Big beer and craft

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

thedude00

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 24, 2010
Messages
431
Reaction score
4
Location
Staten Island, New York
Big beer like Anheuser-Busch is buying up craft brewery's like ,Goose Island Beer Co, Kona Brewing Co. ,Ray Hill American Pilsner ,Starr Hill Brewing ,Fordham Brewing ,Dominion Brewing. Is this a good thing for craft beer "hear me out" . I wont drink any beer from any of the company's listed.I think it is. You know all of these brewery's are just a shell of a company they use to be. Now its just a craft name on a high out put beer. But Anheuser-Busch is lossing market share to craft beer. With them owning these company's they will market the sh$t out of these beers. So when you go in to a gas station your going to now see Goose Island beers. People that have never tired ALE's before may pick a six pack up and start to like ALE's. They might be like dam this is better then bud that i normally drink. And they start looking in to craft and start trying new things out there. Now there is one more person drinking craft and not big beer. I see it as Anheuser-Busch helping people see that there beers suck and there is really good beer out there to drink. What do you think about this subject.
 
Big beer like Anheuser-Busch is buying up craft brewery's like ,Goose Island Beer Co, Kona Brewing Co. ,Ray Hill American Pilsner ,Starr Hill Brewing ,Fordham Brewing ,Dominion Brewing and i know it a lot more. Is this a good thing for craft beer "hear me out" . I wont drink any beer from any of the company's listed but i do think its a good thing. You know all of these brewery's are just a shell of a company they use to be now its just a craft name on a high out put beer. But Anheuser-Busch know its lossing market share to craft beer. With them owning these company's they will market the sh$t out of these beers so when you go in to a gas station your going to now see Goose Island beers people that have never tired ALE's before may pick a six pack up and start to like ALE's like a IPA now they are like dam i like IPA lets see what out there and they start trying real craft like Dogfish and they love it and say dam that Sh%t i got at the gas station sucks this stuff is great what else is out there for me to try now there is one more person drinking craft. I see it as Anheuser-Busch helping people see that there beers suck and there is really good beer out there to drink. What do you think about this subject.

While I do think that it is good that the big companies are helping to further distribute craft beer throughout the market, I don't see it as "helping people to see that there [sic] beers suck".

I like all sorts of beers and I still recognize that BMC puts out a high quality product and a world-class example of that style of beer.
 
holy runon sentence, batman....Can't tell which side of the argument you're on...

You might just wanna read these threads. Some good discussions/opinions on the subject.

Big breweries using small names to conceal themselves?

Would YOU buy, drink a "craft style" beer from BMC?

Goose Island and AB

Me personally, I no longer care who brews what or who drinks what. I think beer is beer, and this is the best time to drink/brew beer. There's plenty for everyone...those who like light lagers and those who like ales...we have plenty to choose from. Hell even in my chain grocery store, there's now more craft beer on the shelves than BMCs.....
 
holy runon sentence, batman....Can't tell which side of the argument you're on...

You might just wanna read these threads. Some good discussions/opinions on the subject.

Big breweries using small names to conceal themselves?

Would YOU buy, drink a "craft style" beer from BMC?

Goose Island and AB

Me personally, I no longer care who brews what or who drinks what. I think beer is beer, and this is the best time to drink/brew beer. There's plenty for everyone...those who like light lagers and those who like ales...we have plenty to choose from. Hell even in my chain grocery store, there's now more craft beer on the shelves than BMCs.....

hey sorry am on a cell phone :drunk:
 
The obvious counterpoint to your final statement is that there are notable examples of the big breweries acquiring craft breweries and *changing* the beers. If they really wanted, they could make Goose Island taste like crap, turning people off craft beer for ever.

But all that aside, there's one HUGE hole in everything you just said - craft beer is picking up on its own in recent years, and it's really difficult to find *anywhere* that has beer on the shelves that doesn't have at least some craft beer as well. Distributing the products of a few once-local breweries means that those particular products will share some of that craft beer shelf space - sometimes increasing it, sometimes just taking the place of a different craft beer, but the point is that you can already get craft beer of some sort just about everywhere anyways.

Which raises the REAL issue... one that you completely ignored, despite being incredibly obvious. The people who will pick up a craft beer after seeing it on the shelf are already doing it, and it should be apparent to anyone that the BMC drinkers do NOT generally just pick up a new beer off the shelf simply because they saw it. It just doesn't happen. And yet your whole argument relies on the assertion that it DOES (or rather, will?:confused:), despite all the evidence you could possibly need to the contrary being right in front of you.

