Another one bites the dust

Laganitas sold to Heineken… really

And Wicked Weed to AB. It was a bad week.

According to the press release Lagunitas retains their identity as a separate entity. Partnership for world wide distribution of the brand from three US breweries. Partnership began in 2015.

That may leave the door just open enough for an …

undercover investigation shutdown II (imperial stout)

:open_mouth:

We should probably get used to this. It’s clear major players are willing to pay top dollar to obtain the market share they are losing.

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I don’t buy that much beer anymore anyway. No more Lagunitas for sure. Long Live Homebrewing!!

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Think I’ll sit here and have another one from the Mancave. :sunglasses: Screw worrying! Lol

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I talked to the Bud Man… guess whom he works for… He was also telling me they just bought ale smith(?), and another in the N.E. area… BUT, he was clear to say, the big shooters weren’t meddling in the craft end of it… Even over here, there is a separation betwixt them… Maybe good, for now… Sneezles61

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How do I get to take a picture with me iPhone and post it? It says, it doesn’t support that format… Crap, you’d all be bored with the pictures I could take!! :sunglasses: Sneezles61

Hit reply. Down in the lower right of the reply box it says “Upload”. Tap that and it should ask

Select whichever one you want to do. I usually have a picture in the library I want to upload.

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Must say drink only my home brew now. And the beers i brew at the brewery. So dont buy other beer any more

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Its like downloading. In the beginning the big record companys. Did not care. Now it became a big thing and they did start to panic. Same as craft beer. They did know. Craft beers where being made. So they did think not so much about it. And now the big players. Realize. Damm we did miss the boat. Lets buy them out. So we have a share in craftbeer as well

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My concern isn’t that the big brewers will mess with the acquisition products. My concern is with the big brewer mindset of 100% mindshare of the retailers. As they buy up more of the smaller regional brewers they can then take up more shelf space and leave less space for small brewers. It becomes easy for the distributers to use the old simplifying logic: “We have all these styles brewed by highly respected brewers, so why do you need to mess with all of these other guys stuff?” I suspect that that is the end around here.
jd

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For another take on the buyout, this may be an interesting read: Watch the Hands, Not the Cards — The Magic of Megabrew — Good Beer Hunting

How so? The original Napster was based on the concept of theft. Buyouts of craft breweries are (as far as I know) based on two businesses reaching a mutual agreement that benefits the businesses.

Each to their own. I’ve had some excellent experiences, when on vacation, at tap rooms that would be considered “crafty” - hopefully the other privately owned breweries in that area will “up their game” by the next time I visit.

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Yes thats true. Down loading. Based on theft most the time. But if you compare. It. Records companys. Did not care about sharing music. Aka theft. But once it went in motion. They did realise. Damn we are losing money. So they did buy in to the down loading stuff. So to compare. Beer companys and craft beer brewers. The big companys losing money. So only solution. Stand on the side. Or purchase a beer craft brewery.

Is it possible there is one upside to megas buying up craft breweries? AB bought up Goose Island (a giant Bud brewery near me brews the IPA) I have seen it on sale with some other craft beers in the grocery. Used to be it was rare to see them on sale. Question is, is this because they buy in such quantity they can lower the price or to try to corner the market?

I don’t like this trend because the craft brewer will try new things because they brew for the “adventure” not just profit. The megas are all about making money.

The article linked above mostly nails it. This is a bunch of savvy businessmen carving up the sheep. This is all about owning the tap handles in bars and the display percentage at retailers. Controlling distribution.

Most new craft consumers don’t know and don’t care who owns what. And some, but certainly not all, home brewers feel very strongly about supporting the little guy as I’ve gleaned from previous similar episodes. No real consensus.

After BIG beer lost some legal battles at the state level, this seems to be their new (brilliant) strategy…

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This reads to me like a corporation doing what it’s intended to do - provide a good return on investment to owners (or shareholders) within the laws of the countries that the business operates. If you suspect illegal activity, a good way to resolve it may be to start with the local / regional law enforcement authorities - it’s unlikely you’ll get appropriate corrective action by talking about the activity here.

That being said …

My approach, over the last couple of years, has been to focus my craft beer purchases on a small number of local / regional / almost-national independent brewers. They brew what I like and I like what they brew. If a “local” gets bought out, I’ll continue to support the people who work there as long as the product quality / service quality is there.

But this approach to industry consolidation isn’t new to me - personal computers used to be locally built.

And now this:

I’ve tried to take all this in stride, but it’s a lot of crap happening altogether too recently.

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Are those the hops nb started selling recently?

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