It's time for beer news for 3/18/11...

• BUD: $55.04
•  TAP: $43.25
• SAM: $85.76

Off we go for this weeks blog following a festive Saint Patrick's Day celebration for me. Last night was certainly a busy night at all the local bars and the green beer was most definetely flowing. Great times and good spirits made for an eventful night. Now its time to get back to business though. So it's time to talk about some news in the world of brewing this week.

First off for news this week I want to talk about an article I read from David Kesmodel at The Wall Street Journal's website. The article I am referring to was about how investor C. Dean Metropoulos and the Pabst brand he purchased last June are in the works to release a drink they are calling "Blast". Blast, from the makers of the famed american brew Colt 45, will be geared towards being in direct competition with Phusion Products LLC's Four Loko, Anheuser-Busch InBev's Tilt and United Brands Co's Joose. This new malt beverage will marketed by famous rapper Snoop Dogg and will contain fruit flavors and be 12% alcohol by volume, twice the amount of the original Colt 45. This move is going to place the brand into the: high alcohol, fruit-infused malt beverage category, which has been a rapidly growing market category but has drawn much criticism from lawmakers and the different anti-alcohol groups. Promotions for this will begin very soon and it will be advertised s

olely by Snoop Dogg via music, television and other appearences including the fact that Snoop Dogg is already touting Blast on Twitter for his many followers.Blast will be making it's debut in stores on April 5th, which is a rather comical pun that they are releasing it on 4-5 like Colt 45. It will be sold in six packs of seven ounce bottles as well as single 23.5 ounce cans. Overall, this is certainly seeming to be a smart move for the brand as sales have drastically declined over the last few years and I think it will definetly give them the competitive edge in the industry again. On a last note with that, if its anything like Four Loko I would warn you to certainly take caution when drinking it because its effects will hit you very quickly and could lead to the same black-out symptoms where Four Loko got its publicity.

On a different note, Molson Coors did their humanitarian part this week as they donated $50,000.00 to the Japan relief efforts being coordinated by the International Red Cross. Molson Coors has a dedicated sales and marketing organization in Japan and has since 1992, and through this they have expressed a great deal of solidarity with their Japanese team. Also, along with the corporate donation the company has made they have set up a great deal of microsite's at different plants encouraging their other employees to help out with donation's through the difficult times Japan is facing.

The next story for the week deals with the brewer Grupo Modelo SAB. They are the brewer responsible for the brand Corona Extra which is the best-selling imported beer in the US, and Modelo Especial. Apparently, after their main-rival Femsa Cerveza got purchased by Heiniken NV many have begun to speculate as to whether this family owned brewer is going to get acquired by the always pressuring Anheuser-Busch InBev. Fortunatly, as of right now, this company is remaining family owned and beginning to make a rise back in the industry as the mexican economy has started to recover along with the companies U.S. sales. This current rise in sales for the company is being realized as many are again beginning to spend the "extra buck" on quality and consumers are focusing less solely on price. Finally taste is winning the battle again, which is definetly a good thing because that gives me more hope for the craft brewers out there as well.

The last story I found rather important this week was from thestreet.com and it was discussing how the author of the article, jonas elmerraji, feels that brewing stocks are boasting recession proof results. My opinion, this guy has had way too much to drink. After looking at how bad my stocks have dropped over the course of the last 3 months in all three of my companies, I seriously don't feel that the industry as a whole is battling this recession very successfully at all. When I look at companies like Boston Beer Company who has seen a drop in prices of almost 15% in just 3 months, I fear more and mo

re for the future of  brewing and what results the industry is going to see over the next quarter to come. Lets hope for the best and certainly don't lose faith because stocks in this industry can and hopefully WILL bounce back. Until next week though, I repeat........"stay thirsty my friends!"