It all comes down to the almighty dollar

Sure! I'd love to chat with them by e-mail and get their opinions. Beer mail me their contact info, and thanks for the offer!

 

I heard last night at the club meeting that it just happened for hops. The growers can start to respond to fill the contracts.

 

The price dropped back to just about where it was, and the acreage went from 30,000 acres to 40,000 acres and back to 30,000 acres in just a few years.

 

Firstly, IMO the people who purchase "rotgut vodkas" shouldn't be factored in to this discussion because they are not concerned with taste.
Secondly, I have never met a macro beer drinker who didn't think a comparable craft beer tasted better. And these same people have the funds to pay for microbrews. For them, drinking is more for the social aspect and next to nothing for the cerebral aspect of flavor discrimination. However these same people will purchase good beers to pair with food when they are trying to impress others or when they just treat themselves to a good meal. So I think it boils down to the personality of the beer drinker. For some, the enjoyment is in the activity (talking, playing games) and not the beverage. For me, I give equal weight to both the beverage and activity if I am drinking. Believe it or not, some people just aren't that picky when it comes to beer. They will drink whatever and generally not complain about it. Now the BMC loyalists that call craft beers "girly" or what have you are just brainwashed and ignorant.

Oh yeah, "all hail the almighty dollar!"

 

Let's say InBev makes a beer fairly comparable to SNPA. It would probably be reasonable to assume that it costs more per bottle than Budweiser. So let's say Joe is a recent "convert" willing to spend a few more bucks on BudPA. He is obviously not driven only by price, but also by taste, or else they'd still be drinking Budweiser.

So then let's say BudPA is completely indistinguishable from SNPA, but is cheaper. If Joe has no brand bias, he would buy the BudPA, which seems to be your point. But if we've already established a willingness to pay more for better beer, I think it's debatable whether BudPA is going to act like a sort of ceiling. But even if it is, it only seems applicable with respect to a relatively narrow range of beers, namely, those very similar to BudPA. The incentive to buy a macro-craft beer that is comparable to, but cheaper than, a real-craft option disappears when none such exists, and if craft brewers are the innovators they/we believe, it seems fair to say that this "indistinguishability" criteria will rarely be met. For example, while BudPA might keep Joe from buying SNPA, but it might not stop him from buying Tumbler.

 

It all comes down to quality of the product.

 

yes. to most people, beer is just a commodity to get a buzz.