Do you drink beer from macro-owned craft breweries?

Love Bourbon County, may not be a popular thing to do but I buy the beer I like.

 

Far too many threads on this. Consolidate!

 

I drink Corona alot in the summer cause i just like to have one on the back porch after a long day .. it just hits the spot for me.

 

Drink best, regardless of where/who it is from.

 

If the beer is worth drinking, then I drink it. For years, I had trouble finding Victory at Sea. Maybe it's a coincidence but I have no problem finding it now. As long as it continues to be as good as it is, I don't care who owns Ballast Point. Just an example.

 

I drink what I like. If I don't like, I don't buy it again. Some of that is macro owned, most of it is plain ol' craft. Either way, it's tasty beer and I win.

 

If I'm gonna feel guilty it will be over something a lot more interesting than what company made the beer I bought.

 

If Duvel-Moortgat counts, then yeah - Ommegang & Firestone Walker

 

Nope

 

I drink whatever I like, and don't drink what I don't like.
In both cases, that may, or may not be macro.

 

If I like the beer, I drink it. I drink more smaller craft usually, but I am not beyond having a Michelob, Yuengling, etc.

 

No, only for the reason that there is no shortage of great independent beer out there that is usually much better and not much more expensive than macro-craft.

 

Yes, I do. Some of them are pretty good, in my opinion.

 

Only if it's good.

 

I really do not keep track of brewery acquisitions or who owns what. If I like a beer I will drink it.

 

I do pay attention to who owns what but do this just so I can taste brews before and after and know if the quality has changed drastically or not... Truth is I'm not all that politically motivated, for me, If a beer tastes good its worth drinking. Sophie, Matilda, honkers ale are all great beers and GI IPA isn't awful for an english IPA...

Maybe I feel this way because one of Canada's best breweries and the best Belgian style brewery is Unibroue. Their tripel La Fin Du Monde is fantastic, Unibroue is a subsidiary of Sleeman Which is in itself a subsidiary of Sapporo... But Sapporo lets them do what they want and in turn they make great beer.

Why should I miss out on a fantastic flavored beer because the company is big?? explain to me that.

 

Bcbs! And not craft but Modelo all day.

 

Sometimes yes. Sometimes no. It depends on who the entities are exactly who own the craft breweries.
I believe Goose Island, Breckenridge, Four Peaks, and Elysian are now 100% owned by Anheuser-Busch/InBev. Now that doesn't necessarily mean that the quality of their beers isn't still high or that their beers aren't tasty, etc. But to me they are no longer craft, and it would seem that organizations like the Brewers Association agrees. So while I suppose that if I am going to drink beer that's brewed by a company owned by an entity like Anheuser-Busch/InBev I would by far prefer to generally drink something from a brewery like one of these four compared to any of the macro/adjunct/light lagers/cheap malt liquor shit that Anheuser-Busch themselves produce, to say the least I'm certainly not going to go out of my way to obtain/drink any beers from companies like these four and I won't recommend these four breweries to anyone I know because for what I consider to be my own moral/ethical reasons I don't want any of my money going to a company like Anheuser-Busch. If I buy a beer made by any of those four former craft breweries then a portion of my money spent on that purchase will ultimately go to Anheuser-Busch/InBev in the long run. I don't fault the owners of Goose Island, Breckenridge, Four Peaks, and Elysian for doing what they thought was best for their business interests by selling their companies to Anheuser-Busch/InBev, but in good conscience I feel that I can no longer support these companies.

My own views and where I draw the line on these matters in terms of what breweries I will and won't support based on who owns them breaks down like this. I don't really care about craft breweries that are completely or partially owned by equity groups as long as those equity groups aren't also tied to entities like Anheuser-Busch/InBev and Miller Coors in ways that could potentially be harmful to the craft beer movement/culture. I will continue to fully support craft breweries like Founders who are only 30% owned by another entity and I will continue to support craft breweries like Dundee, Magic Hat, Pyramid, and Portland Brewing Company, who while they are all 100% owned by another entity, this entity, unlike Anheuser-Busch/InBev, doesn't have a vested interest seeing the other craft breweries that it doesn't own ultimately fail. And companies like North American Breweries don't intentionally try to do things to restrict/limit the access of consumers to craft beers the way companies like Anheuser-Busch and Miller Coors have. Hell, I don't even mind the fact that Heineken owns 50% of Lagunitas now because to my knowledge Heineken hasn't ever deliberately gone out of its way to sabotage the craft beer movement/culture in America, or anywhere else for that matter, the way I believe Anheuser-Busch and Miller Coors have. I'll still happily buy Lagunitas' stuff when the mood strikes me. Same with Ballast Point.

Eric

 

I'll go by the beer, and how it holds up by itself, not the economics that are behind it. Case in point, Goose Island. I love some of their beers, and some others I find very much meh. The ones I don't like I won't have again. The ones I do like I will revisit when the mood strikes me. Didn't know about Ballast Point, but if it helps their distribution I'm fine with it. As long as the beers stay as good as they have been of course.