-The Craft Beer Blacklist-

I still love Leinenkugel's, Redhook, Bluepoint, and Goose Island. Don't care who they're owned by, I like the way their beer tastes.

 

Fair enough. Dismiss the analogy. The point remains.

 

I've been drinking "whatever tastes best" for the last 8 years, with no regard to ownership or size of brewery. What has changed since then? better/fresher beers, at more shops, from more breweries.

Enough people genuinely understand the difference between good and bad beer now. BMC realizes they can't put that genie back in the bottle and are now here to join along, I welcome them.

 

So wait.... Just because a beer is brewed by a macro brewery, or a macro brewery owns that particular craft brewery, that beer then gets added to a "blacklist"? Am I misunderstanding the point of this post, or has beer drinking become too political? If it tastes good drink it, right?

 

Depends. Buying BCBS supports AB-InBev. By doing that, you're supporting a corporation that has militantly lobbied against craft beer expansion. Just like supporting Wal-Mart is supporting a company that gives shit benefits and wages to the point where its employees many times still need government help.

Is that something you're ok with?

 

I totally get your point. I'm not an advocate of these said "sell out" breweries, in the grand scheme of things. But for example, I enjoy Space Dust IPA from Elysian. I am not going to stop drinking it just because AB-InBev bought them out, unless of course the quality of the beer suffers.

 

I just look at it from an artists point of view. And brewing is still an art after all doesn't AB mention the "art of brewing" in one of their adds? But I digress. To use an analogy I've used in other posts: I still love vinyl- they practiced went into the studio and cut the record. If their was a slight mistake they left it, that was the elixir. Now they record everything digitally and its always pitch corrected and everything is perfect.
To me that's the beauty of the craft movement. These small breweries came up with a batch, tried to perfect it and yes occasionally its not perfect. Which gives our tatsebuds a challenge and generates threads on BA. Yes there are actually guys in thigh high boots and coveralls cleaning mash tuns and hauling shit around and personally buying ingredients for their beers. These big corporations are perfecting these beers. And there ain't a guy Ina lab coat checking on the beechwood aging. Its all done by machinery and chemists and each batch is perfect. No quams from me drink what you like. Just know that when you're buying wristbands and waiting on line for BCBS you're feeding the "man"

 

No, I'm not supporting the bully macro breweries practices. I'm simply saying that I'm not going to let who owns a brewery change my opinion of the beer they brew. Life's complicated, beer should be simple. If I like a beer, I'll drink it. I drink macro lagers quite often. They're not my favorite, but they're drinkable and inexpensive.

 

Is this actually true? where I'm at and seemingly all over the country legislation seems to be getting passed to benefit small brewers and startups. If it is true, they seems to be doing a poor job.

CA just passed a Farmers Market beer bill, allowing packaged beer sales at Farmers Markets. CA also just passed a bill loosening the Growler fill restrictions. These are clearly craft beer friendly laws. To my knowledge the "militant" BMC lobbyist groups were not against passage these bills.

In my time in the craft beer scene I can't recall one potentially helpful law that was shot down due to heavy BMC lobbying.

 

Yes. Particularly in Florida and Oregon. AB has lobbied to prevent small breweries from filling any growlers at all, and tried to stop them from self-distributing. Luckily, AB usually loses, but not always. Read up on it.

AB doesn't spend millions on lobbying the government every year to help craft beer.

 

Thank you.
I would like to buy each of you ( a non AB/InBev ) beer.

 

The creator of this list is performing a great service.

 

I love Belgian and Belgian-style brews and I don't like ANYTHING from Unibroue.

 

A craft beer blacklist? Yet another reason I'm growing disillusioned and tired of the "craft beer scene." I guarantee 95% of craft beer drinkers would've accepted a $22.5 million dollar buy-out of their position in their brewery from InBev. And this list is trying to tell me I should eschew Bourbon County in lieu of one of the many shitty, fly-by-night breweries that have been popping up like weeds whos main call-to-action is to "drink local" (and profit from the boom in craft sales)? Gtfo. I'll drink what I like, good beer is good beer regardless of who makes it. I don't see how a craft beer blacklist enhances the community.

 

The Wal-Mart comparison is not a good one in my opinion. Wal-Mart generally treats the employees like crap and forces other businesses in the community out of business by constantly undercutting prices.

To my knowledge the macros treat their employees with liveable wages at minimum and treat them with at least some respect that humans just deserve. They do not open breweries in every town trying to force out other breweries. In fact, I think most of their breweries probably predate most of the craft breweries. The macros are not buying smaller brands and then forcing down the price on the brand to drive other companies out of business because they can no longer compete with items similar that are priced so far below their products, as far as I can tell, all of the macro buys are similar in price after purchase as well.

The applicable comparison is Facebook. Facebook buys up other tech companies to increase their brand. Such as when they bought Instagram. Or when Apple bought Beats by Dre. They are making wise purchases to increase their brand.

 

Do you honestly think that's what their goal is? Because I'm pretty sure they haven't been buying up breweries and closing them down or reducing production. If anything, they EXPAND production.

 

And I just want to make clear, that I am not advocating for the macros to buy up any brewery. But just because they own something doesn't mean it should be dismissed. Drink what you like.

I want to know if your favorite snack was bought up by Nabisco would you stop buying it, even if the quality remained the same?

There are just too many massive companies that own too much to go through life checking everything to see who owns what.

 

Fair enough, but they are still lobbying against craft beer as a whole. Buying up a few of the big boys doesn't change that fact.

 

I agree with what one of the posters said earlier. I too like to know exactly where my money is going. Making sure it's in the hands of the right people not trickling up the ladder to someone else. Another reason to drink more local. Supports your economy, their jobs, etc etc

 

You may not approve of their practices but you're still giving them your money. Why not buy cream ales from smaller craft breweries instead of macro lagers. The only way is to speak with your wallet.