AB-InBev Picks Up A Couple of Wins Against Craft Beer
The past few years have been very tense between defined craft breweries and mega beer corporation, AB-InBev. With a dozen or so established breweries acquired and sports stadiums decorated with fake craft brands, craft beer rallied together to launch a campaign to fight back. Along with the Independent Brewery Seal, they launched a ‘Take Craft Back’ infomercial to help educate consumers and raise awareness in the market between a real craft brewery and a mega-corporation acquired brand that blends in with independent craft beer. While it will always be an uphill battle to fight against that much money and power, it had seemed the little guys have been gaining momentum in campaigns and protests in all corners of the country. One of the most notable milestones happened in the spring of 2017 when beer geek darling Wicked Weed Brewing sold to ABI. Liquor stores put their beer on clearance, and many other notable rockstar breweries pulled out of their upcoming invitational beer festival as a statement of solidarity for the independent beer movement. That situation got so hairy that ABI seemingly cooled off on their acquisitions and how they were trying to spin these transactions to the beer drinking public.
While there are many people that are still fighting the good fight, I couldn’t help but notice that ABI/The High End/ZX Ventures has picked up a few wins lately. I’ve always been the first to roll my eyes at their attempt to blur the lines between real and fake craft with the goal of gaining domestic and global marketshare and subsequently limiting consumer options. I’d also like to give credit where credit’s due. ABI has just made three pretty important plays that chip away at the armor of the independent beer movement recently, and it feels to me that they went under the radar for many.
Nate Soroko on Beerland
One of the most cringeworthy PR attempts by ABI’s The High End Division was the creation of Beerland on Viceland. While I should watch it to be more informed about the show, it stars Golden Road Brewing’s figurehead Meg Gil in a reality TV setting in which she holds a home brew competition. Besides the show being a giant advertisement for Golden Road, Meg is infamous for her “so homebrewers “can’t brew a bunch of sh*t in their bathtub and call it craft” quote. We’ve had friends and readers send us countless emails from the show’s producers looking for young, hip, urban home brewers, influencers and beer geeks to take part in the show. The email usually includes the lore of free beer, being on television and a few hundred dollars. That doesn’t sound too bad if you weren’t aware of all the animosity between independent beer and ABI. For the second season, Beerland scored their biggest influencer, both figuratively and literally.
Beerland scored Nate Soroko. You may not have heard of him outside of California, but Nate is one of the largest, most lovable men in the beer industry. He’s knowledgeable, kind, generous, and there is nobody who doesn’t love him tremendously. He has been a beertender for the better part of the last decade in San Diego, most notably for Toronado San Diego and Modern Times Beer. Nate has never been a bleeding-heart craft beer liberal, as he still has respect for San Diego OG’s Ballast Point, in a city that is very bitter and envious of their 2015 sale. Still, having one of the faces of San Diego craft beer on a show that’s largely an advertisement for Golden Road Brewing was definitely a big win for ABI.
We reached out to Nate to see why he chose to work with this show, and he was completely upfront and honest with us.
“I did it for exposure and money. I was emailed and told that I was referred by some writer friends like Thrillist and some other beer magazines. They paid for all beer and meals for filming in San Diego including my friends. I was paid $500.00 to do the judging, including paid hotel and travel. I had to sign a non-disclosure agreement about who won, but other than that, I was given free reign. I questioned Meg’s brewing and beer knowledge and the buyout. I talked about San Diego history and the people who laid down the groundwork that’s led to what has made San Diego successful. Sadly that was edited out. People asked me about it. I get why some people turn it down. For me, it was like using Facebook for exposure. I told them Toronado doesn’t carry any Golden Road and they [Beerland] were ok with it. I told them I wouldn’t be drinking Golden Road beer for the San Diego episode and they were fine with that.”
