic” category. However, the CEO of the company behind Budweiser is lobbying to make that category a bit more patriotic.
It’s been close to 150 years since Adolphus Busch and Carl Conrad started selling the beer they dubbed “Budweiser” after they started pumping it out at the former’s brewery in St. Louis.
The Bohemian-inspired lager made by an immigrant born and raised near the Rhine River may have some firmly German roots, but you’d be hard-pressed to find a beer more people associate with America due to its ubiquitous nature throughout the United States.
In 2008, there was a fair amount of drama when Anheuser-Busch, the Budweiser parent company that can trace its history back to the start of the 1850s, was acquired for more than $50 billion by the massive Dutch conglomerate InBev due to some drinkers who asserted they could no longer truly call their beloved Bud “American.”
That controversy largely fizzled out, but the company that’s now officially known as AB InBev has found itself dealing with some other headaches since then—including the Bud Light boycott that began to unfold in 2023 after the brand partnered with Dylan Mulvaney.
The powers that be have subsequently gone to great lengths in an attempt to appeal to the customers it managed to alienate over that move. Now, Fox Business reports Brendan Whitworth, who serves as the CEO of AB InBev’s North American operations, is turning to some good, old-fashioned patriotism in the hopes of moving the needle.
Earlier this week, Whitworth released a letter where he stated “I don’t like the word ‘domestic'” before backing a push to swap out that particular label with “American,” saying:
“I’m asking the Anheuser-Busch team and our wholesalers to make the change.
Change the bar menus, change the venue boards, change the signs, change their reports, change their jargon, and insist upon American. I hope other American brewers and wholesalers will join us.”
The “domestic” label is a bit of an artifact on beer menus stemming from the rise in popularity of European imports like Heineken and Stella Artois.
There was once a time when “Import” was essentially synonymous with “fancy” (they tended to be priced higher than other offerings) and many places offered deals on the largely egalitarian “Domestic” beers during happy hour. However, the rise of American craft beer has made what was once a fairly cut-and-dry distinction a bit more complicated.
Only time will tell if this takes off, but I can’t say I hate the proposal.
The post Budweiser Pushing To Replace ‘Domestic’ With ‘American’ On Beer Menus Across The U.S.A. appeared first on BroBible.
Budweiser Pushing To Replace ‘Domestic’ With ‘American’ On Beer Menus Across The U.S.A.
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