“Nothing has Changed!”
UPDATE: Breckenridge Brewing from Colorado just sold to ABInBev. Here is their “change” quote: “We’ve been in this creative and dynamic industry for over 25 years, loving everything about it. That won’t change. The passion for quality and culture that got us where we are today isn’t going anywhere.”
“Nothing has changed.”
Perhaps you saw today that Camden Town Brewing Co was just purchased by Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev). It seems we don’t even get time to mourn the craft loss of Four Peaks Brewing before the Macros enticed another small brewery. Since the announcement of a potential merger of AB InBev and South African Breweries Miller (SAB Miller), craft beer is on high alert. While the merger may not go through because of anti trust laws and the threat of a monopoly, the Macros have a beer domination backup plan. The idea? Purchase craft breweries in order to maintain a hold on the market and profits. This is a problem for craft beer and craft drinkers. I’m not the first to say it, and I won’t be the last. All I can hope is that my two cents will sway at least one brewery from the dark side.
![[thanks for the meme, Hyperbole and Half]](https://oregonbrewlab.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/All-the-Microbreweries.jpg)
My hackles raise every time I see news of yet another small craft brewery being purchased by ABInBev or SABMiller or even Heineken. And you know what makes me even more upset? When that brewery releases its statement that “Nothing will change (now that we’re owned by this huge conglomerate that is throwing money at us)!” I can’t help but argue. A whole lot has changed.
People raised eyebrows when Goose Island sold to AB InBev in 2011. Since this was a first major sellout, there wasn’t huge backlash like we’re seeing these days. But when Craft beer really began taking bites out of the market share a few years later, Macro began fishing around for microbreweries ready to sell. Oregon-based 10 Barrel Brewing shocked the community by announcing its sale to AB Inbev in 2014 and from there it’s just been terrible news from month to month of yet another brewery sellout, all year long.
Elysian’s estimated $24 million buyout caused the largest ripple for a number of reasons. The press release stated that AB InBev purchased Elysian, who is known for their pumpkin ales, and that this was going to “build on past successes and share our beers with more beer lovers,” according to Elysian CEO. Not one week later on February 1st, Budweiser played a Super Bowl ad in which they literally make fun of pumpkin ales, making this new acquisition seem more like politics and less like sharing beer. This caused a huge uproar in the community (hell, I even blogged about it). A few months later, founder and brewer Dick Cantwell publicly resigned from Elysian stating that he is a craft brewer, not a macro brewer AND that his concerns regarding the purchase were ignored. What’s more, Budweiser continues its attack on craft beer despite purchasing 5 craft breweries this year alone.
A history of large beer corporate buyouts is not really the purpose of this post. Honestly, I just want to point out that whenever a small craft brewery is purchased, they can’t help themselves, they have to say in some form or another, “Nothing has changed!”
Which is bullshit. Sure your day-to-day hasn’t changed, maybe even your beer hasn’t changed. Craft beer drinkers are not concerned about your brewery’s internal changes. What they are concerned about is whether or not you are community based, local, collaborative, etc. Yet when you sellout, you tell consumers that those aren’t important traits. What has changed is that you no longer remain self built or self sustained. You’ve shown your true colors: you are in the beer industry for only money. You say you want to expand, or improve quality, or move into new markets. It doesn’t really matter what your base reasons are – in a nutshell, you don’t have enough money to do it, and aren’t willing to wait until you do.
When your beer used to sit proudly on a craft shelf it was taking profits and marketing away from Macro. Now that you’ve joined Macro, your beer sits deceptively on a craft shelf taking profits and marketing from OTHER CRAFT. You’ve contributed to the problem, rather than improve it. And this is what craft beer lovers are pissed off about; smaller and smaller pure craft choices, while purchased companies are masquerading around as community oriented.
Let’s see what all the ex-craft have to say about how little they’ve changed!
You say “nothing has changed!”
I say, if we don’t come together as a community, and fight the large corporations, nothing WILL change.
There is no such entity as “SAB MillerCoors”
Edited to your request. However, note “MillerCoors” was used here colloquially.
Pedanticism LLC has also been purchased by SAB MillerCoors
Thank you; I’ve felt exactly the same way for years now. When these breweries get bought out it just raises more questions than it answers. What was their true purpose? And why cave?
Really good story, I actually had no idea Lagunitas was sold. Another beer I will no longer buy. Agree that “Bud” has no shame, buying a micro, then seeing a commercial making fun of craft beer. F$$k them. I will take my business elsewhere.
Shame you won’t buy Lagunitas anymore. Their vision of the brand is different, and they only sold 50% as they wanted a distribution partner world wide. Heineken is the master of contract brewing across the globe. Shame to hear you say that on the basis that you are punishing them for giving people what they want. Access to there beer world wide super fresh, oh and a return on investment for the 15 people who initially invested in Lagunitas.
When the big guys buy you out sure it’s right to expect to be on some black lists
Copying a great response from Reddit (credit /u/turkeypants):
“You’ve shown your true colors: you are in the beer industry for only money.”
