Funky Buddha Joins Constellation Brands

Will the festival be "faux craft" only?

 

I can fully understand your feelings, but you also should be able to do better than something which is so obviously derivative and so obviously in direct reaction to a decision you don't agree with. It actually looks petty rather than constructive and moving on with your business development as you see fit.

 

Yeah, it often is hard to spot humor when one can't see the twinkle in the eye.

 

Come on now, don't be that way. Just wanted to give you a heads up I went to the site mentioned and bought my tickets. I got you a couple and will send them to you

 

I stand corrected. That's how I would read that page as well, and I appreciate you pointing out my misunderstanding. Cheers!

 

Same situation with Molson Coors and, as mentioned earlier, Constellation. The Coors and Molson families control the voting stock (and the board), the publicly traded shares are non-voting.

 

I'm pretty sure I am stupid. I like hearing the dialogue on both sides and like to hear points of view that balance things out and express both sides. Then, as you laid out so well, we can answer those questions ourselves and decide who we want to support or not and why. I don't think it has to do as much with getting over ourselves as it has to do with getting a fuller context and understanding about what may (or may not) be going on from another point of view.

I don't like AB InBev all that much since I worked for a beer distributor long ago and competed against a well capitalized and supported AB distributor. They were a formidable competitor, maybe even more so back then, and I resented (or maybe envied) their market muscle. I know some of what I've said on forums may make me sound like an AB InBev supporter, but I'm not - I just think getting the other side out there sharpens our thinking.

 

But FB is just sugar bombs.

 

"Friends" until they make a business decision to enjoy the fruits of their labor.

 

The point though, is that whenever someone complains about something no longer "being craft" the almost knee-jerk response here is "but who can complain about more accessibility, which means more choice" My point is that it is not that simple.

 

Selfishly I'm hoping this buy means that Funk Buddha will expand and come out west. I'd love to be able to buy their delicious beers here in Portland, OR.

 

Why is it not that simple?

 

Because while some choices are created, others will be lost as shelf space shifts. They may not be choices YOU value, but some of us may regret the choices lost.

 

My question would be, "How is this different than when a new independent craft brewery enters the market?"

 

It is not different, wrt choice. My point is IF someone has some other objection to the change on any other grounds, saying "yeah but CHOICE" is not automatically a valid response. Yet it is often what I hear.

 

Huh, all valid things to consider.

I seem also to add to the mix, when I read about buyouts, that maybe now the employees will get to join a union, get better pay, have more job security and benefits, and hopefully better and safer working conditions, since Big Beer routinely provides all these things to a much better degree than do small independents. But I guess that's just me.

 

How I see it is that there is a substantial middle ground in this ABI vs. Craft debate. It is not as simple as many craft breweries would make it seem. ABI (or Big Beer, in general) isn't completely evil just as craft brewers aren't completely good, as it applies to both the craft beer consumer AND the craft beer industry. I wish people would put aside their bias and see this with clear eyes. As divisive as the subject is, I don't see that happening. Facts are easily overlooked when emotion and rhetoric get involved.

 

I have not heard that High End (for example) has changed labor practices atbl acquired breweries. I would like to learn more about labor history in the beer industry, but my impression is that unionization at AB was driven by thevorganizing efforts of workers, it was not a gift from management (and of course Coors fought unionization fairly bitterly).

I also wonder if those who point out that big beer is more unionized than microbreweries also make an effort to buy from unionized retailers. In my area you can buy beer from unionized Giant and Safeway. Or from non union (I think) Total Wine, and of course all the small independent bottle shops are non union.