Boycotting 10 Barrel & Elysian

Let us not forget that ABI is only ABI here in the USA (IIRC). When InBev bought A-B, they chose to put the A-B part in front, so consumers wouldn't remember, or perhaps even realize, that the Bud in their hand was owned by some Brazilian conglomerate.

 

I have always hated this argument. Are there local choices for these products you listed? With craft beer you do have that choice to pick local and keep all of the money here.

 

lol look at this guy without a craft cell phone

 

Beechwood aging is expensive!

 

My point is that its damn near impossible to live in modern america and not be supporting multiple corporations that do things we (mostly) all do not agree with. Therefor "standing up" to AB is a way of voting with your wallet i guess, but seems like a funny place to plant your flag. On the list of people/industry that need support, I would put craft brewers about 2578th.

 

I suspect that will have a big impact on who stays!

 

I suspect that the lack of AB logos on their craft brands has more to do with brand identity than anything else. When you have a brand/logo that's as iconic as Budweiser you don't want to dilute it, or even worse, risk confusing/scaring your core customers because they picked up a picked up a bottle of Super Fuzz thinking it was a typical AB product.

They also have nothing really to gain by slapping their logo on 10BBL or Elysian products because of the sentiments we're seeing in this very thread.

When it comes down to it, ABinBev own something like 200 brands around the world, and most of them lack any indication of who the parent company is.

Also, where can I get one of those craft cell phones?

 

Enjoyed the post, and I agree with almost all of it myself.

I do have to tell you that AB-Inbev definitely did offer 1/2bbls of Goose IPA for like $60 in OR a few months ago, and that opportunity was around for awhile, and I know bars that took them up on it. They also launched, for instance, 312 Pale in a manner that, even while new, could be purchased for like $10 a case in the sales room of the distributor. I know this was widespread and will likely happen again and again with any/all of their craft brands in continued efforts to squeeze out the small guys. And it could work too in my opinion, given even time and in a variety of markets.

 

I'm not going to formally boycott either, but will likely avoid both companies for the most part. Not so much because I absolutely resent anyone that "sells out", but because I don't want to do my part to encourage the big boys to pursue "buying credibility" as a strategy.

That, and as others pointed out I kind of felt like both breweries were "okay" to begin with. I liked Night Owl as probably the best widely available pumpkin seasonal, and if either brewery puts out something interesting I'll give it a go, but they're also both rather easy to keep out of the normal rotation.

 

Sorry, should have used a less emotionally charged word like "inconsistency," but the point still stands: making a public declaration like that just opens you up to having the principle you're standing on scrutinized. I make hypocritical buying decisions all the time, often because I can't afford the more ethical choice; I didn't mean it as a slur.

 

It's hard to boycott breweries I only ever bought from a handful of times in the first place. In the future, it will be an elephant in the room when I consider purchasing one of their beers, but it rarely happens, anyway.