So is everybody else in this industry and every other. This isn’t a secret or some unmasked conspiracy. It’s what business is. It’s something you do to get money to pay for your life, not some feelgood club. Hopefully it’s something you enjoy. If you can make a lot of money, you will. If someone offers to pay you a ton for your business, you’ll probably take it because it’s nice to not have to worry about money as much or at all. But it’s easy to criticize when it’s someone else’s skin in the game, when it’s someone else’s livelihood, when it’s someone else’s business, when it’s someone else’s future.
“I say, if we don’t come together as a community, and fight the large corporations, nothing WILL change.”
There is no community when it comes to paying the bills, providing for your family, sending your kids to college, buying a better house, living the lifestyle you want, living comfortably in retirement, etc. Is the author going to take care of those things for these guys? Does the “community” have some pension fund to take care of those things? This is people’s individual and group business efforts that don’t have anything to do with anyone else who didn’t take those risks or put in that sweat equity. They’re trying to make a buck to pay for their lives. This idea of allegiance and shared goals – as though the hard work these people have put in and the value they’ve created is somehow owned by everybody – is delusional.
People who write articles like this, and the cited pissed off beer lovers, want other people with big paydays in front of them to turn it down on principle and sacrifice that money and run their businesses a particular way and live their lives within those limits so these hazy goals of brotherhood and beer variety and fighting the man can come to fruition. It’s silly and adolescent. That’s not how life or business work. And after the sale, their job is to make whatever statements best benefit the company, whether that aligns with reality or not. That’s business. Go try all of this noble brotherhood stuff and PR/spin avoidance with your own money and your own company and see how you do. When it comes time to get paid, see how much you’re willing to give up personally for lofty ideals for someone else’s benefit. I can’t answer that for any given person, but I’ve got this sneaking suspicion…
Bravo.
I suppose it’s about the way some (not all) small scale craft breweries partly sell on their ethos of ‘local’ and ‘community’ oriented. Crowdfunding (which Camden did until recently) was used to encourage beer lovers to become part of the ‘family’. I don’t think that crowdfunders buy into breweries to make a quick buck, they do it because they want to feel like they’re part of something. So when breweries sell out to big corporations they’re sticking their fingers up to those who crowdfunded for so long.
The voice of reason! Thanks for that.
Hey, if a business owner wants to sell their business and get paid handsomely for it, more power to ’em. Good for them. That’s the way it’s supposed to work.
And if I, as a consumer, decide that I don’t want to buy someone’s product any more because I don’t like the business practices of their owners, then Good for me. That is also the way it’s supposed to work.
When you challenge us to tell you “how each of the companies in the chart at the end changed…recipe? Flavor? Availability? Branding? Quality of packaging?”, I invite you to keep watching. The likes of AB InBev are not in the business of making great beer. If AB InBev _can_ cut a corner to maximize returns, it _will_ be cut.
Or to put it another way, “Nothing has changed” only means “Nothing has changed YET.”
Ed, I don’t know what to say as you’ve said everything that’s true and 100% meaningful when dealing with this topic. I have a feeling that you’ve ACTUALLY OWNED a business and are sincere and totally agree with where you’re coming from. Salute~
Also, while I’m at it, tell us how each of the companies in the chart at the end changed. Like, exactly how – recipe? Flavor? Availability? Branding? Quality of packaging?
AB and the private equity groups buying brewers aren’t stupid. They aren’t going to fiddle with a business model or product that, you know, is selling well enough to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars. This “selling out” stuff is really so juvenile.
A month after Meantime was sold to SAB Miller a Grolsch truck was spotted at the brewery. Under further investigation it was disclosed that its ‘London Lager’ was being brewed in Holland.
The whole sales pitch for the ‘London Lager’ was that it was brewed in London and all of its ingredients were sourced from the Greater London area.
Dishonest to say the least
I’ve watched a lot of chatter regarding each acquisition. I agree with you, Ed.
“”…you don’t have enough money to do it, and aren’t willing to wait until you do.” Many of these breweries have been at this for decades. DECADES. That’s not long enough to wait? Not every brewery can risk being stagnant or decline. I’ve seen many craft beer drinkers become flippant to breweries that are “craft” shaming them for “getting too big” even before any of them sold.
If the Gallup polls are correct, and 42% of adult Americans drink beer, and about 11% are craft drinkers, breweries can’t rely on the 3% (guestimation of those who only drink local) of that 11% of the 42% to sustain their business for them, their family and their staff’s families. If a beer lover doesn’t want to drink those particular beers, great – it’s their prerogative. Just move along.
While I have considered myself a champion of local, I have been thinking long and hard about my hypocrisy of the matter. Most, if not all, of my groceries aren’t local; my phone wasn’t made by a local company; the computer I am typing on wasn’t either; my car isn’t a local item nor was it bought from a local company (look up what car dealers do to us someday too. Yikes.)
