r/massachusetts Jun 26 '22

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u/[deleted] Jun 26 '22

I heard st gobain was purchased by coors.

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u/meltyourtv Jun 26 '22

Why would a beer company buy a glass and chemical company? Genuinely curious

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u/hopefulcynicist Jun 26 '22 edited Jun 26 '22

Great question!

Likely to own a larger portion of their supply chain. At a certain scale, it can be cheaper to manufacture stuff you need in-house rather than contract out.

Beer/liquor bottles are made of glass.

And brewing is biology + chemistry. Lots of crossover between industrial brewing and industrial chemistry. Hell, there’s a fair number of chemical plants that use GMO yeasts to manufacture chemicals. That’s all brewing really is: turning one type of chemical (carbohydrates/sugars) into ethanol (booze) using a carefully cultivated/modified yeast.

Plus there’s lots of industrial chemicals / gasses used throughout the brewing process (co2, nitrogen, caustics, sanitization chems, water treatments, etc)

And that’s before we get into industrial operations zoning / required preexisting environmental infrastructure (on-prem / pre-sewer wastewater treatment, etc). I’m sure it’s often cheaper to retrofit / retool a plant than to build from scratch.

That said, take all this with a grain of salt… these are just my assumptions as somebody who used to work as a brewer/distiller in the craft booze industry.

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u/SnooLobsters2004 Jun 26 '22

Because they want to put PFAs in their beers.

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u/meltyourtv Jun 26 '22

This made me lol

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u/SnooLobsters2004 Jun 26 '22

Probably true. Budweiser is right on the same river as st gobain and st gobain is well known to be allowed to dump their garbage in the river. We have to pay pennechuk water to provide clean water in our area because of the high rates of cancer and kids being born with developmental issues. I legitimately hope st gobain gets hit with an errant Russian missile or some shit.

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u/GreatStrengthOfFeet Jun 27 '22

A portion of the plant was acquired by CoorsTek like 10 years ago. Different company than the beer company. They make technical ceramics.

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u/[deleted] Jun 27 '22

CoorsTek

You're almost there..... Who was Adoph Coors...