-The Craft Beer Blacklist-

Anyone ever stop to think that through macro buying/promoting craft breweries that it in turn sheds more light on craft in general? How many people were turned onto craft by Shocktop or Blue Moon? I get it, no one here will admit that Blue Moon was their first craft beer but if it was, did it not turn you on to other "true by craft community standard" craft beers? Does the Blue Moon consumer never have a discussion with other people about similar choices? Myself, I have turned on at least 5 friends to Allagash through their Blue Moon addiction, let alone the people I can't remember that I chatted up at bars. The idea that macro is going to become the equivalent to "Taco Bell" from Demolition Man is absurd. Despite McDonalds, TGIF, Applebees, Outback, etc.,. we still see tens of thousands of restaurants open and close on a weekly basis all across the country. Maybe some small breweries go out of business, but that's likely going to do with the lack of their quality and not the presence of macro.

 

Of course they are. Whats your point?

 

Really well said. Cheers!

 

That usually happens between tier 2 and 3, between the wholesale distributors and the retailers.

And who also owns wholesalers? http://anheuser-busch.com/index.php/our-company/operations/wholesale-operations/

 

This is awesome.

 

Your right they own distributers for their products. As an intelligent business why would you not want to do that?


Also Im going to go way out on a limb and guess that it is BMC beer serverd at your rugby socials. I know it is at ours lol.

 

The more you buy their beer, the more revenue they have to spend on lobbying, and the more likely laws get passed that limit consumer access or availability to craft beer.

 

By purchasing craft beer brands those once sought after beers are now available in much larger markets than ever before.

 

No, actually we used to always get kegs of Yuengling. Now my club actually has a local craft brewery as a sponsor and they've hooked us up with deals.

But yeah, if at another clubs social, sure I'll have some free pints of whatever cheap beer they have, I'm not a snob. But if I'm buying beer, I'm going to make a choice about who gets my money.

 

The only beers I've seen a big increased presence of is Goose Island IPA and 312. Those are okay beers but I don't want to see them push a better quality craft beer off of a tap line. To a lesser extent, Widmer and Kona showed up a lot more in PA due to the Craft Brew Alliance, but again those beers aren't of any better quality than other locally available options.

 

It's not "snobbery" to choose what company I do business with based on the ethics of that company. That's consumer choice, and I exercise it. I also feel affronted when a company puts millions of dollars into preventing me from exercising it, as AB-InBev does.

We're not talking exclusively about the breweries AB-InBev acquires, we're talking about the ones they will squeeze out because they've acquired others. With large brands such as Elysian and Goose Island in hand, they are forcing bars and distributors to carry these products, and more of them, to the detriment of still-independent breweries that previously had a more level playing field on which to compete against these brands. If your favorite brewery went out of business because AB forced Goose Island products to take over all their tap handles, you'd probably be pretty upset, no?

 

I only drink "craft" but that website is really pretentious and obnoxious.

 

The point is that by drinking these beers, you ARE supporting the bully macro breweries practices. That's pretty simple to me. It's your choice to do so as a consumer, but you can't say "I don't support it" and "I support it" in the same sentence.

 

As I queried, "Who knows?"

 

I think the better analogy is somewhere in between these two examples; yes, the macros pay their employees livable wages, so the Wal Mart analogy is not perfect, but there's a significant difference between Facebook bolstering its brand, and macro breweries using underhanded tactics and lobbying to prevent fair competition in the marketplace.

Again, the difference is that Nabisco is not lobbying to prevent local bakeries from existing. I'd be happier if Tastykake weren't bought out by a multi billion dollar company, but I don't refuse to buy their products on principle, because that multi billion dollar company is not lobbying to eliminate small bakeries.

 

Not for me, but I'm sure it does, mid-sip, for many others...

 

I'm more surprised that people find this to be news, but then, living in Canada, I suppose I'm more apt to look up the politics of Canadian breweries.

Also, I'm going to say that I'm along the camp of "If it's good, drink it", though I think it should be mentioned that "Good" is subjective.

 

Wow...we are throwing around "sellout"...people are saying that they won't drink Unibroue now, even though it made one of their favorite beers. So, since Unibroue was initially sold for $31 Million, it stands to reason that the founder/owner(s) of this brewery were multi-millionaires before it was ever sold. Were they sell-outs because they made a bunch of money and didn't have to slave away over product just to keep things afloat? What if the Alchemist got this big, would heady Topper top the beer list? Judging by this thread, I am guessing no, and that's not because it past its time. I'm talking right now, or earlier. If the Alchemist managed to parlay what they had into Unibroue numbers would it still be on top?...perception is everything, and to me it's scary that someone says that they won't drink their favorite beer anymore even though the brewery has stayed the same and just because the money trickles up to a different group of profiteers...I am far from a person who supports what big business has done to ethics and a lot of things, but remember, everyone is in this to make money, no matter how much they love it...

 

GOOSE ISLAND DUH!

 

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