Small Town Brewery owned by Pabst?

A few months after this thread started, the for-pay industry website Beer Business Daily a few days ago reported that Pabst, which does have a distribution deal with "Small Town/Innovative" has also bought a stake (percentage unstated) of the brewing company.

One of the other "moves" by Pabst was to take over the importation of Tsingtao (formerly a brand imported by Constellation, importer and now US owner of Corona and the other Grupo Modelo brands).

 

It really can be.

I spent a few years in R&D at a company that made cleaning products for restaurants. Running field tests for new formulas, we would run blind trials in local chain restaurants, half using the test product and half using the control: existing product dyed to match the test product. Surveys were part of the testing; we'd get the crew to rate the current product, and then swap in the "new product" for a month or 6 weeks and then re-survey.

It never failed, never, that the control got rated worse than the existing product, and it was the same damn thing... and by the same damn thing, I mean that I personally pulled it out of a 3000 gallon mix tank right before the dye got added. No difference from a production run but the color.

If it looks different than what we're used to, by and large our perception is that it's worse than what we're used to.

Making the control product look different than what the user was used to seeing was our way of accounting for that bias.

 

I didn't see a link to the boston globe article confirming pabst ownership, so I figured I'd drop it in here since it belongs in this thread:
https://www.bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/food-dining/2015/06/27/sips/i5RUfAU00EnRIbrcr9D9JL/story.html

 

My 2 cents...as someone who was oddly curious about a 'small time craft brewery' getting crazy distribution and some crazy ad buys (I'm now getting promoted NYFRB tweets in my twitter feed!)

A.) I have zero problem with enjoying BMC products in the right setting / mood. Just because it's mass produced and marketed, doesn't mean it's crap. It's certainly not even close to go-to beer, but the level of snobbery towards that stuff borders on wine level obsessiveness.

B.) That said, I do find it funny and annoying when BMC companies go out of thier way to create the illusion of bootstrapped startup making something small and unique...If you're marketing to me with an ad during the World Series, you're not small time...sorry...

C.) THAT said , small time breweries that get acquired by the BMCs of the world...totally cool with that. Why? Because while I'm sure all brewers are in it for the joy of it to a certain extent...in the end, everyone is in it to be successful and getting a BMC to buy you out, make you a boatload of cash, and still retaining creative control? I don't get why folks take such issue with companies like Small Town, Goose Island, etc..The product is good, it was conceived in the 'craft brew' way and was successful enough to get the big guys to invest...That's the American Dream (tm) folks...

 

A bit more on (B)....I said it was funny...what I also meant to say was I don't buy in there....I get the 'No one would buy it if it was named Bud IPA'...That said, you can find some way to be true to your brands and not feel sketchy / deceptive when it inevitably comes out your trying to pass off a 'craft brew' feel in a dishonest way. Don't be throwing ads my way showing how your mass produced Belgian Wheat is being made small batch by small batch in a farm somewhere in the country....That's the stuff that annoys me and makes me not want to drink Blue Moon, etc...

 

Pabst has exclusive dist rights... but don't "own" the brewery. Not sure what the effective difference is but that seems to be the story.

http://www.cspnet.com/category-news...-enters-ranks-import-and-craft-beer-companies

 

As I noted above (post #61), after that CSP article was published, other industry sources began reporting that Pabst owner, Kashpar, and other Pabst execs had bought into the "Small Town" company. Brewbound updated its article on the Pabst/Not Your Father's Root Beer distribution deal with:

 

Gotcha... missed your post accidentally. Thanks for the clarification.

 

Just had this. 10.99for a six pack at WalMart? No, not worth it at all. Root Beer taste is average at best. I'd rather just drink a well done root beer like the one from Saint Arnold.

Luckily I was given one to try. It was the five percent type.

If they were a small independent brewery we would see articles and interviews and people talking about visiting the brewery.

Nothing wrong with being owned by a bigger company and being contract brewed. Just explain it and sell as much as you can.

 

This is hilarious, I found this thread when I noticed that they had a table at the Untapped Dallas coming up next week, I asked the same question all you guys did about who owns them... the reach of big biz, so ridiculous.

 

Of course it is some sort of big beer/beverage company. You don't show up in 50 states by being a small brewery.

Untapped has gotta keep the distributors/money happy by having some of these beers on tap at their beer festivals.