Due to the exBEERimental nature of Brülosophy, the overt sharing of each author’s opinion is rarely warranted, as central to our mission is avoiding the appearance we’re trying to change people’s minds. We’d rather use this as a platform to encourage brewers to question what they’ve accepted as fact, try things out on their own, and ultimately think for themselves, at least when it comes to brewing. I think we’ve done a pretty decent job at this, only occasionally slipping into conjecture while producing content I like to think is equally as informative as it is entertaining.

That’s not what this about.

Over the last couple years, I’ve received a surprising number of questions about stuff not really relevant to the general mission of Brülosophy, many regarding similar topics. As someone both interested in what others think and open to the sharing of ideas, I thought it might be fun to take a departure from the norm by introducing a new series, Brü’s Views, intended to provide a peek into the inner workings of each contributor. A focus on the more -losophy side of the equation, if you will. The current plan is to intermittently publish our personal thoughts, raw and unadulterated, on a hot topic in the beer and brewing world, without consulting with each other first. At times we’ll agree, other times we won’t, and we love this! An overarching goal of this series is to demonstrate that despite our differences in opinion, we can discuss them respectfully in a way that cultivates understanding rather than divisiveness. Of course, we plan to keep things entertaining and boredom-killing while maybe even inciting further conversation.

Finally, I feel compelled to address the marginal number of people who tend to take the opinions of others personally, so I made a brief disclaimer:

What follows are only opinions openly shared by each contributor without the intent to hurt anyone’s feelings or change people’s minds. Each contributor shared their honest thoughts with the expectation people who disagree are cool and won’t be shitheads about it. If you find yourself feeling offended or upset, grab a beer and chill out because they are only opinions !

Cool? Cool. Let’s get to it!

On Craft Brewery Buyouts

| Ray Found |

I love beer. I love the uniqueness, I love the flexibility small brewers have to go out on limbs, I love the staggering variety of beers available at stores and restaurants. In my eyes, this creativity and choice has only been possible thanks to the myriad independent craft brewers making beer they love and releasing it to a public they hoped would love it too. The “big beer” conglomerates were never going to bring us that type of diversity, it just complicates their supply chain and muddies their marketing.

It happened anyway because passionate people brewed great beer that didn’t taste nearly the same as other beer on the market. And now, with craft beer becoming a sizable chunk of the market, the mega-breweries are meeting the challenge, not with creativity and passion, but with money and business tactics.

For the craft brewers who take the option to sell their business, I get it. I really do. Every business needs an exit strategy, and for brewers who have invested years of their life to build a brewery, often risking everything, a buyout is a really good option. They get rewarded for their hard-earned success, their beer gets wider distribution, and they get to see their brand continue to grow. Hard to argue with that.

Beer drinkers, at least in the short-term, also stand to benefit. Previously hard to come by beer suddenly becomes available nationwide, even in places craft beer has struggled to make inroads. Hell, Goose Island IPA has become the new help-I-am-trapped-in-an-airport beer, and while I think it’s a middling IPA, it is better for me that tap not be occupied by yet another Bud Light gimmick or Michelob Ultra. In that regard, acquisitions can serve to improve choice at locations normally lacking.

What’s the problem?

To me, it’s in the way alcohol distribution is regulated. Even if all the players do exactly what they should, the system could still fuck over the craft beer enthusiasts in the long-term. Mega-brewers can exert so much control over the distribution chain, they can effectively restrict choice. By buying up much of the shelf space currently allotted to craft beer, distribution of novel and independent breweries becomes increasingly difficult. They use their incredible economies of scale to make sure their “craft” offerings cost significantly less than regionally favored beers. I don’t think this is evil, it’s good business, I just wish it didn’t work this way.

What can we do about it?

We can change the game. The popular craft breweries will continue to be snatched up as long as the distribution works the way it does today– shelf space will be limited and our choices restricted by the conglomerates.

Why is the same Budweiser available in so many different packages? Because it fills shelves, and if Budweiser is sitting there, something else isn’t. Every shelf location, every menu space, every tap handle occupied by Goose Island, Lagunitas, Ballast Point, or Golden Road, for example, is a “what could have been?” What new, local, ultra fresh beer is not on tap today because the “craft” portion offerings are covered by conglomerate-owned breweries?

