-The Craft Beer Blacklist-

I hear you on local pears. The great thing abiut beer is the local options are bot terribly expensive. And are available year round.

 

Okay, and the point is ...? If you are a beer advocate, whatever that means, you know all of this already. I happen to like Batch 19, but Oh My God!!! its brewed by Coors, which i knew! I also like Busch Copper Lager .. I'm guessing i need a list to tell me thats brewed by Budweiser. I cannot wait until people let people drink what they want. That will be the day ...

 

But the increase of a share's value signifies an increase in corporate growth, which is good for all the employees in the company

 

You pay taxes to the U.S. govt...you have no clue where your money is going. And unless you are seeing a breweries books, you really have no clue anyway.

 

I want to echo this point. The growing snobbery in the craft scene is just getting crazy almost to the point of being a hipster game. I'm a big runner and one of the reasons I love the running community is because it is so welcome and open for the most part. It doesn't matter how fast or slow you are. If you run, you're a runner. No BS (again, for the most part...there's snobs in every lot) you can only run in certain shoes or no nike's allowed. I drink what I want because I like it. I will never force myself to like one beer over the other just because it's brewed by a certain company.

 

Well said, time for the MODS to shut this one down...besides there will be another one of these in a month or so

 

Who's not LETTING YOU drink what you want?

 

Its cheaper than water somehow. I think they meant posing as "witchcraft" for this one.

 

I think AB swallowing up goose was a good move. Those guys trying to mass produce their "every day" beers was most definitely putting a strain on the production of limited release stuff. With all that relief from the big guys the funky ones that I couldn't even sniff before are finding their way to my cellar on occasion.

 

I'd say he's right. In particular the RR owners have been quite open in public about their discussions and their decision to not expand capacity in large part because of what it would mean to their life style and they choices they have made about what they want to be doing. Not to say they can't or won't change their mind, but for now they are happy with what they do and what they get out of it. But they are still quite passionate about what they do as well as content with what they have/do.

Also, if I'm reading your comments correctly, I have absolutely no trouble believing that of them if only because I happen to know literally dozens of people who could be doing a different job with higher pay for their skills and expertise and who chose their current line of work because it includes a reasonable level of economic security and it was what they want to do for the rest of their lives. That is, they are both passionate about what they do and content with their current level of income etc. and choose to work hard at putting their time and effort into doing what they do as well as they are able to and into improving their ability to do it better.

 

I don't think people boycotted Coors so much because they were "non union", it was more so because Coors were union busters, the brewery workers worked under collective bargaining agreements until 1977 when they had a bitter strike and the company ultimately broke the union.

There are several other reasons many people chose to boycott Coors as well
http://www.colorado.edu/StudentGroups/MEChA/coors.htm

At least since they merged with Miller to become MillerCoors and possibly before that when they had merged with Molson the majority of Coors products are brewed in Union shops.

http://www.uaw.org/story/its-union-beer-when-its-made-here

"The plant brews and packages many brands of beer, including the Miller product line, Milwaukee's Best, Leinenkugel, Old English 800 and some competitors under contract.

Since Miller entered into a joint venture with Coors, becoming MillerCoors LLC in 2007, the plant produces Coors Light and Keystone Light, which means if you see either in the Midwest or large portions on the East Coast, it's likely brewed by Local 2308 members."

 

But the brewery in Golden is still non union, right?

 

Pretty much, as of last summer there were 5 members of the Operating Engineers Local 9 employed at the Golden Brewery out of about 1,100 workers. But the non represented workers have had a couple opportunities to unionize since the late 80's and have chosen not to, so I say fair enough.

I believe there is also a MillerCoors brewery in Elkton Virginia that is non union.

 

Did not know Dominion/Fordham was an AB company also along with Kona....surprised

 

I think Red Hook Long Hammer IPA is a tasty beer, regardless of who's making it...

 

I generally don't care whether a good beer comes from a tiny local or an international conglomerate if the product is good (after all, good beer is good beer regardless of who makes it).
I also don't care if a brewery is a union or non-union operation...and most smaller operations are non union (and that's fine).
But if I knew that a brewery was a union shop and management was trying to bust the union, they wouldn't see a nickel more of my money no matter how great their beer is.

 

I will hurt them...

 

Kona is owned by Craft Brew Alliance (the merged Widmer and Redhook) which is about 1/3 owned by AB.

Dominion/Fordham is owned by Coastal Brewing Co., of which AB owns 49%.

So neither is entirely an "AB company" - in the way 10 Barrel, Goose Island or Elysian now are - but Anheuser Busch is a minority owner of both parent companies.

 

Well I would rather a portion of my money ultimately go to taxes that improve American infrastructure, roads, schools, etc. rather than the money going to some corporate tax shelter in the Bahamas, were all it does is make a select few richer.

 

For me, craft beer has never been about supporting the little guys are other cliche nonsense. If that was the case I would drink mine and my buddies home brew. Craft beer is about drinking great brew with quality ingredients and talented brewers. I could care less that Goose Island is owned by Inbev as long as the taste is still there.

From what we've seen the past few years is that the so called little guys are no different than the juggernauts in terms of protecting their trademarks and gaining distribution at the expense of new and old competition.

To go one step further... I look at one of my favorite craft brewers in the world, Russian River and question why they won't expand. Sure I understand that they don't want to compromise the product but I would welcome additional capital and investors so we can get more Pliny, cations, etc... Good for them for being satisfied with a good life and a top brewery, but I have nothing against a top brewery "selling out" to bring more beer to the masses.