PLEASE let the Northern Brewer buy-out be a hoax!

[nDub]

They're an evil corporation bent on getting profits rather than making malted grain simply for the love of the craft.

Ha. My buddy started a business and incorporated for tax and liability reasons.

I guess he's greedy because he's trying to make money?

 

[Tribe Fan]

This is a good point.

Private equity firms do not run the business or work to make it better, they simply buy low and sell high. The workers and managers in the store are the ones who make the business better through their efforts but are not the ones to benefit when the company sells.

In employee-owned cooperatives the employees share in the profits when the company is sold. However, private equity firms get to siphon off the "equity" that the workers create.

Nothing could be further from the truth. The PE Firm is the BOD and the CEO reports to him. He does what they tell him to do, and he is most often from the PE firm. They are the General Partner and sell interests to Limited Partners, ie Pension Funds, who have little to no control over the direction of the portfolio companies. The LP's receive profitability payouts over a period of time, usually up to 10 years.

PE's are notorious for hiring slews of consultants to boost profitability, increase operating efficiencies and charge that all back to the operating companies, thus diluting the LP's profits.

LP's take on all the risk of the buyout costs. The GP is guaranteed 2% a year management fees from the LP's.

 

[JonM]

Ha. My buddy started a business and incorporated for tax and liability reasons.

I guess he's greedy because he's trying to make money?

 

[nDub]

Me too! I was agreeing with your sarcasm.

 

[KevinP]

Maybe Inbev wants all their kegs back from homebrewers? Probably too late to start deleting your pictures now. lmao

 

[ericbw]

They're an evil corporation bent on getting profits rather than making malted grain simply for the love of the craft.

Same as the rest of the evil maltsters?

 

[ericbw]

Maybe Inbev wants all their kegs back from homebrewers? Probably too late to start deleting your pictures now. lmao

Ha.

 

[suprchunk]

This rumor does appear to be true. From NikoBrew's Facebook page:
...

First, why would he even want to comment on another business? Very unprofessional. Second, this is one of the myriad reasons I don't buy from him.

 

[ImperialStout]

InBev bought NB so they could learn to brew beer.

 

[xandersaml]

I don't think this reflects well on NB, as AB/InBev is seen by many as the enemy. Further, if Mr. Farley were truly proud of this venture (as claimed in the article), he would have bragged about it, rather than nearly hiding it.
I don't know care one way or the other, as I may buy elsewhere if I choose. c'est la vie

 

[logdrum]

Wow! We've always joked here at Farmhouse that NB was the "Evil Empire" but would have never fathomed this ever happening.

Let it be know, Farmhouse Brewing Supply was literally started on this site in the Home Brew Market section almost 6 years ago and this community has helped us become the shop we are today. Thank you all.

We are home brewers and we love home brewing and are really kinda sad to hear this news.

Farmhouse has been my go to since then! Great products, great service & reasonable shipping, plus John is a stand up guy!

 

[dallasdb]

InBev bought NB so they could learn to brew beer.

Now that's funny.

 

[pshankstar]

Farmhouse has been my go to since then! Great products, great service & reasonable shipping, plus John is a stand up guy!

I just made my first purchase from them on Tuesday at 5:40pm for 32lbs of Red X Malt & some yeast. It arrived Friday afternoon !! Very impressed with their turnaround on an order!! Thanks Farmhouse!!!

 

[jammin]

Farmhouse has been my go to since then! Great products, great service & reasonable shipping, plus John is a stand up guy!

x2 for Farmhouse. Another great vendor

 

[Johow]

Watch out, they’ll be coming after “Home Brew Talk” next….

 

[jammin]

Watch out, they’ll be coming after “Home Brew Talk” next….

This in an interesting subtopic.

Recently gun control has become a politicaly incorrect topic to support & due to this Apple removed their gun emoji & replaced it with a squirt gun. This can be construed as culturally manipulating the view on gun laws. Obviously homebrewers catch on quick so no need to explain the rest.

 

[beernutz]

Meh, I'll still occasionally shop at NB but will mostly buy from my LHBS or Morebeer. I will admit to not turning down a free Inbev product or two. You have to go pretty far off the grid to completely isolate yourself from corporations.

 

[Saboral]

NB is dead to me. I'll use my LHBS, Adventure in Homebrewing, and Morebeer

 

[ericbw]

First, why would he even want to comment on another business? Very unprofessional. Second, this is one of the myriad reasons I don't buy from him.

Because everyone is posting the same poorly written press release about it. No new info or details, just the same thing about partnering.

I like NikoBrew

 

[Jwin]

First, why would he even want to comment on another business? Very unprofessional. Second, this is one of the myriad reasons I don't buy from him.

Because this is 'Merica and he can post whatever he wants on his blog...

More cheap black Friday hops for me!

 

[VVbrewery]

NB is dead to me. I'll use my LHBS, Adventure in Homebrewing, and Morebeer

NB IS our LHBS. They drove almost all of the others out of business when they came to Milwaukee. The last couple of times I've gone there they had almost nothing I needed in stock so I'll probably get most everything from Farmhouse etc. but shipping on sacks of grain is too pricey.

 

[WaltStarr]

Meh, I'll still occasionally shop at NB but will mostly buy from my LHBS or Morebeer. I will admit to not turning down a free Inbev product or two. You have to go pretty far off the grid to completely isolate yourself from corporations.

