Lagunitas bashes the Macros

Or a vending machine.

 

I'm by no means a free-market kinda guy but i agree with 5thOhio, this situation is being taken way too seriously.

This is just my 2c, but I don't think anyone saying that AB-Inbev and related buyouts are going to cause the end of craft industry really understands industry. the market doesn't work that way, there is always going to be a niche for craft products; youth and alternative culture, people with refined tastes, people with money, etc - there are a huge variety of cultures that buy into the craft niche that are pretty static to some degree in society. there isn't just going to be a sudden shift in demand away from craft products and as long as that is the case then big companies can't really kill the craft industry.

 

Take a moment to reflect on what happened to Unibroue once it was acquired by Sapporo.

 

The assertion was that BMC "won't "eliminate" competition... they'll just buy them out". MillerCoors did, in fact, eliminate Celis after acquiring it.

 

Sapporo may not be BMC, but they are a big industrial brewing conglomerate in their own right. They've owned Unibroue for almost a decade without eliminating them or compromising the quality.

Creemore Springs was one of the oldest craft breweries in Ontario until Molson bought them out in 2005. Some of their beers aren't quite the same - they moved to a slightly finer filtration at one point - but they also introduced a really tasty unfiltered version of their flagship amber lager as a summer seasonal, and it's by far their best beer. So you can call that a wash, I guess. Molson wasn't BMC when they bought Creemore, but they became BMC with the Coors merger a few years back. And post-merger, they bought a west coast brewery called Granville Island. They are now producing Creemore at Granville Island for distribution in western Canada, and starting a big expansion at Creemore to increase capacity and brew Granville Island beers for distribution out east.

Leinenkugel has been owned by Miller for more than 20 years now without being shut down. Not the best regarded brewery, but still - some peoples assertion is that BMC "wont" buy competition out - they'll just eliminate them. Miller has had 20+ years to eliminate the competition they bought, but they haven't.

 

I completely disagree with this. It's not about the idea that craft will just completely disappear. Craft is on a meteoric rise right now. Goose Island is ramping faster than any other craft brewer is willing to ramp. It's a land grab. If AB-Inbev buys a few Goose Islands and grows them to be Sierra Nevada size faster than the little guys can ramp up, then there will be a much smaller pie for everyone else to split. This is also an appropriate time to point out that the majority of BA is still pro-Goose Island and doesn't give a hoot who owns them as long as they can get some of that beer that people talk about.

Lagunitas is also anti-cans due to bauxite.

 

Funny you should use that as your example. The story of Miller trying to force Leinenkugel to dump perfectly good 2007 Big Eddy Imperial Stout because it went beyond Miller's freshness dating standard is a classic case of corporate meddling in subordinate craft brewing.

 

When you say "trying," does that mean they chose not to when it was brought to the right persons attention that an Imperial Stout ages much better than a pale lager?

Even if they did dump it, I don't think Leinie's was the only example I gave.

 

As I understand it, Miller wasn't giving Leinenkugel a choice in the matter, but a fair amount of it got stashed away by distributors, bars, and liquor stores that knew what they had. I presume the 3-year gap before the return of the Big Eddy line reflected the time it took Leinenkugel to educate and reach agreement with Miller over beers that have the potential to get better with time.

 

"MillerCoors" didn't buy Celis, of course - that deal predated the US Miller/Coors joint venture by a decade. And, Miller at the time was a subsidiary of tobacco giant Philip Morris, not current parent SABMiller, so ownership of the company has changed since then as well.

Miller, after being forced to buy the half of Celis it did not own by Pierre Celis (who took advantage of a clause in the initial 1995 contract where Miller first bought into the company), did lose interest in the brand and tried to sell the company but, with no buyers, eventually sold the brand and the equipment to the now-defunct Michigan Brewing Co. - so the brand was not exactly "eliminated".

It was a lousy deal, and made little sense (except to PM's beancounters, one supposes) but it was one that was as much Celis' doing as Miller's. And, of course, Celis was more aware of the pitfalls of dealing with corporate ownership than most, having dealt with Interbrew when he owned Hoegaarden. Shipyard had done a similar deal with Miller at the same time in the '90's, but, unlike Celis, Shipyard choose to buy back the Miller portion of their ownership.

Miller Brewing buys Celis, sells Shipyard​

 

Like totes! OMG! I so heart Lagntas! Grtst beer evr. Luv dem. #omgiluvlaguntsbeeritissogreatyay

 

I just read this post #hashtagiamtwelveandwhatisthisdotjpeg