BEER WITH A SOCIALIST: Salty cascading crocodile tears as Pabst sings the contract brewing blues and sues MillerCoors. A pox on them all, I say.

I find these legal maneuverings hilarious on multiple levels. The reincarnated Pabst survives on price point alone, and price at this point is maintained by contract-brewing at a certain barrel level with a brewer who is a competitor.

Yawn. Can't they all just disappear?

Pabst says MillerCoors is trying to put it out of business (Associated Press)

Lawyers argue that the company’s very existence relies on partnership with Chicago-based MillerCoors

MILWAUKEE — Pabst Brewing Company and MillerCoors are going to trial, with hipster favorite Pabst contending that MillerCoors wants to put it out of business by ending a longstanding partnership through which it brews Pabst’s beers.

The case has high stakes for Pabst, whose lawyers argue that the company’s very existence relies on the partnership with Chicago-based MillerCoors, which produces, packages and ships nearly all its products, which include Pabst Blue Ribbon, Old Milwaukee, Natty Boh and Lone Star. MillerCoors, meanwhile, says it’s not obligated to continue brewing for Pabst and that Pabst doesn’t want to pay enough to justify doing so.

The trial in Milwaukee County Circuit Court begins Monday and is scheduled through Nov. 30.

Pabst’s attorneys have said in court documents and hearings that MillerCoors LLC is lying about its brewing capacity to break away from Pabst and capture its share of the cheap beer market by disrupting Pabst’s ability to compete. At a March hearing in which MillerCoors tried to have the lawsuit dismissed, Pabst attorney Adam Paris said “stunning documents” obtained from MillerCoors show that it went as far as hiring a consultant to “figure out ways to get rid of us.” MillerCoors has called that a mischaracterization of the consultant’s work.

The 1999 agreement between MillerCoors and Pabst, which was founded in Milwaukee in 1844 but is now headquartered in Los Angeles, expires in 2020 but provides for two possible five-year extensions. The companies dispute how the extensions should be negotiated: MillerCoors argues that it has sole discretion to determine whether it can continue brewing for Pabst, whereas Pabst says the companies must work “in good faith” to find a solution if Pabst wants to extend the agreement but MillerCoors lacks the capacity.

Pabst needs 4 million to 4.5 million barrels brewed annually and claims MillerCoors is its only option. It is seeking more than $400 million in damages and for MillerCoors to be ordered to honor its contract.

During 2015 negotiations about extending the contract, MillerCoors announced it would close its brewing facility in Eden, N.C., and that it eventually might have to shutter another facility in Irwindale, Calif. Pabst contends that MillerCoors refused to provide any information to substantiate its claim that it would no longer have the capacity to continue brewing Pabst’s beers, and that it wouldn’t consider leasing the Eden facility and would only sell it for an “astronomical” price.

Pabst says MillerCoors wouldn’t agree to an extension unless Pabst paid $45 per barrel — “a commercially devastating, near-triple price increase” from what it pays now. At the March hearing, Paris said MillerCoors knew Pabst couldn’t accept that proposal “because it would have bankrupted us three times over.”

In court filings, MillersCoors said Pabst’s proposals to keep the Eden facility open “were commercially unreasonable” and that Pabst sought “a windfall through litigation” instead of offering to pay enough to keep a facility open. It also said the facility’s closing was “to ensure the longer-term sustainability” of MillerCoors because thousands of new brewers have entered the market over the past decade.

MillerCoors and Anheuser-Busch, which have the biggest U.S. market share at 24.8 percent and 41.6 percent, respectively, have been losing business to smaller independent brewers, imports and wine and spirits in recent years, according to the Brewers Association.

Overall U.S. beer sales have declined, with shipments down from 213.1 million barrels in 2008 to 204.2 million in 2017, according to the Brewers Association.

Pabst depends on MillerCoors because the only other U.S. brewer with capacity to make its products is Anheuser-Busch, which doesn’t do contract brewing, Paris said.

“It really is an existential issue for Pabst because it has no real alternatives,” Paris said at the March hearing.