Actually, I've found it exceedingly easy to completely isolate myself from any corporation whose business practices I disagree with. You simply stop purchasing the products they produce or products made with the products they produce.

It's called "speaking with your wallet" and it's a time honored American consumer practice.

 

[Murphys_Law]

I must have no soul, because if I built a business and could sell to a large company for millions I'd cash out so quickly the front door would blow off the hinges as I exited the building. And I'd be too busy making beer or camping in my new pimped out RV (courtesy of my newly acquired wealth) that I wouldn't bother reading posts on internet forums saying "he's dead to me" for being a corporate sell-out.

 

[WaltStarr]

I must have no soul, because if I built a business and could sell to a large company for millions I'd cash out so quickly the front door would blow off the hinges as I exited the building. And I'd be too busy making beer or camping in my new pimped out RV (courtesy of my newly acquired wealth) that I wouldn't bother reading posts on internet forums saying "he's dead to me" for being a corporate sell-out.

I would do the same. Doesn't mean I would purchase anything from the resulting corporation, though.

 

[BentBrewer]

I live in Sonora and Modesto has the closest homebrew store (Barley and Wine), which is about 50 miles/1 hour away.

Yeah, you're in that dark hole of 'can't get there from here' in CA. I love riding my bikes around there, but 49 is a tedious 50MPH route crowded with tourists and CHP, and the other routes while amazing to ride, take many more hours.

Auburn is nice. Have you been to Knee Deep? I'm still looking for an excuse to drive the 2 1/2 hours to check it out. Love Lupulin River when I can get it fresh.

Yeah, we drop in to Knee Deep when we're oot and aboot in Auburn. Not being a hop fiend, I only drink a couple of their beers.

Sort of OT for this thread but I also recommend Auburn Alehouse.

As Kaplanfx mentions though, we also have Auburn Alehouse. Plus Moonraker, and now Crooked Lane. 18 miles away, is Cool Beerworks (3 miles away from me. Guess where I hang out? ) Jack Russel Brewing has opened a tasting room in Placerville, so you don't have to make the drive to Camino anymore either. Mraz in Folsom is just down the road in Folsom.
Come visit!

Great what's next..., white labs and wyeast?

It would probably make sense to them. Remember: you predicted it first!

Farmhouse has been my go to since then! Great products, great service & reasonable shipping, plus John is a stand up guy!

Another thumb up for Farmhouse. As I mentioned before, the shipping turnaround time from NB was so long, I switched to Farmhouse a while back. Easier website to use too, IMHO.
Now, about those flimsy plastic double bags that I can hardly read the writing on...

 

[bruteforce]

They're an evil corporation bent on getting profits rather than making malted grain simply for the love of the craft.

Yep. That was the joke. They're huge with tentacles in many areas.

 

[r8rphan]

I must have no soul, because if I built a business and could sell to a large company for millions I'd cash out so quickly the front door would blow off the hinges as I exited the building. And I'd be too busy making beer or camping in my new pimped out RV (courtesy of my newly acquired wealth) that I wouldn't bother reading posts on internet forums saying "he's dead to me" for being a corporate sell-out.

Werd!

 

[Dizzey]

If prices go up, Customers go away.

I was wondering. I feel like they would definitely have to be careful about it. Two, three years from now they could be completely different but I would imagine for the next six months they will try to keep changes minimal.

There is a lot of animosity towards mega-chain, specifically Anhauser-Busch, in the craft beer/homebrew community, right? So they have to know theyre on thin ice with regards to changing anything.

Realistically, I dont see why they would have to change anything, but I know they will in order to lower prices on their end. I think they bought it to tap the market/break in, just to make money from it, not necessarily out of any malicious intent.

I read somewhere, some sort of pew research type report, that suggested that the trend of businesses going year after year trying to hit bigger sales, bigger profits, higher margins while lowering costs, pay, whatever to achieve more savings, all that actually hinders businesses, and becomes like an achilles heel. When you see something like this buyout, you can kind of visualize how it happens. There's no reason for them to change a thing, but they will.

 

[hairymare]

I want American or Canadian malt and I'm pretty sure they'll be selling us malt from China. I'm pretty sure they wart to capitalize on us and if you care about the quality of your ingredients you are going to have to brew your own recipes with ingredients you know the source of. Especially with malt extracts. Big bummer. After a number of years, when people no longer know the difference, or forget and with the power to annihilate the little competition we will be stuck .

 

[Dizzey]

I see. The thing is, my LHBS doesnt display where the malts came from anyway. I could ask, but I'm sure it's just the big maltsters like Briess or something. I just made a mash tun and did my first all grain batch yesterday so Im not too sure how much grain quality affects the outcome, especially over proper procedures like sanitation, aeration, and storage. I do care about quality and not getting ripped off though, and I agree with you on something like a*mega-corporation wanting to capitalize on people with lower quality and higher prices(proportionally).

It's called "speaking with your wallet" and it's a time honored American consumer practice.

It's not really, though, because what companies do is buy other companies but dont ever re-brand; kind of like how General Mills owns like, 90% of all the cereals in the cereal aisle. Youre buying Cheerios because you hate the ****ing Fruit Loops company, but youre still paying General Mills in the end, regardless of which you go with. Unless you specifically buy something like "Locally Owned Hippie Oats!" But even then, when youre standing in the cereal aisle, you dont really know if Hippie Oats sold out to General Mills years ago, so it's still a gamble.