Lagunitas, Firestone Walker, Boulevard

[bpgreen]

I was driving into SLC today and had NPR on. They were interviewing the author of "Barrel Aged Stout and Selling Out." The book is about the sale of Goose to ABInBev. He said that this was the first craft brewery that ABInBev bought and since then, they've made 9 others.

I don't begrudge the owners of these breweries anything for selling to the highest bidder. I'm saddened when it means that the beer will suffer in quality (which seems to be the case with Goose Island). But when you're 70 years old, how do you say no to a 38 million dollar offer?

He also listed some other buyouts. I may have been aware of these at the time, but forgot them. Lagunitas was bought by Heineken. And Firestone Walker and Boulevard Brewing and Firestone Walker were both bought by Duvel Moortgat Brewery.

I haz a sad.

I don't think it's wrong or a sellout to sell a craft brewery to a macrobrewery. But that doesn't mean that I have to be happy when it happens (or when I hear of it years later).

[Kealia]

I was bummed when the news broke about Firestone but I have seen ZERO impact to their brewing - just a wider distribution.

In fact, with the Luponic series I think they've been able to take advantage of the resources of Duvel to increase production and keep quality as-is. Matt B. is still the head brewer and both founders Of Firestone Walker are still there too if I'm not mistaken. So this one, at least for me, lived up to the promise of "not changing anything about the beers".

[mashani]

I might just be too Belgian crazy, but FWIW, I haven't seen any issues in quality with anyone that Duvel has purchased or has interest in.

But Duvel Moortgat Brewery isn't quite like ABInBev. Brewery Ommegang is pretty much connected at the hip to Duvel (and has always been) and they make most excellent beers.

Duval has used their capacity to help increase production when needed.

[swenocha]

On a related note, wondering if you all saw the ever-evolving chart that the Mad Fermentationist is maintaining...

[John Sand]

That's interesting.

[Beer-lord]

That chart has a number of surprises that I was unaware of.

[Kealia]

I have seen that. It's making it's way around a number of places and it's pretty cool that somebody is tracking that.

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

[bpgreen]

I find it interesting that the chart has Boston Beer as a separate entity, not included in the craft beer section. I remember a few years ago, the Brewers association changed the rule for production from 2 million barrels a year to 6 million (about the time the Boston Beer Company exceeded the 2 million barrel amount). Have they now exceeded the 6 million threshold or is this just a case of the Mad Fermentationist deciding that they don't fit his criteria?

[BlackDuck]

Wow...Mitsubishi is in the beer business? Didn't they make the Zero?

[mashani]

Mitsubishi is a conglomerate of various companies, I think they are in pretty much any business you can imagine. They are almost sorta like what we would call a "holding group", all the various companies are more or less independent entities. I don't know if the "beer" company is different then the "food services" company or just part of it, probably the latter.

[RickBeer]

Sam Adams has not exceeded the limit and are still a craft brewer. Volume has dropped in recent years to under $4 million.


https://www.statista.com/statistics/741 ... on-volume/

[bpgreen]

Sam Adams has not exceeded the limit and are still a craft brewer. Volume has dropped in recent years to under $4 million.


https://www.statista.com/statistics/741 ... on-volume/

That's a premium site and I don't want to pay for access. You state that volume has dropped in recent years to under $4 million. But the criteria for craft beer status has to do with volume in barrels, not in dollars.

After I typed that I realized that $4 million couldn't possibly be right and the dollar sign must be a mistake. A little Googling shows that in the fiscal year ending 12/30/2017, they shipped just under 3.8 million barrels.