Customer Reviews

Beer Blast: The Inside Story of the Brewing Industry's Bizarre Battles for Your Money

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book was very informative and written quite well. I would strongly recommend this book for anyone that likes to read about industry profiles. I also liked the fact that I did not have to know that much about the beer industry in order to enjoy the book.

This book is a great read and an interesting study of the beer industry and its history. The author due to his ties (son of the Heineken importer) provides great insight, but also some thoughtful and usable management and marketing analysis.

Philip van Munching's book is less about the history and genesis of US beer - though those bases are very well covered - than it is about the lunacy of marketing, the most bogus science of the last century. It seems extraordinary that global brands are in the hands of so many people who appear this clueless - how the brewing giants ever sell a drop is unimaginable. But PVM tells their tale with a great deal of skill and wit, and - like most of the beers he describes - there's a zesty bitterness to most of the opinions. The best compliment? This is a guy I'd really like to share a beer with . . . .

Now here's a book about something near and dear to my heart (and mouth). I bought this book when it first came out after hearing a radio interview with Philip Van Munching and finding him not only very informative, but also hilarious. This book is very entertaining and informative (and it always makes me thirsty for a cold one, but I digress).

Being in the Van Munching family it's hard to knock him for his emphasis on Heineken (is he supposed to know more about Miller and Anheiser Busch than his own family's company?) The book gives a very detailed background of the beer industry in the US but mainly focuses on the period beginning in the seventies which he refers to as the "Beer Wars" when Anheiser Busch, Miller and Coors began to take over.

Anyone interested in business, advertising and marketing in particular, will really enjoy this book. Oh yeah, and if you like to enjoy a cold one from time to time you'll also like this book. I've aleways been more of a microbrew drinker myself (beer snob) so I've never really enjoyed anything brewed by the big three. After reading this book I don't think I'll be enjoying anything from them anytime soon. Like one of the reviews on the back of the book says, " I don't know which one of them deserves my money less." Cheers!

If you want to learn how to make beer in your basement, you'll need to find a different book. On the other hand, if you want to learn how "The People" are manipulated into changing their buying/drinking habits, then you need to check this book out. Written with an insider's view, Van Munching shows that beer not only is big business, it's a fun big business. From the early Revolutionary War days to the present, the growth and decline of many breweries are chronicled. It was fascinating to learn how the "Giants" came to be, and discover the true parentage of supposedly local brews. It is written in an easy to read style. Even if you do not drink beer, and are involoved in marketing in any way, this would be a good book to study. It tells "How" to market successfully, but even better (and much more humorously) how not to market.

This is terrific reading, not only for beer lovers and marketing buffs. Philip van Munching, grandson of the man who first brought Heineken to the United States, has written a non-fiction book that contains all the ingredients of a first-class thriller: megalomanic dynasties, a fatal car accident the evidence of which was tempered with, mad-gone advertising gurus, and conglomerates trying to take over the hood ("get your girl in the mood quicker, and get your jimmy thicker with St. Ides malt liquor"). Along the way, the reader learns quite a bit about marketing. That is what the Ivy-League-trainined marketing whiz kids at Anheuser-Busch, Miller, and Coors, apparently never did. Instead, they squandered away hundreds of millions of dollars in their futile attempts to win one of the most fiercely fought business wars of the last twenty five years: the war for the American beer market. Van Munching knows how they did it, and he tells it with wit and an incredible insider's knowledge. Great story, great writing, great book!!!

Hopefully, it's no surprise to you that American Mega-Breweries have been less than ethical in the representation of their products and in their business practices. If you were unaware of this, I'm going to level with you... it is true. And you should also know that there is no Santa Claus, Clinton did inhale, Elvis is dead and no one could have possibly slept with as many women as Magic Johnson claims he did. No matter how comfy you may make yourself by believing the unbelievable, harsh veracity is better than obstinate naivete.

When I saw a book about indescretion in the American Brewing Industry... well, I chocked it up as just another dissatisfied customer. Just another guy who was irritated at the brewing industry... fed up with the same boring stuff from mega-breweries, year after year. Another guy... well... like me. This assumption turned out to be wrong, but I still liked the book.

Two points were evident as I began reading Beer Blast : The Inside Story of the Brewing Industry's Bizarre Battles To Get Your Money by Philip Van Munching. Van Munching has been around the brewing industry his entire life and he isn't afraid to tell you about the seedy side. Also, he's a very entertaining writer. Along with his worldly understanding and privy information, Van Munching has a rare wit and sarcastic edge to his writing. Like a seasoned ringleader, he calls out the clowns and narrates their escapades and foolhardy, cutthroat behavior. He spotlights the circus that is the modern American brewing industry and makes it more exposed than Pee-Wee Herman in an adult movie theater. Once in a while he takes a covert jab at the typical American beer drinker for empowering these brew-twits to begin with, but it's all done with a wink and a nod, and is not to be taken too seriously.

Of course I can't be completely positive about anything. Ol' Phil is more than marginally partial to Heineken and it shows in an ugly, stagnant way. He and his family are responsible for bringing that particular Dutch swill to America... a crime our country's legal system has no applicable sentance to serve him. He amusingly admits that corn meal is used in brewing Heineken, but then goes on to rail about how Jim Koch was wrong for saying they brew Heineken with adjuncts. What is Corn Meal if it isn't an adjunct? I laughed. He also says that the purpose of the Reinheitsgebot German Purity Law was to keep foreign beer out of Germany. Well, not if the foreign beer avoided brewing with cheaper, barley expanding adjuncts! Like say, oh... for example... corn meal like is used in brewing HEINEKEN.

Despite this, and though I'm sure the stories he tells are embellished for the sake of entertainment, at the core, there is the undeniable truth that brewing companies are selling an image, and what you are buying is a beer. They simply think that you aren't smart enough to know the difference and with most American beer drinkers, they are right.

The quality games and propaganda wars American brewing companies have been waging with each other for years are enough to fill a book, so I'm not surprised that someone did write a book about it. What did surprise me was how intriguing a read it really was.

I don't drink beer. Never liked the taste and couldn't understand all the hoopla. This book was hilarious. Van Munching's insider viewpoint kept me interested from first chapter to last. His last chapter about Heineken USA's "change for change sake" was right on. Excellent read even for those of us who never understood the mystique of the frosty mug.

Amazing! This is definitely different from those 6-inche business textbook. You can leran the whole story about marketing or market competition. If you are in beer business, or fast moving consumer goods business you will be surprised with the similiarity between the book and your realistic business competition.

Beer Blast was an incredibly enjoyable book to read and highly informative (if you are a fan of beer). I will admit that he was a bit focused on Heinekien, but considering his family background. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn more about beer.