OctFest
Last year, another big controversy in the fight between independent craft beer and big beer came from ZX Ventures (A market disruption arm and innovation group owned by ABI) not only investing in RateBeer.com, but also launching a slick online beer magazine October with Condé Nast and overseen by GoodBeerHunting’s uber talented Michael Kiser. Condé Nast is also the parent company of Pitchfork so naturally, this magazine is in a great position to hold a beer and music festival, known as OctFest. After the sale of Wicked Weed last year, countless breweries pulled out of Wicked Weed’s upcoming invitational festival as a sign of A) supporting craft beer and B) not wanting to associate with an ABI-owned company. Since then, there have been countless Brewer Guilds around the country that have been making a strong push to separate themselves from larger festivals that are crammed with the entire High End Portfolio (10 Barrel, Golden Road, Elysian, etc.) While there are many examples of a few bigger brands being included in an otherwise craft beer festival (think Lagunitas and Ballast Point), there has been a pretty strong message that independent brewers are doing whatever they can to make it clear who owns what by not participating in an ABI crowded festival. Now if you take a look at the beer lineup for OctFest, you will see every single acquired brewery ABI owns is being poured at this festival, alongside over a dozen breweries listed as independent craft brewers according to The Brewers Association. What is my point? My point is there are a dozen or so breweries participating in a festival that has clear ties to ABI. To me, this is a pretty big win for ABI and blends independent craft beer with the huge international portfolio of beers owned by ABI. We reached out to a few independent breweries and asked if they were aware of the ties to ABI and if so, why did they choose to participate. Alicia Barr, owner of FiftyFifty Brewing in Truckee, CA had this to say:
“When October reached out to us and invited us to this event, they were very transparent about the relationship with AB-InBev, but they were also very clear that they run this event autonomously. We chose to participate because this is a really cool event with an opportunity to get in front of a remote cool audience that is relatively new to the craft beer scene. We have a great following of beer fans in New York, and are excited about the idea and opportunity of being more present in that market. Avoiding an event just because it has ties to AB-InBev does craft beer as a whole no favors. There is value for us, the Craft Beer industry in general, and consumers, in showcasing a craft California product.
We are still as craft and independent as ever, and are excited about the opportunity to reach new fans with that message.”
Flying Dog Brewing’s Senior Director of Communications Erin Westin had this to say: “We are aware of the InBev affiliation. At the end of the day, our awesome NYC sales reps felt that the opportunity to expose people new to craft to our independent beers outweighed who was putting on the show.”
There is no doubt that this isn’t great exposure for these breweries or that the festival won’t be remarkable, it just goes against the narrative and this is likely exactly what ZX Ventures and ABI is looking for.
Bourbon County Pastry Stouts
Goose Island Bourbon County Stout is fresh on my mind as I finish up the amazing book Barrel Aged Stout and Selling Out by Josh Noel. as many other cult beers of yesteryear have It’s one of the most iconic beers to ever be created not to mention the granddaddy of barrel aged stouts. Even after Goose Island sold out to AB, the beer has been so popular that it has not mattered to most that it’s a relatively mass-produced beer that has lost its scarcity more and more each year. Two years ago, Goose Island widely distributed a few variants of this beer that were found to be infected. This caused a significant dip in popularity with beer geeks as they were leery about the quality of the product and had to deal with the online heckling that they were a bunch of basic bitches chasing after a barrel aged stout that can be purchased at CVS. While there are still plenty of fans of this beer, today’s fickle enthusiast moves on to the next big thing pretty quickly, so while Bourbon County Stout and other Bourbon County beers are still great, their popularity has taken a natural hit.
With Pastry Stout Mania in full swing, Goose Island (and most likely their overlords) have taken notice. For the past five years or so, Bourbon County has been met with an adjunct or two but last week, the online label mongers unveiled two new variants, Bourbon County Neapolitan and Bourbon County Horchata, both of which play to the fan of the pastry stout.
In my eyes, this disrupts the Wakefields, 3 Sons, Cycles, Horus Aged Ales and Moksas of the world by commoditizing these adjunct laden stouts. The brewers mentioned above fetch $20 to $40 a bottle on the retail market for these beers, and now it would seem this will be disrupted by what should be priced at $15.00 a bottle. Those who love this style will also likely disregard their ideals on who owns Goose Island, which is another big win for ABI.
While ABI has cooled off on acquisitions at the moment, it is clear that they are still very much moving forward with disrupting the craft segment, they are just being a lot smarter and savvy about it this time around.
