Fred Eckhardt (1926-2015) was a homebrewer and writer, and is considered the dean of American beer writing. In February of 2025, Eckhardt was among the first class of inductees into the American Craft Beer Hall of Fame.
The century-long trademark war between Anheuser Busch (USA) and Budějovický Budvar (Czech Republic) turned red hot during the period 1991 – 1997 primarily because AB sensed a heaven-sent opportunity to dangle gold doubloons before the famished eyes of fledgling post-communist officials who were desperate to privatize the economy.
The American monolith’s ham-fisted eagerness to grab this ripe fruit backfired, subsequently eliciting a patriotic backlash and resistance on the part of the Czechs. It is an important chapter in my “40 Years in Beer” series.
40 Years in Beer (Book II) Part 52: “Anheuser-Busch, Gone Home,” our classic 1997 victory lap
Concurrently, A-B sought various ways to bludgeon the threat is saw in the emerging microbrewing revolution in America, either by acquiring smaller breweries to be desecrated, or creating its own mockrobrew lines, and sometimes resorting to bludgeoning challengers — as in the case of Sam Adams Boston Lager and its highly visible founder, Jim Koch (also a 2025 hall of fame inductee).
A-B’s disinformation campaign famously came to fruition with an “exposé” on NBC News’ Dateline in 1996, which attacked Koch and Samuel Adams for contract brewing, and is explained in depth by Tom Acitelli at All About Beer.
Eckhardt’s column on the matter, which we welcomed as a kick in the groin for A-B, was originally written for All About Beer magazine, and reprinted with permission in the FOSSILS newsletter (Walking the Dog #78, March 1997).
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THE BUDWEISER MENACE, by Fred Eckhardt
Editor’s note: Fred Eckhardt lives, writes and drinks beer in Portland, OR. He is the author of The Essentials of Beer Style and Sake (USA). It hasn’t been my habit to reprint material like this piece (and a related one in the last issue of WTD), but the subject matter, and the manner in which Eckhardt explores it, is so important that I feel an exception is merited.
Quite impressive, that NBC-Anheuser-Busch “infomercial” attack on Boston Brewing’s Jim Koch. Stone Phillips, NBC’s stellar reporter, and co-host Chris Hansen performed a near-perfect hatchet job on Koch and other...Read more
