All-American Budweiser Joins Coors in Europe

Not so long ago, American beers were, well, American beers -- but truly domestic brands are getting harder to find all the time, as evidenced by the just-announced sale of Anheuser-Busch to Belgium-based brewer InBev for the blue-light-special price of $52 billion.

The suds lovers at Golden's Coors brewery would no doubt love to compete against Budweiser, Anheuser-Busch's signature libation, by exploiting its move from the New World to the Old Country. But no: The flag it's currently waving no longer features the stars and stripes.

Back in 2005, Coors combined its operations with those of Molson, which is rooted in Canada. Then, last year, the new partners agreed to link up with Miller, owned by SABMiller of London. These moves, combined with the latest involving Anheuser-Busch, mean that the top two U.S. beer sellers are based in Europe, not in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave. And as the Denver Post recently noted, Coors will be brewed at other plants in addition to its Golden HQ to save dough despite the centrality of "Rocky Mountain spring water" to its overall image.

So what does Coors brag about now? That at least the people in its home country speak English, not Belgian? It ain't much, but that's about all there is left. -- Michael Roberts