Every week, hundreds of beer aficionados tour the tiny, run-down brewery of Boston Beer Co., purveyor of the fashionable Samuel Adams beers.

But all this is just for show. The real stuff is brewing 750 miles away, in the sprawling Cincinnati plant of Hudepohl-Schoenling Brewing Co. Beer-buffs who pay premium prices for Sam Adams might well be surprised to see it bubbling away at the home of such humble brands as Hudy Bold and Little Kings Cream Ale.

About 100 of the nation's thousand or so craft brewers don't make much beer at all. They simply pay another company to make their beer for them, according to their recipe.

Contract brewing, long a behind-the-scenes practice, is now the center of the biggest brawl in the world ofbeer. The U.S. Bureau ofAlcohol, Tobacco and Firearms is weighing whether contract beer should state explicitly on their labels which company brewed them.

[SOURCE: Yumiko Ono, “Who Really Alakes That Cute Little Beer? You’d be Surprised,” Wall Street Journal (April 15, 1996), pp. Al, A8. Reprinted by permission of The Wall Street Journal, © 1996 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.]

a. Why would “craft brewers” hire other firms to brew their products?

b. How could the practice of subcontracting the brewing be justified on the basis of quality considerations?

c. In your opinion, is subcontracting the actual brewing of the beer an ethical practice in the light of the fact that the practice is not disclosed to the con¬ sumer? Explain.

LO1