Think about that next time you get excited to see Goose Island IPA at the airport Chili’s.

| Greg Foster |

Craft beer. Small, private, loved violently. And for good reason– independent breweries are entirely responsible for the surge of amazing craft beers we are blessed with today. The diversity of the craft beer market has made this possible, and it is only natural to be concerned by the recent trend of Big Beer brewery buyouts.

But I’m not a romantic drunk, I’m a pragmatic scientist, and I’m finding it hard to complain about buyouts when there are so many practical benefits for everyone involved, consumers included. For example, the very day we decided to address this issue for the first Brü’s Views, I did some independent “research” on the matter, you can imagine the delight on my face when I happened upon the following impossible shelf of beer at a local grocery store.

Alpine Brewery is (or was) a tiny operation in Southern California known for having some of the most highly regarded IPA in existence. They are so popular that I have never even seen a single bottle of any Alpine IPA in Los Angeles. Now, suddenly here I am faced with an entire shelf of Alpine’s IPA offerings. The reason, of course, is a significant increase in distribution made possible by Green Flash’s recent acquisition of Alpine. Obviously, Green Flash is still considered a craft brewery, though the point remains– larger breweries increase production and thus availability.

Most beer enthusiasts I know scoff at the idea of a top-tier independent brewery being bought out by a conglomerate, but I see a lot of positive benefits. These larger breweries, AB InBev in particular, employ some of the most brilliant minds in the brewing industry. Tapping into this resource alone could be immensely valuable to any small-scale brewery wishing to up their game. Utilizing larger brewery supply chains can provide access to an increased availability and variety of ingredients that are of higher quality and fresher than what might otherwise be available. Lastly, there is the obvious benefit of increased capital making it possible to increase production and distribution. In other words, a buyout provides a vast array of new possibilities that simply wouldn’t be available to a small brewery.

I’m not saying all buyouts are always going to be net positive. On the contrary, large soulless companies that care only about the bottom line can obviously be detrimental to the creative experimentation required to thrive as a small business. Additionally, the increase in distribution can come at the expense of local breweries fighting for the same shelf space. These issues are cause for serious concern, and if we ever get to the point that aggressive monopolistic competition begins to threaten the craft beer movement, I’ll be the first to advocate boycotting the big corporations.

For now, I’m not seeing these problems. Craft beer is continuing to thrive and expand even with these buyouts, so I have to consider their theoretical and tangible benefits. If it wasn’t for the Alpine acquisition, I surely would not have savored a delicious bottle of Alpine Duet a couple nights ago. That is a very real and practical benefit for me since the alternative of driving to the brewery in Bumfuck nowhere just isn’t going to happen. Sure, Alpine could have continued to happily make their small batches of beer that I would almost never have the chance drink, but little good that would do me. I just can’t fault them in the slightest for selling out, since I sure as hell would have done the exact same thing.

| Malcolm Frazer |

And the world yawned.

The recent glut of smaller “craft” breweries being bought out, along with the seemingly inevitable merger of AB InBev and SabMiller, has me… yawning. I feel as if I should be upset and want to rally the troops so we’re all upset together, but then nothing happens, so I decided to not give a fuck. Kinda.

If you follow anything that delves into beer history, you know this is nothing new, the same cycle has occurred at least twice in the UK and apparently we’re moving are into round 3 here in the US. The buying up of little businesses, and the subsequent consolidation, rarely results in lower prices or improved choices for the consumer– that’s not why they’re doing it!

So I’m torn. I appreciate free enterprise and feel like there is a positive to this phenomenon. The good folk who successfully start, run, and grow their businesses have an end-game, a way to cash out, and its big time! It’s like a lottery ticket but instead of hoping for a random number to hit, the odds are tilted by working harder, smarter, and better than everyone one else. Why did Heineken buy 50% of Lagunitas? Because Lagunitas is good, popular, successful, and growing like crazy. And they wanted to sell! Sure, they could have run it like a nepotistic family affair, but that’s not always an option in a multiple person partnership, which these days is often required to be successful in the competitive brewing world. What options do owners have other than running their business until they die? Sell! And who do you sell to? The highest bidder! It makes sense.