(Also typed on a cellphone)
 
As far as I know Ray Hills American Pilsner is contract brewed by AB, always has been. He was opening up his own brewpub a year or two ago and ended up backing out. I don't know if AB actually bought him out but I doubt it since it isn't a very well known beer and wouldn't get max profit from selling. AB doesn't own every beer it distributes either.
 
You should be able to judge the quality of the beer by its taste and aromas, not the label, brewery name, or the legal owner of that brewery.

I started brewing to make beer I cannot buy. The exact beer I want. Every craft brewery that is destroyed by BMC is an opportunity to replace that beer by a homebrewer. To take advantage of the customers lost by BMC.

I don't care who owns it. (Well i wouldn't buy beer produced by terrorists) It just has to taste good.
 
Sometimes I wonder if all of the BMC butt kissing (world class beer, etc.) is just a backlash to all of the BMC bashing that goes on. I usually don't buy any beer that Budweiser, Miller, or Coors is affiliated with (including "craft" beers), just because the whole monolithic corporation thing puts me off. Is that really so wrong? I'll support the more local breweries. It seems like BMC is trying to stop the bleeding by buying these companies. I don't think it will help smaller brewers (or beer culture) at all. But I could be wrong.
 
Sometimes I wonder if all of the BMC butt kissing (world class beer, etc.) is just a backlash to all of the BMC bashing that goes on. I usually don't buy any beer that Budweiser, Miller, or Coors is affiliated with (including "craft" beers), just because the whole monolithic corporation thing puts me off. Is that really so wrong? I'll support the more local breweries. It seems like BMC is trying to stop the bleeding by buying these companies. I don't think it will help smaller brewers (or beer culture) at all. But I could be wrong.

There's no butt kissing, it's a fact. If it wasn't, they wouldn't be making so much money.

And there is nothing wrong with being against them because they are huge corporations, that is if you maintain that attitude throughout the rest of your purchases, not just beer.
 
The obvious counterpoint to your final statement is that there are notable examples of the big breweries acquiring craft breweries and *changing* the beers. If they really wanted, they could make Goose Island taste like crap, turning people off craft beer for ever.

I totally agree with this statement. Here in Nova Scotia everyone drinks Alexander Keith's "IPA" (notice the quotations). It easily matches or outsells BMC beers and I agree that it is a great beer... but not even close to an IPA, more of a blonde lager really. Apparently before being purchased by A-Busch it used to be more of a true IPA, this was before I started drinking so I can't attest.

Anyway, I think every beer has its place and craft beers are doing fine without commercial promotion. Just my $0.02 :mug:
 
The obvious counterpoint to your final statement is that there are notable examples of the big breweries acquiring craft breweries and *changing* the beers. If they really wanted, they could make Goose Island taste like crap, turning people off craft beer for ever.

But all that aside, there's one HUGE hole in everything you just said - craft beer is picking up on its own in recent years, and it's really difficult to find *anywhere* that has beer on the shelves that doesn't have at least some craft beer as well. Distributing the products of a few once-local breweries means that those particular products will share some of that craft beer shelf space - sometimes increasing it, sometimes just taking the place of a different craft beer, but the point is that you can already get craft beer of some sort just about everywhere anyways.

Which raises the REAL issue... one that you completely ignored, despite being incredibly obvious. The people who will pick up a craft beer after seeing it on the shelf are already doing it, and it should be apparent to anyone that the BMC drinkers do NOT generally just pick up a new beer off the shelf simply because they saw it. It just doesn't happen. And yet your whole argument relies on the assertion that it DOES (or rather, will?:confused:), despite all the evidence you could possibly need to the contrary being right in front of you.

(Also typed on a cellphone)

You got a good point it could turn people away from craft. I have a friend that was a really big Goose Island fan. And he has said that the beer has changed and not for the good. Anheuser-Busch know how to crank out beer fast and on the cheap. They may even close it down and move brewing to one of the mega brewery's they own.

If you go in to a gas station you never see any craft. I can bet you wil start to see some moving in that market with some of these brewery's that BMC have brought . I may be wrong just what i think.

Am still replying from my cell so sorry or miss spelled work or errors
 
I agree with you on this

That makes no sense. That article is about the shift from full calorie beers to light beers. BMC wouldn't snatch up full calorie craft beers to make up those lost sales, they'd make more light beers.
 
Back
Top