In the late 1970s, capacity surged despite stagnant
demand. Miller's expansions were the most aggressive, but the other national brewers also moved
to tap economies of scale. For instance, only four out of Anheuser-Busch's ten breweries
exceeded four million barrels apiece in 1977; by 1985, all eleven of its breweries cleared that
hurdle. Capacity utilization dropped toward 80% and stayed at that level throughout the 1980s.
In 1984, excess capacity in the East forced Miller to take a $280 million pretax write-off on a
nearly completed 10-million-barrel brewery in Ohio that it had intended to open in 1982.