Paris said the report from the consultant MillerCoors hired in 2013 proves the company never intended to act in good faith. Pabst’s attorneys say the report had sections focused on how to “eliminate Pabst altogether” and noted that MillerCoors would need to close two breweries “to be sure they don’t have excess capacity for contract manufacturing.”

MillerCoors’ attorney, Eric Van Vugt, said in court that the company didn’t rely on the consultant’s report when it decided to close Eden or when it has contemplated closing the Irwindale brewery.

“If we keep Irwindale open, yes, we can supply their beer,” Van Vugt said. “No one disputes that. That’s the only factor that we need to look at.”

THE BEER BEAT: Mad Paddle Brewery is coming to Madison, and there's a New Albany connection.

It's déjà vu all over again.

For an amuse-bouche in two parts, Strong Towns offers an explanation of economic growth through "craft" beer.

What the Craft Brewing Boom Can Teach Other Local Industries: Part 1

What the Craft Brewing Boom Can Teach Other Local Industries: Part 2

Having tickled the taste buds, let's have a glance to the northeast. If you ask me, Madison has always deserved a good brewery.

The town's first go-around was Mobreki; for a while it worked, but ultimately sank, with the brewing equipment ending up at Red Foot/Yeti in Jeffersonville. Frankly, the beer quality at Mobreki never achieved a predictable equilibrium, and therein lies the message of pertinence for the owners of Mad Paddle.

As detailed in this article, their plans are very ambitious, not to mention expensive. There's an old building to rehab, and a brewery to be purchased. They already have a beer truck being tricked-out. State of the art self-pouring mechanisms are discussed.

Granted, most major problems and nagging details can be resolved with massive cash infusions. However, as I once learned, reinventing the wheel isn't always the best idea whatever the size of one's stash. Mobreki's lesson is that the beer has to be of quality and consistent, as dispensed by great people -- and even great people can't salvage inconsistent beer.

It's all about the beer. Truly, this is job one.

I'm intrigued to see the mention of Josh Hill and NABC, which signals a contract brewing arrangement, and I've no reason to nitpick a business plan that surely will evolve with passing time, so just a cautionary note: the Mad Paddle beers needn't be avant garde, but they need to be solid, and everything else should rest on this pivot.

Best of luck to everyone involved, and congrats to NABC for taking my contract-brewing advice.

(Insert raised eyebrow here ... and read this update at the same newspaper, which reveals that NABC's contract brew for Mad Paddle will be packaged via mobile canning. Now THERE'S an idea.)

BREWPUB IN WORKS FOR MADISON FEED MILL, by Peggy Vlerebome (Madison Courier)

Brothers with Indiana ties tell Mad Paddle plans

Plans are under way for a brewery and pub in downtown Madison in a former feed mill on the northwest corner of West and Second streets.

Brothers Jerry and Larry Wade said they are developers and investors, not brewers or restaurateurs, so they will get the space ready for partnerships with a brewer and a pub operator. They said they are scheduled to close on the purchase of the building from Peter Ellis this week and hope to have the beer flowing at Mad Paddle Brewery early next year and already have a beer and wine permit from the state.

But the Wades said they plan to make Mad Paddle’s presence known much sooner than that with a 1942 fire truck converted to a beer truck. They bought the fire truck in Osgood and the vehicle is in New Albany for conversion. The truck’s debut will be at the RiverRoots Music & Arts Festival in June, where it will be parked near the festival with a roped-off area to sell beer to customers. It will be at all the festivals, operating with one-day permits from the state Alcohol Beverage Commission, Jerry Wade said.

Until Mad Paddle Brewery is up and running at 301 West St., its first batch will be brewed by Josh Hill, head of brewing operations at The New Albanian Brewing Company in New Albany, Jerry Wade said ...

And the contract brewer you rode in on.

Today's Tribune column: "I’m having local, please."

A reworked "Wednesday Weekly" (PC blog only) considers local brewing and what is, and is not, truly local.

BAYLOR: I’m having local, please

It all goes back to seeing that bottle of Holsten Pils on the shelf in Budapest in 1989, and wondering how a capitalist German beer from Hamburg was available in communist Hungary at a price only slightly higher than locally brewed Magyar beers, which were dirt cheap at the time.