It’s definitely true what they say, never mess with a man’s beer. And in Biznews community member Frederick Liebenberg’s case, such an incident (ammonium flavoured beer) has got him thinking. Liebenberg explores the regulatory stipulations put in place for the SABMiller, AB InBev deal to be approved, and he believes they’ve missed the point. He refers to no job cuts and a BEE share program as a porridge and blankets solution. And given the need for clean water in beer production, his solution to job creation is for the new beer conglomerate to develop a research fund for cleaning water. Because at the current rate, there won’t be any jobs for them to save when it runs out. – Stuart Lowman
By Frederick Liebenberg
I have been a beer drinker all my life. Today I asked my son to get us a six-pack on his way for a Sunday meal. He drinks Castle but he bought six 450 ml Black Labels, dad’s choice. I used to be a Lion drinker but SAB only keeps the license going. They are only produced once in a while to keep the rights (their monopoly) in place. My son took the first swallow of the beer but spat out the remaining gulp with huge disgust. He asked me to taste his beer. Tasted like drain cleaner/ammonium. Same with my beer. We took the beers back to Tops Spar at Edleen circle in Kempton Park. The manager of the outfit was quite friendly and gave us 6 pack of long tom cans as refund. Told us he will get back to us on Monday. Driving back I got suspicious, why cans and not just another bottle pack? Probably wants SAB to check his stock before poisoning more clients.
This is terrible. First time in 45 years of drinking SAB produced beer that we experienced problems. Well the trust is gone.
This then lead me to thinking if the deal with AB InBev goes through all the beers 90% of SA beer drinkers consume will now be controlled by a conglomerate, now I understand Brexit. I will switch to a boutique beer producer where I can get personal contact with the brewer when things go wrong. SAB AB InBev you cannot afford these mistakes! How quality is insured should be part of the regulatory decisions.
And we will soon have the biggest producer of drain cleaner in the world!
I assume the bottles are disinfected with ammonium prior to bottling. Is this the level of competency? Why do they not use transition metal chelates in the washing water? Cheap and 100% effective.
800 BC copper/zinc are used to disinfect drinking water.
Surely SAB has research programs on cleaning water? Like nano-copper or nano-airbubbles?
Brexit brings even more bad news for U.S. investors who own shares of SABMiller Plc https://t.co/7bBDPslvhT pic.twitter.com/XagR2xtFNd
— Bloomberg (@business) June 29, 2016
Dear SA government, you want to create jobs, get SAB AB InBev to create a research fund for cleaning water. Like the US, $5 billion per annum.
Just to ensure no job cuts for 5 years and a BEE share programme is the porridge and blankets solution. There is no more good quality water for beer production.
Their existence does not depend on job retentions, it definitely depends on producing beer with good quality water.
If you drive from JHB to Vereeniging and you cross the river u get this huge rotten smell just before the Heineken factory. I assume the rot comes from their pollution of the river (klip rivier) from their plant.
We probably also settled for a porridge and blankets deal in approving this factory.
Beer production is highly automated. If you look at the value chain opportunities then few exist. Apart from the distribution logistics (transporting the product to outlets) or putting up shebeens there is none.
But cleaning up their water (in and out) there is huge opportunities.
Cheers, lets have another round of drain cleaner or porridge and blankets regulatory deal.
Never mess with a man’s beer.
