AB InBev is Buying all the Craft Beer
Or How we Plan on Handling Future Recipes
In Edgar Wright’s film The World’s End, the former gang gets together for a pub crawl only to find out that big beer has come in and gentrified their once-beloved drinking establishment. Or, as Steven Prince puts it:
Yeah! Stop fucking Starbucking us man!
Over the course of the past year, we have seen an increase in local watering holes being sucked into the AB inBev ecosystem. From a business perspective, it seems like greatest idea to team up with AB inBev. You continue making your beer the greatest it can be, while you get the assistance from a company who has the infrastructure that will help you grow . Hell yeah! Get your beer into the hands of more people. John Verive and Samantha Masunaga from the LA Times writes:
“This wasn’t a sellout move for me,” said Meg Gill, president and co-founder of Golden Road. Gill said she hadn’t planned to sell to a beer conglomerate but “as soon as we saw that vision, both companies were excited to be a part of what the other was doing.”
This is really a weird business. I come from the tech world and the goal for most businesses in that realm is to scale. This isn’t necessarily the case for craft breweries. As a craft brewer, you are a prominent member to your community. As such, maintaining that community is the upmost importance along side creating the best beer your can. Meg Gill is an true-bred entrepreneur. She knows how to run a business no doubt. But when considering going into the beer business, should a beer business focus on making the community the central part of their business?
Market Reactions
The latest of AB InBev’s purchases came from Asheville’s popular brewery Wicked Weeds. After the purchase of this brewery the community was very vocal as 52 breweries dropped out of Wicked Weed’s Funkatorium Invitational.
Following suit, AB InBev cut off supply of South African hops.
After their purchase SABMiller, including the SAB Hop farm where these hops were grown, it seemed fitting for the AB inBev to shut their doors to small breweries under the claim of expanding local acreage. It is possible that beers like Floating World and Effective Dreams by Modern Times, which utilize these hops, may or may not be effected by this decision.
This is fascinating. We do have some recipes on the site that come from breweries which are now an entity of Anheuser Bush. For example, in an upcoming recipe, we will be featuring 10 Barrel Brewing Co’s Cucumber Sour Crush sorbet. We will keep probably keep posting recipes so long as they don’t become too much like Bob.
Don’t be Bob
Bob is a really cool guy. He has a beautiful and talented wife and daughter. Bob is the first to be there when you need him. He has a great sense of humor. But all of a sudden, Bob mentions in conversation that he is now a Scientologist…
Man. That sucks. I mean bob is still bob. Bob is going to continue being Bob. But Bob kind of sucks now. You might still find yourself hanging out with Bob, however, and it isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Bob looks and acts like Bob, but that uncertainty and doubt sets in and always makes you wonder.
So don’t be a Bob. In an attempt to inform you of this, we created a flag for breweries that have recently been purchased by AB inBev. It will look a little something like this:
Regardless of the beer, the recipe will always be amazing! 🍻
