How to Read this Blog

Read about this new logo from the BA. Watch these guys react to the logo in a not-so-positive way. Watch our video reacting to their reaction.

We weren’t the only ones with a reaction. Check out Reaver Beach Brewing’s response here. Because you need to kill more time, keep reading for Greg’s thoughts.

As amusing as I found our video response to the AB Craft Brewers video, I just can’t shake the desire to take on the points that I found particularly pathetic and wrong. I would also like to add that I stated I was offended in the video and that was the wrong choice of words. Now I sound like a baby, but it was a low budget production so we used the take we had. I wasn’t really offended, I was indignant and appalled. Is that different? Maybe I do have baby-like emotions…hmmm. Anyway, in case you care what I think of these statements, here you go.

Dave, the mark is not a mandate and it just denotes that we aren’t owned by a large player nothing more nothing less. Your statements are so disingenuous.

Yes Walt, we’re all making beer and we’re all brewers, kind of. There happens to be a major difference between a brewer making 30,000 barrels that are sold in 3 states and one that has some ridiculous number like 20% of global beer share. And the logo isn’t saying anything about your beer being craft or not. And if we’re all beer, why are we even talking about spirits? Our goal is to show people how great Independent Craft beer is, not win some war. You really sound like someone who sits on the board of a mega corporation. And by the way, the last time Iron Horse banded together with ABI on distribution I can tell you it didn’t work out for Iron Horse in any way. In fact it sucked, hard and painfully. Are you sure we can just band together and sing kumbaya?

Garrett, you’re right, the consumer makes up their own mind. Are you concerned that consumers aren’t sophisticated enough to handle all that information? Now the issue of what beer they want has been skewed by superfluous information, such as who the brewers really are? How is a label identifying brewers as independent indication that the Brewers Association is trying to confuse the customer? Thankfully your shallow view of the beer consuming public is as broken as your incredibly flawed logic and attempt at outrage.

Andy, if any tactic might work, yours of the “scare” nature might be the most compelling. However, your new bosses care about market share and wine and spirits but true local independent brewers do things like collaborate with craft wineries and spirits, not try to defeat them. I feel like you should have taken a look back in your history before you rolled out these statements. That is assuming you actually cared about beer and community and you weren’t always targeting a buy out when you started your brewery. Speaking of just targeting a buy out, where is Meg from Golden Road? And again with the complete fabrication of intent of the Brewers Association. Wow, you guys are grasping at straws. The BA does more for quality in the craft segment than anyone. If quality of all beers is all you care about, why isn’t ABI handing over their technologies for independents to further their quality since we’re all just banding together to create vast wealth for all brewers at the expense of wine and spirits? See how dumb your argument is?

Felipe, everything you said was pointless drivel but the worst thing you did was just create a new reality. The consumers don’t care about independence? So the Brewers Association poll was just “fake news”? Amazing. Or was it? And if it was, why are you so concerned? Are consumers going to start caring about independence because the Brewers Association has influenced them? We all know how influential the BA is with consumers. Yeah, that was sarcasm. Do any consumers know about the BA? Very few, they are a trade organization for god’s sake.

Steve, you are not going to continue being who you were, you now are part of a publicly traded company that will ditch you the minute you stop contributing profits and share price growth in the amount that the shareholders expect. That is a key difference between us and you. I’m so glad not to be you.

Dave, nice try. “We’re so punk we’re going to side with ABI.” Bahaha! How are the sales of Loser going? Does corporate beer still suck?

Ultimately, it’s kind of sad and in some ways I have empathy for the position these men now occupy. I am sure that most of the people in the video gave up a great deal of friends and compatriots in exchange for an enormous sum of money. I understand the desire to take a major payout; you get to unload all the stresses and uncertainties of running a business of which there are many. Who knows, if an offer had been presented to the ownership of Iron Horse a few years ago before we witnessed the fallout from selling, we may have gone for it. Fortunately for us, we got to see what it really looks like and we were able to contemplate what that would feel like to us. Sorry guys, you lost a lot in exchange for some cash, but it’s time to complete the mourning process and accept you aren’t what you were and there is no going back. You are no longer part of the brother-sisterhood of small independent craft breweries. You could have just been key corporate employees, which there is nothing wrong with, but now you have become the corporate propagandists which is just another sleight to the communities that fostered the great financial success you have attained. Please stop.