Funky Buddha Joins Constellation Brands

Haven't they learned the lesson from GI, Boulevard, Ballast Point, Wicked Weed, Elysian, etc.? If you want to move more beer, you have to sell your Sol.....

 

as far as the quality question goes, one of my biggest gripes is about the core beers. There hasn't been a drop off in quality with them (that i have noticed), i just thought there was nothing really special about any of them. Ask anyone what the best few IPAs in Fl are, and It's unlikely that Hop Gun or Hop Stimulator makes the list! and the same for the other cores. They have done a nice job with marketing their unique beers, and some of them are better than others.

 

if ya want hops in south Florida, you have to go to Civil Sociey...nothing compares to them atm. sure Jwake and funky make better stouts/sours/porters but the hops are in Jupiter....Funky never made solid Hops imho, i did like Small Ax Big IPa and they killed that for hop Stimulator

 

I don't really drink their core beers often, so I guess I would agree. The one exception is Floridian, which I always have in the beer fridge. But yeah, there are plenty of IPAs I would choose over the FB ones.

 

At least it wasn't ABinbev right?

 

How about "Ball-a-rita"?

 

Please don't call beer "hops"! How about "hop forward styles"? Calling them by their actual styles (names) is an option too. Or we can refer to vodka as "grains". "Hey man! If you want some good grains, don't buy Smirnoff, get Grey Goose or Ketel One. Those two are the best grains on the market. Belvedere makes pretty good grains too."

 

You joke, but I had a similar conversation with a BUD distributor in the spring and he said his sales are driven by Mich Ultra and whatever the newest BUD acquired craft brewer is. BUD appears to have better control of its distro network. Constellation is now 2x Molson Coors on a market cap basis. You now have a "craft" brewer pushing around a macro brewer and its distribution network. Pretty impressive.

 

$17 a 4 pack isn't a bad price. It's currently $10 a bomber and has very limited distribution. I'd buy it fairly regularly at that price.

 

For Last Snow, I agree and would still buy it at that price. It's probably my favorite beer of theirs and worth $10 a bomber all day. I guess it's some of the other ones they are average or hit or miss.

 

There's always going to be beers that are overpriced. The only 2 beers from them I've had are last snow and mbcp and both of them are worth $4-5 a 12 oz. I just hope they can keep the quality, I'd love to keep trying their stuff.

 

BuzzBallz is not craft beer brotha. Can't think of an instance where ABI has bought out a craft brand and done stupid shit like Ballast Point's cocktail cans. Not saying they haven't, but I can't think of anything so blatent off the top of my head. Cocktail cans aside, have you seen Ballast Point's offerings since the buyout? Grapefruit Sculpin? Watermelon Dorado? Constellation thinks that pumping stuff with fruit concentrate and cheap adjuncts is the future. They're definitely way more cancerous.

 

Regularly. Both in bottle and on tap for the Grapefruit Sculpin.

Lots of Ballast Point beers regularly on tap around here:

http://www.phillytapfinder.com/brewery/ballast-point/

BTW, this is a current list and almost never out of date.

Similarly,

https://www.beermenus.com/beers/66767-ballast-point-grapefruit-sculpin

Although some listings are out of date, many are current.

 

One thing I always wonder is that all these companies are being bought by Big Beer. But when I go to a ball game or concert I never see any of the new items available? If they spend this money to buy the craft guys why not sell them widely and promote it more? I cannot remember seeing anything new last time I hit a show, just the usual lineup.

 

It certainly appears so, if one looks at quality versus "evil business practices".

 

I just thought it sounded funny and didn't really intend a Constellation/ABI crossover (or whatever tf was going through my head. But ABI is about to bring three new extensions to the Natural Light lineup: Natty Rush Blue Frostbite, Natty Rush Watermelon Smash and Natty Rush Hurricane Punch.

 

Think you might have misinterpreted my post brotha. Didn't say "have you seen Ballast Point's offerings since the buy-out" meaning "have you seen them around because they're hard to find after the buyout". When I said "have you seen Ballast Point's offerings since the buy-out", I mean "have you seen how shitty they've become", and was using those two beers as examples.

 

Are you upset because this tarnishes the otherwise stellar reputation of Natural Light?

 

Is it right that Ballast Point only sold the beer part of the company to Constellation, but kept the spirits side?

 

The spirit side split off from Ballast Point and became an entirely different company, Cutwater Spirits. Not owned by Ballast Point or Constellation or even related to them.