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Trouble Brews Over Prez Foreign Beer Pick

By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff

Posted Jul 30, 2009 3:44 AM CDT

(Newser) – President Obama's next round of peacemaking beers at the White House might have to include US brewery owners, reports the Wall Street Journal. The cooling off confab today will be providing busted Harvard Prof. Henry Louis Gates and cop James Crowley's favorite brews Red Stripe and Blue Moon, and some Bud Light for the president. All three, American brewers grumble, are made by foreign-owned companies.

The brewers say that the choice goes against the White House policy of showcasing American food and drink, and complain that they never had the chance to get their beers anywhere near the meeting. "I think just showing up at the gate with a case of Harpoon would make them look at us funny," said the president of Boston's Harpoon Brewery. Leaders of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, meanwhile, say they're disappointed the president hasn't chosen to serve his guests lemonade.

American-owned breweries are complaining about the president's choice of Belgian-owned Budweiser.
American-owned breweries are complaining about the president's choice of Belgian-owned Budweiser.   (AP Photo/Whitney Curtis)
The founder of the Boston Beer Co., which brews Samuel Adams, slammed the foreign domination of something so basic and important to our culture as beer.
The founder of the Boston Beer Co., which brews Samuel Adams, slammed "the foreign domination of something so basic and important to our culture as beer."   (©Rae Whitlock)
The president's drink with Henry Louis Gates and James Crowley today has raised the sensitive subject of foreign ownership of American breweries.
The president's drink with Henry Louis Gates and James Crowley today has raised the sensitive subject of foreign ownership of American breweries.   (Shutter Stock)
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We would hope they would pick a family-owned, American beer to lubricate the conversation. - Bill Manley, spokesman for
family-owned, American
Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.

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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 33 comments
DaytonAve.
Aug 2, 2009 8:29 AM CDT
indeed magic hat for the win.
acerbus80
Aug 1, 2009 5:27 AM CDT
Wow. With everything that's going on today, this is what people choose to complain about. Pathetic.
Doctor-Zaius
Jul 31, 2009 12:49 PM CDT
George did that too!

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