Questions for the average craft beer drinker.

Are you asking if a "craft beer brewery" begins acting like a mass production behemoth.... will you still support it?

If that is your question my answer would be good is good don't care how it is advertised, promoted, how big or small the company etc....

 

what he said. are they still producing awesome beer? are they being innovative? then I will support them.

 

Leinie's and Schell's (better) seem to do a nice job job at this. Major league advertising and packaging while maintaining their "crafty" exterior to the public.

 

I don't think I've ever heard of a brewery reputation being diminished for any of your above questions. Ownership is a key issue. There is a percentage of craft beer drinkers that will not support BMC. Goose Island seems to have done OK going from craft to macro ownership.

 

I want great beer. I like the craft brew scene as it is right now. I don't want it to go mainstream. I like the fact that I can e-mail my favorite local brewery and get an e-mail response back in less than 20 minutes. I want to keep it small and personal, not big and corporate.

 

I'll agree with those who say it's what's inside the bottles that matters most, but I'm also supporting the little local guy first.

 

The only non-beer reasons i would stop supporting a brewery for are unfair labor or hiring policys.

 

1. As long as their advertisements dont push ice cold beer, I'm fine
2. Not 100% sure i understand the question
3. I have no problem with this. Many more companies use PR firms than people realize (I can recommend one if you'd like lol)
4. As long as the beer is still good, yes

 

Is this one of those anti-corporate, "down with the man" threads?

 

1) Don't care. I'll never see it.
2) Don't care. Don't know what that means.
3) Don't care. I'll never see the results of their work.
4) Sure, if the beer tastes good and is reasonably priced.

 

By posting the question here, you are not asking the average craft beer drinker. Those of us active on BA, and similar sites, are the 1%ers of the beer world. The responses you get are going to from the most active and passionate beer drinkers, not the average craft beer consumer.

 

Sometimes it doesn't matter what is in the bottle, or the size of the brewery, or their hiring practices, or their branding. Case in point: I won't buy HF solely because I don't like what Shaun started with eBay. That's enough for me.

 

Is it really because of those questions, or is it because of, oh say, getting acquired by a multinational corporation? Which breweries are you hearing this about, and what exactly are you hearing?

 

I agree with the notion that if the beer is good, it doesn't matter who makes it. The only thing I can add is that advertising, marketing & PR add a cost to the beer that has nothing to do with what's in the bottle. Therefore, the only reason to stop supporting a brewery that grows bigger is the price of the beer. However, with increased production, the economies of scale kick in and it costs less to produce the same product so it may not make any difference [case in point - Sam Adams].

 

Woo Hoo. More HF for the rest of us. And from what I have read, Shaun was correct or was at least protecting his interests.

 

^^^ Have at it; plenty of good beer out there to satisfy me. Just make sure that you drink it fresh because it becomes undrinkable if traded, shipped, sold, held, hoarded, etc. Or so I have heard.

 

I don't like those professional attributes, strategies, profits and such. I'd rather they all get along, collaborate, say nothing negative about other brewers in a given metro. That sort of thing.