The craft-beer operation has been swallowed up by global giant AB InBev. Why do big brewers buy up smaller outfits – and is it a good or bad thing for drinkers?

Assuming that the deal completes as expected, today is the day that, for some people, a little bit of the craft-beer dream will die. In a reported £85m deal, AB InBev will take over Camden Town Brewery (CTB), and one of the UK’s leading craft breweries will henceforth be run by the global giant that makes Budweiser.

This sale has, not unexpectedly, caused much angst among the craft cognoscenti, many of whom (particularly those who last year helped CTB crowdfund £2.75m) felt emotionally invested in the company’s David-and-Goliath-type struggle. That struggle ended, amid the usual PR spin about “partnership” and acting in the company’s long-term interests, with Goliath getting his wallet out and making David and his backers very rich.

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Is this surprising? No. With its slick branding, rapid expansion and flexible attitude to local provenance (its “Camden” beers are regularly brewed in Belgium), CTB always had the feel of a brewery that was shaping up to sell out. It is not the first; it will not be the last. A significant minority of new-wave British breweries are run, not by hapless beer enthusiasts, but by ambitious business people.

Despite the more hysterical online reactions, no one knows whether or not this will signal a dive in the quality of CTB’s beers. In the face of stagnant sales in established markets, the global brewing behemoths are buying into craft breweries (see also: Meantime, Goose Island, Ballast Point, Lagunitas) as bridgeheads into a booming sector they barely understand. Around 1,500 small breweries are now said to account for 7% of UK beer sales and the big brewers know these drinkers want flavourful, high-quality beers, meaning that, short-term, they may leave their new acquisitions alone. But, for me, the idea that this corporate interference is benign, welcome or necessary, is naive.

Some optimistic supporters argue that AB InBev’s investment will simply provide the company with a new, high-spec brewery and a wealth of technical expertise (which is true), while enabling it to penetrate new markets nationally and internationally. At the announcement of the CTB buyout, its founder, Jasper Cuppaidge, talked of making it “world famous”.

But, why? Why does CTB need to be ubiquitous in Britain, much less internationally? In any serious expansion of a brewery’s capacity, growth is talked about as if it is a self-justifying rationale. But – and this goes to the nub of the ethics around craft beer – beyond a certain point, growth is all about profit, not exciting beer.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Hells lager … soon to be found at a supermarket near you? Photograph: Bloomberg/Bloomberg via Getty Images

It is reasonable to assume that by aggressively pushing CTB beers in discounted package deals with its more popular, mass-market brands, AB InBev will get CTB’s Hells lager and Gentleman’s Wit into more off-licences, supermarkets and pubs. But who benefits from such uniformity, other than AB InBev shareholders? Yes, it is useful to have one or two craft beers widely available, but, frankly, Brewdog got there first with Punk IPA. No craft drinker worth their salty gose wants to see, as is increasingly the case, the same handful of corporate-backed craft beers everywhere.

Indeed, rather than international craft brands, I would argue that what beer needs is more small local breweries, for both practical and ideological reasons. Beer begins to deteriorate as soon as it is shipped from the brewery, so drinking fresh, local beer is the ideal. Moreover, local breweries are more creatively flexible than their larger rivals, and are staffed, in the main, by passionate beer-lovers who know their brewery, its kit and their recipes inside-out. They want to experiment. They don’t get third parties to brew their beer. They don’t cut corners.

There is an argument that, technically, such small breweries struggle to produce truly exceptional beers. But as Siren, Marble, Cloudwater, Wiper and True or Burning Sky (to name but a few) prove, that is nonsense. Plus, wouldn’t you rather spend your money within your local economy, with all the benefits that accrue from that, rather than lining the pockets of the directors at a brewing mega-corp?

For breweries that do sell-up, as this Brewdog blog relates, it can be a sobering experience. Ruthless corporate efficiency, the constant pressure to slash costs while growing sales, will always, eventually, militate against good beer. Beers are rebranded. Recipes are compromised. They end up being brewed by new staff at remote sites. Disillusioned brewery founders move on. Meantime’s recent fate is a parable that certainly counsels caution. Barely had the dust settled on its sale to SABMiller than, with a merger of SABMiller and AB InBev now imminent, reports began to circulate that that this new company may soon sell Meantime on.

As news of the CTB sale filtered through, Brewdog removed all CTB beers from its bars. It was a PR stunt. But such a boycott is, perhaps, overdue. Is it time to start actively avoiding corporate craft beers? Should we be supporting small local brewers? Do you care who brews your pint?

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