
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, September 27, 1995                   TAG: 9509270030
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: BETTY LIEDTKE
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

TEMPEST IN A STAR CITY BEER BOTTLE

I AM FLATTERED that Chris Henson assumes we're a large corporation. (We're actually a very small company, and everyone in it lives in Roanoke.) And I respect his right to voice his opinions, even in the newspaper. However, a number of errors in his Sept. 21 column (``Forget the brew-haha; the point is, how does it taste?'') about Star City Premium Lager need correcting, especially since some people will mistake his entertaining, tongue-in-cheek column as serious journalism. Or worse, as an accurate and objective evaluation of our beer and our company. If he had wanted to check out his information, he could have called us. It's a local call.

One of his mistakes was the number of downtown restaurants carrying Star City. (At the time he wrote the column, the number was eight, not three). He also implied our beer is brewed by a rather disgusting process, although what he described was actually the standard fermenting process used to make the majority of American beers (Budweiser, Miller and Samuel Adams, to name a few).

Henson stated: "Micro-breweries and their beers, like Pete's Wicked Ale, Saranac and Anchor Steam, have gained popularity of late," and that contract beers, including Star City Premium Lager, are "an attempt by big corporations to capitalize on the micro-brew fad." He'll be surprised to find out that two of the micro-brewed beers he mentions aren't micro-brews at all. Pete's Wicked Ale and Saranac are contract brews, just like Star City Premium Lager and Samuel Adams.

I'm concerned about his comment that contract brewers are "putting red-dye No. 12 in some old cans of Blatz.'' The beer expert who provided this theory was his brother. Had Henson called us or the company that brews our beer for us, he would have found out that the recipe for Star City Premium Lager was based on the beer that won a gold medal for premium lagers at the Great American Beer Festival in Denver, Colo. From the very beginning, taste was the first and biggest consideration as we developed Star City Premium Lager, and we did a great deal of research to find the taste we were looking for. (It's a dirty job, but someone had to do it.)

Taste was supposedly the main issue with Henson, too. The headline stated: "Forget the brew-haha; the point is, how does it taste?" That's what we want people to ask, too, and we hope they'll decide to find out for themselves rather than accepting his opinion. Certainly, Star City Premium Lager isn't for everyone. Naturally, his column was more entertaining with comments from those who don't like the taste. But many people do, and he could easily have found a few if he'd wanted to. Perhaps Henson wasn't looking in the right places. He said that he sampled Star City in an establishment where the busboy was slamming a rack of dishes on the bar, and bartenders were making sarcastic and insulting remarks about Roanoke city and the beer. Perhaps these aren't the type of people from whom to get a valid, legitimate opinion, or who can understand that saying "brewed exclusively for Roanoke" isn't the same as saying "brewed in Roanoke.''

Regarding Henson's reference to truth in advertising and bamboozlement of the local beer-drinker: We wrote, designed and approved the bottle label, including the message that Star City Premium Lager is brewed and bottled for us, under special agreement, by a brewery in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. And, unlike the bottle in the photograph accompanying his column, you don't need a magnifying glass to read it.

I hope people will recognize his column for the cute and clever opinion piece that it is, and that they'll try Star City Premium Lager and decide for themselves if they like the taste or not.

Betty Liedtke of Roanoke is co-owner of the Mill Mountain Brewing Co.

by CNB