Thank You InBev

interesting...the boogey man has done the right thing for craft this time, whether they meant to or not lol
i guess even a broken clock gets to be right twice a day

 

I check my beer cellar like I check the ync, for shock and awe. But what will BCBW go for is the question?

 

I almost bought off my beer cellar the other day, then it dawned on me I'm not that much of a douchebag yet.

 

Speculation is not a new gamble.

 

Abinbev has clearly demonstrated that they will try to pressure distributors into not carrying other craft breweries. While indeed this is simply "how capitalism works," it also could ultimately result in less options for you at the bottle shop. By purchasing ABinbev products, you are simultaneously supporting their practice to limit the distribution of other breweries. If you don't see a problem with that, then that's cool, it's your opinion, just as my dislike of the practice is my opinion. I just want to throw it out there in case you hadn't considered it.

http://www.newser.com/story/142953/flailing-anheuser-busch-tries-new-beers-intimidation.html

http://www.boston.com/ae/specials/culturedesk/2011/03/anthony_bourdain_discovery_kil.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/01/budweiser-corona-deal_n_2599341.html

 

ugh...despise them...we should have a national bmc sewer pour day

 

There's only 365 days in a year though.

 

$50 for a 4 pack of 12 oz beers is still expensive

 

I'm not sure I would thank InBev quite yet, it seems like there is a lot of other factors you are not accounting for that could be the cause of this.

Since '13 BCBS is hitting pretty damn quick, the market is going to be flooded with thousands of bottles of it with or without InBev's help. Simple supply and demand would state that the price of BCBS on the secondary market would go down accordingly as there is a much larger cheaper base from which to draw from. The same can be said with BCBS:CS, there are presumably thousands of 12oz bottles of that flooding the market people to purchase as much less than $50 a bottle, so it would make sense that the prices on * would go down as well.

Even if InBev hadn't taken over, GI still would have made BCBS (maybe not in the large quantity or distribution that it will get now) but the prices should have still dropped due to the economics described above.

Or maybe it has nothing to do with this and people weren't selling 4 packs of BCBS for $100 and they finally dropped the price and its just a coincidence that this years is dropping soon.

 

The problem with your first alternative explanation is that you are basically assuming that even if ABInBev had not taken over there would have been a dramatic increase in speed and quantity of production with the attendant "market flooding" to drive down the prices. Given how many years in which GI had to work on that problem it seems much more plausible that increased supply can be attributed to the buy out and the reasons for the buy out.

Alternatively you are suggesting that some sort of collective cascade effect in price reductions has resulted in selective lowering of prices of that particular rare beer but not the large numbers of other beers for which there are equally strong prices. But this second explanation still hinges on the notion that GI on their own would have dramatically increased speed and quantity of production and there might have just been a coincidental price reduction affecting only that small subset of beers.

On the whole, given ABInBev's publically stated reasons for the purchase and their large infusion of resources into GI which led to the dramatic increase in speed and quanity of production, I'd say the OPs thanks are timely and targeted to the source of the price declines.

 

Tweets from chefs are the most credible source of news anyone can ask for. Especially when the tweet doesn't name which specific big beer company it was.

 

I heard bcbs was going to be beechwood aged starting in 14.

 

It's not credible. None of them are credible, heck most accessible news lacks credit. Nevertheless, they offer a different point of view on ABinbev, one that I think it would be advantageous for beeradvocates to see on occasion. I'm not trying to prove that ABinbev is out to squash the little guy, just suggesting that they could be, and if they are, exploring the possibilities of that.

 

Wait. I don't remember paying that much for BCBS last year. I wouldn't have paid that. No way. We are talking about 4pks of 12oz bottles, right?