Do you drink beer from macro-owned craft breweries?

I drink beer I like. I don't care if they are owned by macro corparate goliaths, investment groups, hippies, conservatives, airline pilots, lesbian dwarves, or aliens from a distant galaxy. I would draw the line at breweries owned by terrorist networks or psycho killers, but I likely don't care enough to bother to find out.

 

Generally I avoid macro-owned, though I still do like and buy BCBS and The Sisters from GI. I never really liked their core offerrings before they sold out so my drinkership of that hasn;t changed.
I haven't bought much Ballast POint either - very occasionally Sculpin, but that's it. I'll hold off to see if I get that again - sdee if there are any changes.
I don't think Duvel-Mortgart is classified as a macro, so my consumption of Duvel, Ommegang, Firestone Walker and Boulevard don't count.
Generally it's the little guys I drink, and I usually keep a case of All Day IPA or something similar around for daily drinking.

 

You, sir, are a man of tightly held principles which you admirably only will discard for the most enjoyable pleasures.

 

I buy the beers i want to try and don,t really care if they are micro,macro or anything else

 

I've never understood why people take this so personally. Goose Island was my favorite brewery when they were purchased and I was pretty shocked when it happened. At the time I said that if it doesn't change the quality of the beers then it doesn't matter. I was the beer buyer at a craft beer store so had their products in my hands on a day to day basis. In the first six months the cardboard changed. Shortly after that Goose updated their logo (it was time). After a year new innovation like Halia, Gillian, and new Bourbon County variants started being released including Proprietors. Then they acquired their new massive barrel warehouse, which is truly something to witness. They still do Migration Week across the country. Last year they released their first Fulton and Wood series beer outside of Chicago with more being released this year. They also put IPA, 312, Four Star Pils, & Green Line Pale in 4CN and at a great price. They are always trying new things and putting out quality beer.

People act like these "acquired" breweries ran over their cat but the truth is that they're fighting the good fight by continuing to brew good beer that people like.

 

No, patronizing most macro brands is equivalent to funding the assault on craft brewers, aka one of the few growing and profitable sections of American small business. This comes up time and time again on these forums but for most people here it seems this is either not an important issue or an "out of sight out of mind" kind of thing.

But hey some macro brands are just so yummy in my tummy, why should I care that the money I spent on it just went to pay a lobbyist to try to make it impossible for Florida craft brewers to make a profit on in-house bottle sales, for example? Hedonism is always the best philosophical stance to take!

"If flavor is all that you love, then that's what you'll receive."
-Princess Leia

 

The truth is the purchased craft breweries are being used as pawns as the macros engage in anti-competitive practices to force themselves onto even more tap handles and shelf space, with the eventual result being that the consumer has less choice when purchasing beer.

 

MOST threads on BA are now just repeating old themes

 

Ive continued to buy the macro owned craft that I previously purchased. I never really drank Breckenridge anyway, so no harm there. I know I drink markedly less GI than before, but I still try their things. If Goose IPA is on, its still a super tasty beer.

 

That's just like, your opinion man. The problem here in Indianapolis is that there is sooo much average to below average local craft beer in the city that inserting Elysian, 10 Barrel, etc. (we JUST received Ballast Point) would be a plus. There are 40+ craft breweries in greater Indianapolis and it would be better for consumers if thirty of those didn't exist.

I know it kind of depends on where you live, but Indiana is a Miller/Coors dominated state FWIW.

 

Sometimes. As Ralph Waldo Emerson once said: "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds..." When buying singles I am not too discriminating but I tend to only buy six-packs and 12-packs from craft breweries that fit the Brewer's Association definition.

 

The sky is falling! The sky is falling! Umm, not really. If you have any proof of illegal anticompetitive practices by Big Beer the American Trial Lawyers Association would love to hear from you.

 

Good beer is good beer. If the quality is still there, why the hell would I stop buying it?

If the quality of a breweries product dropped off, I'd stop buying it regardless if it was owned by a Macro company or not.

 

10 Barrel, Lagunitas, Elysian...even the Widmer small batch stuff is pretty good

 

I think people are quick to boycott something they didn't really want (badly) anyway. If you decide to boycott Goose Island but not Ballast Point, you should ask yourself why. If the honest answer is that you like Ballast Point's beer better, then maybe you're not thinking the reasons of your boycott through. These things are often full of double standards and exceptions - it's only human.

I joined this site in 2010, and I've seen a big change in the prevailing attitude about this here. At the time, Beer Wars (an embarrassing piece of propaganda) was influencing the opinions of many in a rallying cry way. Today, the announcement that another craft darling is selling ownership is just another Monday on BeerAdvocate... and the mood has changed. People have gotten numb to it. "Good beer is good beer" is the new rallying cry. The two positions (pro-macro / anti-macro) seem like opposite ends of the spectrum but they really aren't. Each position is just "pro-drinker choice" in a different climate. Years ago, people believed what they believed because they didn't want to see Dogfish Head disappear from their fridge. Today, people believe what they believe because they don't want to see Bourbon County disappear from their fridge. Will the pendulum swing back because of the choices we're making... we better hope not. It was much easier for people to decide that they hated AB-InBev when they could view them as simple AAL producers rather than AAL and Bourbon County producers. In other words, people are really using their taste in beer to determine their loyalties rather than their ethics.

 

Ethics? Ethics? I don't need no stinkin ethics.

 

How do you mean "dropped out altogether?" Someone can get sick of a scene and stop going to highly publicized tap-takeovers and the like... but they can still put a sixer of Stone in their shopping cart when buying groceries at the supermarket (at least in NY)... and then consume that beer in their home with dinner.

 

Some of my favourite beers are from big multination breweries. I'd be an idiot to dprive myself of them.

A couple of examples:

Guinness Special Export
Amstel Bok

On the other hand, there are "craft" beers I won't buy because the brewery owners are such total twats.

 

A good beer is a good beer I don't give a shit who owns it, that's a fact. We are all here because we like beer, if you like something you should drink it.

 

Anti competitive. Haha I love that euphemism for, "It's no fair that guy is bigger than me and knows karate."