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An episode between Lagunitas' Tony Magee and Boston Beer's Jim Koch shows the growing pains the craft beer industry faces.

(browardpalmbeach.com)

One of my favorite things about craft beer is the camaraderie between brewers. During the two decade period of growth that craft beer has experienced, collaboration has been of vital importance. As Dogfish Head's Sam Calagione says, it's "the spirit of collaboration that is really at the heart of the craft brewing movement."

He's even pointed out how different collaboration is in craft beer compared to other industries:

"Could you imagine Steve Jobs calling up Michael Dell like 10 years ago and being like 'dude I'm out of W's for my keyboard, can I borrow some W's?' And him being like 'yeah I've got plenty of W's'…doesn't seem to happen too often…but it's really at the heart of our industry."

As evidence, Calagione points to Sierra Nevada, one of the biggest and most respected craft breweries in the world. At the time of Sierra Nevada's birth in 1980, small-scale brewing equipment wasn't widely available, so founder Ken Grossman had to piece together used dairy equipment and scrap metal. What little actual brewing equipment he was able to get his hands on came from, you guessed it, another brewer, who was willing to sell to a "competitor" to help him get started.

How could this collaboration be possible in a competitive industry such as the beer industry? Because craft brewers haven't yet reached the point where they're really competing against each other, they're too busy competing against the macro brewers (AB InBev, SABMiller, etc.). Since craft beer only represented about 6.5% of total beer volume in 2012, according to the Brewers Association, it's been in every craft brewers best interest to work together to take marketshare away from the macro breweries. For a while now, it's been craft vs. macro, not Sierra Nevada vs. Boston Beer (Sam Adams) vs. Brooklyn vs. Carton vs. Kane.

But as the craft beer industry continues to grow (according to the Brewers Association, craft beer grew by 15% by volume and 17% by dollars in 2012, up from 13% and 15%, respectively, in 2011), there will undoubtedly be some growing pains to go along with it; in fact, the industry may be nearing a tipping point already.

Sam Adams is set to release a new west coast IPA, Rebel IPA, on draft in January and in bottles February, and Lagunitas owner Tony Magee isn't taking too kindly to it. In a recent string of tweets, Magee (@LagunitasT) accused Boston Beer of using Rebel IPA to target Lagunitas and take away their taps. Take a look at some of his tweets:

Jim Koch, founder and owner of Boston Beer, responded through Beer Advocate, saying "we don't target other craft brewers", and that "ultimately, it's the retailer who makes the final decision on what beers to serve on draft."

So who's right and who's wrong? Depends on whether or not you believe Boston Beer really did tell a distributor they were targeting Lagunitas specifically. If they did, then perhaps Magee has a right to be upset. If they didn't specifically target Lagunitas and just want more Rebel IPA tap handles in general, then that's how a competitive industry works, right?

Regardless of who you believe, who you think is right and who you think is wrong, it makes me wonder: is this little episode indicative of a bigger problem, of the growing pains the craft beer industry is likely to experience in the future?

I don't doubt that Calagione was right, collaboration and a "brother in arms" spirit has been at the heart of the craft beer industry since it's arrival in the 80s. And it's certainly still prevalent right now, just look at the collaborations Dogfish or Stone or many other breweries put out every few months, or take a walk around a craft beer festival, or talk to just about any brewer, and you'll see. But the industry is certainly changing. Let's just hope some things stay the same.