I’m cool with all of this, right?

Wrong! My mind is way more fucked up and confusing than that. I just understand and applaud the previous owners if that’s the scenario. Good for them, they win.

If I’m at a bar offering Lagunitas or Elysian beers and nothing else, I will drink it, because it’s good beer. However, if something made by a smaller local brewery is available, as is almost always the case, I’ll choose it every single time. But that’s nothing new for me, I’ve always preferred local and fresh, and I want choice. I might occasionally try Beer Brand X if I’m out at a larger food chain, it’s usually decent, at least enough to make it on the menu.

Anyone who looks at the car I drive, the clothes I wear, or the appliances in my house will find examples of hypocrisy. I wish it weren’t that way, but it’s a compromise, sometimes I pay a little more for Made in the USA while other spending decisions are based on budget or convenience.

Thankfully, I don’t have to make such decisions very often when it comes to beer, the options in Western PA are great and getting better all the time, and the way I see it, if I don’t drink and support these amazing local breweries, either will the people in my backyard. So regardless of my thoughts on all of the recent buyouts, my general sentiment hasn’t really changed, the best thing I or anyone can do is continue to drink locally made beer! With this as a priority, perhaps the breweries incentive to sell and the conglomerates incentive to buy will be reduced, but I could be wrong, maybe it’s like pissing in a lake and claiming you raised the level.

| Marshall Schott |

A little ditty to accompany my opinion:

I was a teenager living in a suburb of Seattle during a pretty rad time for music lovers. Between the ages of 13 and 16, I regularly attended rock shows (no one dared call them concerts) hosted by grungy teen centers—for $3 I saw bands like Botch, Nine Iron Spitfire, and Vade, while $5 bought me a center pit spot for bands such as Jawbreaker and Sunny Day Real Estate. Amazing music made by the best bands on the planet!

That is until they sold out by way of signing to a non-independent label that actually paid them for their work, a move that all but guaranteed banishment from my social circle’s bank of musical interests.

In the nearly two decades since, I’ve learned this mentality was driven far more by my desire for connection to a social group, my need to feel like I belonged, than it was any actual detesting of successful musicians or the music they would ultimately produce. In fact, now that I’m far enough removed from those days, I can admit I often enjoyed many of the songs these bands released on the major label debut, I just pretended I didn’t back then because it wasn’t cool.

I can’t help but see some similarities between this and the way some talk about the recent buyouts of craft breweries by major conglomerates. I’ll admit, there’s a part of me, that tiny piece influenced by the remnants of my self-righteous past, that wants to roll my eyes and pontificate about how this move just proves they’re only in it for the money and not the craft.

But, the significantly larger part of me doesn’t give a flying fuck! Money is the lifeblood of business. Period. When I hear professional brewers say things like “we brew the beer we want to drink” or “our focus will never be on revenue,” I cringe because a business’ success is precisely a function of satisfied customers exchanging money for goods. Simply put, successful breweries brew the beer those willing to pay for it want to drink. The rest is just marketing, which is totally fine by me!

I’m not here to shit on other opinions, people value what they value for whatever reasons they choose, I’m beyond cool with that. But for me, I can’t help but wonder why the fuck it matters. My thinking about the issue mirrors that of my current mentality when it comes to music– if the quality remains the same, I’ll continue to purchase and drink the beer; if the quality goes to shit, I’ll happily move on to newer and potentially better beer. And honestly, good beer isn’t that hard to make, plenty of new and arguably more forward thinking breweries are popping up by the day. I sometimes wonder if maybe these buyouts aren’t a good thing for the industry, providing opportunities for smaller breweries to impress their local big-beer-hating constituency. I don’t know. But I have to trust the parties involved know what they’re doing at least a little better than me.

These days, I enjoy listening to the music that tickles my ear without pretense, in the same way I’ll happily sip a Coors between an overhyped DIPA and another craft beer made in a huge factory. I don’t care. It’s just beer. I’d rather spend my time focusing on my own brewing anyway.

Whether you’re drinking a super expensive sour delivered to you overnight from Belgium or a Silver Bullet from your Uncle’s ice chest, Brülosophy would like to wish you and your family a very Happy Thanksgiving. Cheers!

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