They Sold it to Who?!

You are freaking out... man...

In case you haven’t heard, the craft beer world is in a tizzy this week following the announcement that 10 Barrel Brewing in Bend, Oregon has sold itself to Anheuser-Busch In-Bev. I know what you’re thinking – Craft beer world in a tizzy? That never happens.

Usually it doesn't, unless a well-respected craft brewery sells out to big beer, and then there is flood of hyperbolic “the sky is falling” talk from anybody with a soapbox, be it actual media or pesky beer blogs, or my personal favorite – the old Twitface.

I’m tempted to join them, and if I’m being honest, at least half of me is truly bothered by this. After all, big beer is the enemy. Companies like Budweiser make their beer using substandard ingredients and processes so they can make more money. And then, they go around scooping up craft brewery properties so they can compete with the ever surging craft beer segment of the beer market, but usually end up sucking the “craft” right out of that brewery in the process.

But my inner critical thinking rational self tells me that the sky might not actually be falling and that we might all be okay.

First of all, I don’t own 10 Barrel Brewing. I don’t even own a brewery (yet). It is very easy for me to spend other people’s money, or to make outrageous hypothetical statements like “I would never sell my brewery to Budweiser! Those 10 Barrel guys are a bunch of sell-outs!” I’ll tell you right now, on the record on November 15th, 2014… if Budweiser ever shows up offering to buy my brewery for seven or eight figures, I may have an ethical conflict on my hands.

BTW – I have not yet seen how much AB paid for 10 Barrel – I have no idea how many figures it was.

A big part of the whole “big beer kills craft breweries” thing is that we craft beer superfans make any brewer who sells his or her brewery to big beer into a pariah, and nationally boycott their brewery. It would be interesting to see what would happen if breweries like 10 Barrel weren't branded with a scarlet letter… would they continue to be a fan favorite under an AB-InBev flag?

For the most part, the beer formulas stay the same when big beer buys a little guy. They may tighten up the brewing process on the experimentation side of the operation, but usually what happens is a few of the more popular labels from the craft brewery become major national flagship offerings and everything else is contained to the brewery itself, so that only the locals have ever heard of it. I’m thinking of Goose Island, who sold out to AB what seems like a lifetime ago – you can still find 312 Urban Wheat Ale, IPA and Honkers Ale all over the country and the taste is pretty good.

Adolphus Busch, co-founder of
Anheuser Busch

Then there is the actual benefit that the brewery gets from selling to big beer… as in access to more equipment, more ingredients, more resources… more everything! AB might want to be able to tell the brewer what to do and when to do it, but in exchange, they’re going to spend as much money as it takes to ensure that failure is not an option, otherwise why would they have bought it in the first place? Yes, Adolphus Busch and Eberhard Anheuser built the empire by buying all of the little guys just to shut them down in the post-prohibition era, but those days are long gone… at least, I hope they are.

But we have to remember the very foundation on which the craft beer revolution was built – what separated the pioneers from those they were attempting to reform… beer should be better. One thing I absolutely do not see from any big beer company is the desire to innovate, push the envelope, or make a better product. They’re always focusing on survival in the marketplace, or merging with other companies, or buying this company, or stock tickers and board meetings. They focus on sales, and while money drives this little world of ours, if the desire to make money outweighs the desire to make good beer, it will be evident in the final product and the consumer will know it. It’s one thing to say “our beer is better than Budweiser,” but it’s a completely different thing to say “we make great beer!”

I guess we’ll just have to wait and see what happens to 10 Barrel. Will they become another cold national franchise like Goose Island, Blue Point, Terrapin, Leinenkugle, Widmer Brothers, Red Hook and Kona, or will they maintain their identity that they worked so hard to foster and continue to be celebrated as great brewers? I suppose only time will tell, but if I had to guess based only on recent history, I’d lean towards the former.

Here’s to craft-brewed happiness… Cheers!