Back to the watered down stadium beer conspiracy, this time – CenturyLink Field, home of the Seattle Seahawks and Sounders.
Local Komo Channel 4 news has “gone undercover” to see if six different brands sold at the stadium, namely Stella Artois, Shock Top, Budweiser, Bud Light, Bass, and Redhook No Equal (brewed for Sounders games.) Concessionaire Delaware North is responsible for the beer purchasing and placement at CenturyLink Field.
The reporting team used Institute for Environmental Health (IEH) for independent testing for the beers final alcohol by volume.
The result? All beers fell below the reported ABV. Federal law allows for .3% variance in posted ABV. At the very end of the investigative reporting piece, the anchor laments that there could be a subtle drop in alcohol during the testing process, and it warrants more testing.
What they didn’t test however, are the same beers from bars or package store shelves as a control.
Large and small businesses rely on suppliers to meet quality and regulatory requirements. Our Seattle Sportservice subsidiary sells products purchased from Anheuser-Busch at CenturyLink Field. Anheuser-Busch has issued a statement regarding draft beers offered at CenturyLink Field. As noted in that statement, Anheuser-Busch sells only full strength beer in the state of Washington and the Anheuser-Busch draft beers offered at CenturyLink Field, and throughout the state, are the same as the packaged beer consumers purchase at bars, restaurants, convenience stores and other retail locations. Below is the full statement from Anheuser-Busch.
(Via http://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1sidf5r)
“We sell only full-strength beer in the state of Washington. The Anheuser-Busch draft beers offered at CenturyLink Field, and throughout the state, are the same as the packaged beer consumers purchase at bars, restaurants, convenience stores and other retail locations including CenturyLink Field.
We use exacting processes to monitor and test alcohol content throughout the brewing and packaging process of all our beers to ensure quality, consistency and accuracy. Laws and regulations governing alcohol requirements vary by state and we abide by all such requirements. In addition, we strictly follow federal guidelines regulating our products to make sure every package of beer that leaves our breweries meets the correct specifications for alcohol content.
We analyzed the production for the beers sampled in this instance, including alcohol levels, and found no irregularities. Based on our findings, we believe the draft beers sampled at the stadium during those dates met the specifications.
When we learned of Jon Humbert’s and KOMO-TV’s inquiry, we proactively reached out to him and also organized a conversation between Jon and one of our brewing experts to share the findings of our analysis and the technical aspects of testing beer.
Beer has unique properties, and accurately measuring its alcohol content requires specific controls, equipment and expertise. A large number of variables could affect testing results including management of the sample, equipment used and how it’s calibrated, and the testing method. In this case, the collection and transport using a plastic container, the lab and testing method could all fail to protect the alcohol content, which would explain the same variance in all samples taken.”
David Craig, Regional Vice President, Anheuser-Busch