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God damn. I'll admit my knowledge of breweries in Seattle/Washington was low, but that was my go-to out there. Oh well, welcome to the Red-Hook family of "I'm not buying your beer".
The Beer Thread
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opiate82
Bronze Squire
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Fremont Brewing is making some of the best beer out of Seattle currently imo. Check them out next you are out this way.
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Pagan
Lord Nagafen Raider
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They are calling it a brew-house and brewery. I assume they will start distributing here soon. I can usually find their bottles in a few craft beer liquor stores around the area however I have yet to see anything on tap.
opiate82
Bronze Squire
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YMMV deal here but there are reports of a $159 kegarator on clearance at Home Depot right now.
Reader Tip: Igloo Kegerator YMMV | Homebrew Finds
Reader Tip: Igloo Kegerator YMMV | Homebrew Finds
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Alex
Still a Music Elitist
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opiate82
Bronze Squire
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Pretty good write up on the Elysian sale. Specifically interesting to me that it wasn't a unanimous decision by their board to sell and specifically Dick Cantwell was opposed to it. Cantwell has not only been the public face of Elysian but is also president of the Washington Brewers Guild and author of the Brewers Association's Guide to Starting a Brewery. He is pretty deep into the craft beer political scene and has been very critical of 'corporate beer' so it should be interesting to see if he sticks with Elysian or moves on and if he loses credibility amongst his peers (justly or unjustly).
Addressing the Elysian Brewing situation | Seattle, Washington, Pacific Northwest
Also the author seems to agree with me in that InBev appears to be purchasing these breweries is an attempt to gain market share back and lock up the entry level craft beer drinkers into their brands while starving out some independents in the process by using their economies of scale to undercut the competition. When chain restaurants, stadiums, etc. are offered the choice of a buying a keg of Stone IPA for $150 or Elysian Immortal IPA for $75 many places are going to say "an IPA is an IPA" and take the cheaper option (those are actual prices I saw at my restaurant except sub in Goose Island for Elysian).
Addressing the Elysian Brewing situation | Seattle, Washington, Pacific Northwest
Also the author seems to agree with me in that InBev appears to be purchasing these breweries is an attempt to gain market share back and lock up the entry level craft beer drinkers into their brands while starving out some independents in the process by using their economies of scale to undercut the competition. When chain restaurants, stadiums, etc. are offered the choice of a buying a keg of Stone IPA for $150 or Elysian Immortal IPA for $75 many places are going to say "an IPA is an IPA" and take the cheaper option (those are actual prices I saw at my restaurant except sub in Goose Island for Elysian).
Joeboo
Molten Core Raider
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Yeah, these microbreweries are seriously small potatoes for someone like AB/InBev. They don't give a shit if they make next to nothing or even take a loss as long as it helps to choke out other competition.
AB and Miller/Coors are 1-2 in beer production and they are so many orders of magnitude larger than #3 on down that it isn't even funny. As an example, in 2013, AB produced about 110 million barrels of beer in the US, and Boulevard, a top-20 largest Microbrewer, did about 185,000.
Not coincidentally, ABs beer production over the last 5 years has dropped about 10 million barrels per year, which is probably more barrels than the top 10 microbreweries make combined per year.
So microbrews are cutting a bit into big-time beer production, but nothing overly significant yet, and you better believe AB/InBev is going to stop it before it does(or just buy up whoever they can't force out)
AB and Miller/Coors are 1-2 in beer production and they are so many orders of magnitude larger than #3 on down that it isn't even funny. As an example, in 2013, AB produced about 110 million barrels of beer in the US, and Boulevard, a top-20 largest Microbrewer, did about 185,000.
Not coincidentally, ABs beer production over the last 5 years has dropped about 10 million barrels per year, which is probably more barrels than the top 10 microbreweries make combined per year.
So microbrews are cutting a bit into big-time beer production, but nothing overly significant yet, and you better believe AB/InBev is going to stop it before it does(or just buy up whoever they can't force out)
I wonder if they're more scared of the future of their brew than the current picture. I know very few young people who do not drink micro. Even towards the latter part of my college life (~7 years ago) it was pretty common for people to bring a 6 pack of a micro instead of a 24 pack of Natty. It may be they're not getting the life-time drinkers early and they're concerned about this downward projection of their flagship lines.
opiate82
Bronze Squire
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Well last I heard the BA bumped up the ceiling on what qualifies as a "craft brewery" from 2 million bbls per year to 6 million bbls per brewery to ensure Sam Adams stayed in the fold (but I don't have their actual production numbers). But I think Sierra Nevada is 2nd and last I heard they are at around 900,000 bbls per year.
What is frustrating is that a company like InBev could get their piece of the craft beer pie without attempting to thwart it at every turn. They could buy up some of these brand and choose to NOT use their products for predatory pricing, they could develop a program to offer financing to the craft breweries not interested in outright selling and could also be leaders in brewing technology innovation that could bring in additional revenue. But the margins wouldn't be as good in that so they'd rather do whatever to preserve their duopoly with MillerCoors and screw over consumers in the process.
Well currently imports (think domestic Mexican beers for example) are taking a much bigger toll on their bottom line than craft beer is, but a series of political defeats has them nervous about consumer mindset for sure. A vocal minority of craft-beer enthusiast should not be able to shut down the political-lobbying juggernaut that is InBev...
I've never heard of any company regardless of what they're selling that buys out another company and lets it run mostly autonomously. They always install their corporate standards and culture at said bought out company.
opiate82
Bronze Squire
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This is true but currently I don't think InBev gives two shits about how these breweries are ran. They are just buying these brands credibility because they haven't been able to build any credibility amongst craft beer drinkers with Shock Top.
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First, where is your restaurant?
Second: were those prices in place before the ABInbev purchase? GI had a ton of scale (for being a craft brewery) already. ABInbev is certainly making that even more scalable, but I've noticed those priced on direct-to-consumer keg prices within the Midwest. I've had conversations with brewery owners and they've been pretty candid with the fact that they can't compete with the larger craft breweries on price (Sierra Nevada, Bells, Founders, Boulevard, Sam Adams, and even Summit/Schell's/Surly locally) so they have to go with differentiations based on local flavors, local culture, or basically hipster credibility.