There should be better laws against monopolies. I thought these lessons were learned 100 years ago.
It is a sad dayā¦ I think we crossed that road a while agoā¦ Pockets so deep, they can buy all the medium we need to brewā¦ I saw tonight, on the news, that Miller has an IPA, they claim will be a sell out! Well, as long as NB will keep stuff in checkā¦ maybe weāll be OKā¦? Sneezles61
I was watching the ABInBev homebrew TV show on Viceland recently, and was doubly angry. The dead-in-the-eye hostbot was interviewing a homebrewer who identified as an anarchist. As e mbarrasing as that was, he was devoid of any self awareness about the affiliation of the show in which he was participating. I almost threw things at the TV.
Think the home brewers will see in the future a increase in product price. Now big brew companys getting into craft brewing. And getting products like hops on discount prices. Even the company leffe now into ipa brewing. A cascade ipa they do sell. Sad that it went this way. On the end its all about cash.
I guess I am not surprised and not too worried. As a homebrewer, I get my reward when I taste my product or somebody takes a pull off a pint of something Iāve made and has that look of āYou made this?!ā on their face. The job of corporation leadership is to make a corporation as successful as possible within the confines of law and morals. Itās their job to chase the dollars being spent by people in the market. Buying up successful breweries to capture market share (people who desire craft beer) on behalf of their shareholders is simply good business. I look at it as their version of āinnovatingā. The strategy either by design or coincidence is influencing the supply of raw materials in the market and even worse, negatively impacting the ability of the small guy to get tap space.
From a raw material standpoint, that market is reacting in Michigan. Hop farms are popping up all over the place. Farmers plant to make money. I imagine the same thing is happening other places too. There may be a lag, but eventually supply will catch up. The same thing will happen with taps. There have been posts on here about the zillion taprooms with substandard beers that come and go. Those guys donāt last. What does last is quality so make good enough beer and youāll be successful. Even big money canāt make someone drink āAmericaā.
Seems like the simplest thing possible may be to turn off the digital devices and enjoy fresh locally make beer at their taproom with friends.
Powering down for the weekend 
.
Still, just adds to the irony of the whole ābeer hipsterā super bowl slam from a couple years agoā¦
Iām kind of amused with the fact that early, more established craft brewers might be the saviors of all of this. Your Sierra Nevadas and Summits of the world are established enough to weather this, while the newer breweries are selling for quick cash to grow exponentially. Should be interesting to watch the market play out.
Itās funny 
that craft breweries who use African hops canāt get them but I can. This is the stuff thatās going to happen. Iām not a threat to their money so I can obtain the ingredients. The others will get squashed. I called that a year ago.
Chime in here, but here is some digging I didā¦some are obvious.
āCraftyā defined as >50% owned by ABINBEVSABMILLERGRUPOMODELOCONSOLIDAā¦
Abita solo
New Belgium solo
Ballast Point crafty
Lagunitas crafty
Stone solo
Sweetwater solo
Terrapin crafty
Russian River solo(thank God)
Wicked Weed crafty
Goose Island crafty
Sam Adams solo
Sierra Nevada solo
I believe it is important to knowā¦
Iām glad Sweetwater hasnāt sold out. I really enjoy their beers.
So a new rag from NB has African hops for saleā¦ 1 lb for $50.00!!!
I still enjoy Cās stuff grown hereā¦ Iām not even aware that Iāve tried any from over thereā¦ If any of you peeps know how to start an Indy site, now is a good time before we get too filtered in our conversationsā¦ Sneezles61
āItās a big club, and you aināt in it. You and I are not in the big club.ā George Carlin
That pretty much sums it up.
Do they give you the munchies? LOL
Maybe the āFOMOā price for the hops will be lower next year. And the hops certainly need to come with proven starter recipes. Kinda like what many spice speciality stores do.
Nopeā¦ 
Sneezles61
Really? $50.00!!! Not going there, not now and not tomorrowā¦ Sneezles61
Itās not hard to setup, but it has some up front costs and needs to be maintained. Maintaining forum software is not where I want to spend my hobby time over the next couple of years.
Late last year, when I took a serious look at homebrewing forums, the NB forum, AHA, and reddit where pretty much all I needed. AHA is always a good place to lurk. Both this forum and reddit have āgoodā streaks and ābadā streaks - so dividing my attention between the two yields good results for me.
But, as always, YMMV.
andā¦now:
Anchor Steam crafty
Shorts crafty(ouch)
Funky Buddha crafty (meh)
and Iām sure more to come.
