Do you #SeekTheSeal when buying beer?

Craft beer pricing has gotten out of control. I've actually started going back to larger format macro options. The weather does help force me to drink more 'water' though. IPAs in the heat does not go over well.

I know of too many local investors or minority stake holders who are absolute rich douche bags. They low-key partially own many of the local breweries around me. Car dealers, gym owners, restaurant owners, real estate flippers etc. And then some didn't exactly earn that loan that grandpa gave them to get started.

The whole local movement is likely 60-70% a farce. For every true mom and pop startup, the majority are playing off that local angle. Are you happy giving money to a douche bag who's local, or one in Brazil? 70% already have/had the money from the jump. It's very hard to weed through the fake local breweries now.

With that said, I voted No. I vote with my wallet and everything and anything is on the table.

 

Agree generally with your sentiment, but just for some wider context. The economic theory of the value of 'local' ownership is essentially that if the owner is the local douchebag they are taking their profits and spending them at the car dealership in your town, the grocery store in your town, the gas stations and clothing stores and restaurants in your town. And while the money will eventually go off to some corporate coffers it is passed around your local community more which produces more wealth for more people in your community and makes the whole area more economically secure.
If it's owned by the brazillian douchebag then their cut is immediately removed from your local economy and has no chance of benefitting anyone else in your community. While some people do seem to have a moral stance in favor of 'local' products, my understanding is that the general argument is this economic cycling one.

 

Type of beer, first. Then the date of canning or brewing. Then the maker.
#SealsAreForKids
But seriously, I know (at this point) who has or has not conglomerated, been bought out, or partnered with larger brewers... so if I care, I consider it.
All depends on whether their beers have remained very good, or if quality has slipped.
Taste first, then everything else second.

 

When people mandate a bottle date on that seal I might start looking.

 

I do, inadvertently. 95% of the beer that I buy have the Independent Craft seal, but if I find a place that sells Labatt Blue in Portland, I'll have a few for nostalgia reasons.

 

I do not “seek the seal.”

 

88.3% when you add the 'Huh' responses who clearly aren't looking for the seal as they don't know what it is.

It seems to me that the Brewer's Association has a poor understanding of the current beer market. It seems they are stuck in the mindset that being locally owned is one of the most important aspect to selling beer. It may have been 15 years ago, but it clearly isn't anymore.

 

Certainly agree here, most of us started with AAL because that’s all there was. And in its place it’s still a solid choice to just sit back and enjoy a cold beer. I agree about the craft labeling too, it’s a daunting task to produce a beer as consistently as say AB does in the volume they brew in different locations and it’s the same. That’s craft right there whether you like Bud or not, they’re brewing to a corporate standard. A miss could be very problematic, and expensive.

 

Nope, I seek good beer. Regardless of the seal if your beer is good I am drinking it. I would be more concerned about date codes being displayed, this plays a bigger role in my eyes.
Cheers

 

Seems like a "committed to freshness" seal with a simple date code would be a much bigger hit.
Probably the best thing the BA could do for us members is education around the logistics of keeping fresh product on the shelves and getting stale product off

 

While I don't drink ABInBev/Miller-Coors macro products, I don't play "seek-the-seal". I drink GI BCBS, Lagunitas, Avery, Founders, and other craft beer owned by big-beer. I applaud big-beer owning and maintaining the quality of craft breweries they buy. If they buy them up and ruin the beer, they can take a hike - but I don't need a seal to tell me what's what.

 

That depends, there's still very much an emphasis on local products, some even with special label at several grocery stores in my area ("Local" = prepared/grown within 100 miles) . While the 'Farm-2-Fork' has limited applicability to craft ingredients (unless you like brewing with rice from my region of CA), that buying mindset extends into other product areas. While this area is blessed with several excellent local breweries, it also is flush with plenty of average ones and my 'beef' is with their average (though fresher product) taking shelf space from known great beers from larger entities (many Independent, but not all).

 

Are there really that many beers, US-brewed or imported, that don't have a packaging/best by date on them these days? 20 years ago I could understand the complaint (and was among the complainers). I can't say I check every new brand that hits the shelves in my area but the ones I buy or have an interest in buying, the vast majority are now dated using one method or the other. (Granted, some - especially imports - still take some further research to determine "Best by" shelf life periods, etc.) I don't know, there are no beers I must have, so if I can't find a date, I move along.

Seems out-of-code beers are the bigger problem and, by definition, those do have date codes, otherwise - How wouldya know?

Does seem odd (well, not really I guess...) that the Brewers Association would allow the use of their seal by brewers who don't follow one of the organization's own "best practices":

 

JK, I agree with you here.

Is there an initiative from the Brewers Association to address this problem?

Cheers!

 

I drink my beer. Since the BA doesnt recognize my beer as "independent craft," then, no. I do not seek the seal.

 

Why don't they?

 

because we are contract brewers

 

Just my opinion, but I think AALs are the most versatile when it comes to accompanying food like pizza, steak, burgers, etc. So I drink a mix of craft and the cheaper stuff. The seal is not important to me but what's inside is.

 

I'm regularly surprised (like maybe once a month) to uncover another new to me brewery that either isn't dating or is placing it so obscurely that I can't find the date. I pass on them all on principle. But ya the bigger issue, and the one the BA would do well by it's members to help them address, is old beer sitting around.