The emotion that is spilling out on the internet is a bit overwhelming. It’s crazy to see all these folks emote in such a manner. It is as though there are giant temper tantrums being had on a digital level.
Maybe it’s precisely because those things aren’t local, that people want to hold on so fiercely to the things that are local. They don’t want the one thing they can still call local to be bought out by a soul-less corp with 100 other beers on their ledger. Because, bottom-line, the big corps will eventually look at their products and say “Well, our so-and-so acquisition already makes 2 IPAs and our new acquisition makes 2, so we’ll pare down the redundancy by making the recipe the same OR getting rid of 2 of the IPAs, or stouts, or brown ales – whatever it may be.” Then we’re stuck. We’re stuck buying the same culled crop of bland unoffensive beers because some mega-conglomerate has built a monopoly, choked out distributors, taken over grocery stores and “improved” their bottom line by removing anything that isn’t a “top-seller” from their portfolio of beers. If the mega-conglomo-corps didn’t control so damn much of the industry, I wouldn’t mind the small local breweries selling and getting their big payday. But they do; so I do mind.
Personally, I do not waste many tears on the breweries that sell out; usually by the time they sell they are almost macro breweries by that point anyway. Everytime, a brewery increases capacity they take a step away from the great taste of the original brews. This is inevitable as they automate more and more of the process and that almost aways means compromising the recipe. Let them go; cross them off your list of good craft breweries and find a new up coming brewery to follow instead; Life is a cycle…
Nothing changed for 10 barrel brewery – they were already dreadful beforehand. Lagunitas are the ones I worry about most. They were still doing everything right when we visited just after the takeover but, when the heart has been ripped out, you wonder how much longer that can last.
Need to adjust your sources on Lagunitas. They sold 50% of the brewery for an estimated $450 million.
“What has changed is that you no longer remain self built or self sustained.”
You seem to think breweries are built up from that first 5 gallon batch of homebrew. Unless you’re independently wealthy you’re beholden to someone (investors, banks) from that first equipment order.
“You say you want to expand, or improve quality, or move into new markets. It doesn’t really matter what your base reasons are – in a nutshell, you don’t have enough money to do it, and aren’t willing to wait until you do.”
Because the option of building up enough funds for expansion over 15 years or taking on potentially crippling debt (some of the staff can go without an occasional paycheck, right?) are such better options.
I live in Europe, Italy to be precise, and if there’s one thing I’m happy of, is that by purchasing Micros, Macros will be able to get me awesome beer. I love American Craft Beer (as long as British) and I have only one chance to get it: travel. And you know, I had to get in touch with the Craft movement first and that happened with the beers I could taste here, and that was those that are largely available. And as I tasted them I fell in love and wanted more, so I purchased a flight, a room, rented a car and drove once through Cali, once through Montana and Wyoming and through Alaska and through London, discovering dozens of great places and tasted dozens of great beers. And since it looks like money is pretty important in the discussion, believe me that I spent a lot, expecially in the breweries, tasting beer and purchasing gadgets, beside, of course, having a great time.
We live on two different sides of the world and believe me, we cant wait to have more and more Craft beer available to drink. So that other people can get to know it and therefore, hopefully, go on beer hunting as I did, discovering new realities. But for this, we need Beer, we need to sell it in our Pubs and let people know about what a great scene is happening in the States and UK and light their curiosity, so that on their next trip while they will go through a remote village or city, they will make sure to stop at the Local Brewery.
We need that Beer as much as you do.
You: “What they are concerned about is whether or not you are community based, local, collaborative, etc.”
Me: I couldn’t care LESS about any of that – not one iota. I have a single criteria. Do I like what’s in the glass? Outside of that, I don’t want morality and philosophy tied up with my beer. That’s for the hispsters, hippies and Utopians.
Another Craft Brewery to add to the list that was bought out in early October by Labbatt (aka AB InBev) was Mill Street from Ontario, Canada (link to news bit http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/labatt-breweries-of-canada-buys-mill-street-brewery-1.3264359). Though not as recognizable as some brands above, they were a big deal in Ontario due to the crazy beer laws of the provenance and “The Beer Store” holding all the sale power.
It’s sad when these places sell up and whether they believe it or not. It does effect the community. In a provenance with such a small amount of local breweries and hardly no imports (unless they are own by the big companies), they are helping to keep their once “friends” down.
Real shame, but at least Mill Street didn’t hold a crowdfunding event before selling.
Complete ignorance
This sort of sums up how I have felt about this trend. Many of these breweries got as far as they did on their own, and it a desire to get their beers in more areas, sold out to large corporations. This sounds a lot like what happened in the music industry, the bands wanted their music to reach more people, and in many cases lost their identity and much of their fan base in the process. Maybe I am cynical, but I think I’ll just keep buying from the breweries that all remain totally local.
Where are you getting numbers like $87 million for Saint Archer and $24 million for Elysian? A-B reportedly paid about $24 million for Blue Point, not Elysian. T&B reportedly paid about $35 – $40 million for majority of SA (90%).