IN SPRING 2020, A JUDGE PASSED the latest ruling in a series of conflicts between two of America's, and indeed the world's, largest breweries. The most recent Anhueser-Busch and Molson Coors phase of bellicosity stemmed from the 2019 Super Bowl. Anhueser-Busch spent thirty million dollars letting the nearly one hundred million Americans who watched the Super Bowl know that Molson Coors used corn syrup in their beers. A fact largely unimportant in the massive consumption of Molson Coors beers on that day or since. The fight over ingredients and the purity of their respective beers erupted into an advertising, litigious, and public war. Ultimately, the judge sided with Anheuser-Busch, and claimed Molson Coors could just as easily go after their competitor's ingredients.1
Beyond the clear dimensions of defensiveness in terms of beer purity, an attitude reflected by brewers across time and space, this reveals another crucial element of the...