July 11, 2018 @ 6:09 am
So tell me what’s wrong with this….your a brewer who’s created a product so popular that companies want to pay you astronomical amounts of money for it. Isn’t that the American dream? Creating something so many people want and desire? I love all beer, from treehouse to bud light. Beer is what you make it. Its personal. Either you like it or you dont and go about your day. These breweries need to stop crying about ab InBev and look within and start making their own moves to differentiate themselves from the big guys! When you point one finger there is 3 pointing back at you!!!
July 11, 2018 @ 3:01 pm
Mike, your comment illustrates a lack of understanding for the more in depth issues at hand. “What’s wrong with this” is that all of the recent movement by ABI in the craft sector has been to undermine the legitimacy, availability and popularity of smaller craft breweries and their products. Many people still believe that ABI strictly wanted these acquisitions for their products. Incorrect. They bought these breweries for a whole host of nefarious reasons including further obfuscation of what is a ‘craft’ product, buying into these strong, existing craft distribution channels (thats the big one), secure existing relationships with producers of hops/yeast/fruit/barley to make it harder for others to get their contracts, and other reasons that will not, in the end, make beer higher quality, better tasting or more interesting for most people. I want to call you an ignorant dunce for your comment but the truth is that a lot of people don’t understand whats really going on here. Having said that, I do agree that craft breweries love to bitch and moan instead of making better products themselves. That doesn’t mean that ABI isn’t trying to undermine them every step of the way.
July 10, 2018 @ 2:12 pm
Here in Argentina ABI tried the same thing, by creating a “craft” brand. Yeah..between “”! Thank god, the real argentinian craft brewers teach us what a craft beer is !!
July 10, 2018 @ 12:10 pm
Hey, great piece. Thanks for drawing attention to these events and trends that you so rightly point out went under-noticed in the craft community. This is why we need great beer journalism. We also need great beer journalism to eschew sexism. “Basic bitches” is just that. Would you mind finding another way to describe this particular fragility of beer geeks? You could even just throw it in scare quotes to indicate that it’s not the perspective of you or The Full Pint (unless it is, and then we should talk!). I *think* I take your point — beer geekery has become a new, consumer-driven way to demonstrate masculinity — a pissing contest (all genders piss!), if you will — and that’s interesting enough to warrant it’s own think-piece, or at least a footnote clarifying your position.
July 10, 2018 @ 12:40 pm
Basic bitch is a comedic term, invented by women, to poke fun at middle aged women who think getting a Starbucks Frappucino is being fancy or upscale.
This was used in the same vein, a self proclaimed craft beer connoisseur who buys massed produced barrel aged stout.
July 11, 2018 @ 8:09 am
Didn’t realize being a beer connoisseur and enjoying BCBS were mutually exclusive traits, but thanks for being a dick about it.
July 10, 2018 @ 8:15 am
I found the article interesting and helpful in identifying the influence of AB in the industry. The reason I drink craft brews, there are two. I find each craft brewery to be unique and usually a hidden treasure. Secondly I go for the taste/flavor that each owner is trying to bring out. Like my wine red and my beer dark.
The first review was interesting to pour through. I’m not a purists but I do believe that there will always be a place for the unique craft brewing scene. Tampa is a great place to find them and we love the Chicago micro breweries as well. I am happy to patronize a Craft establishment when ever possible. There will always be the money trying to take away the Initiative from those who are in it for prosperity sake instead of the love of the BEER!
Check out Broken Bat in Milwaukee’s 3rd Ward if you like baseball.
July 10, 2018 @ 7:45 am
Dan
I understand that your website is driven by click bait and at times sensationalism to drive that click bait. But as a long time SD brewer I have to call you out on your comments regarding Ballast Point and their sale a few years ago. To say that the people of San Diego and by extension that Brewers in SD were bitter or envious reflects badly on all of us and frankly it is just not true. Any competent minded person would see that Jack, Yuseff, Colby, et all; worked very hard over 20 years to get to a place to do whatever they wanted to do with their brewery. To continue to bash them three years down the line is unnecessary and boorish. Frankly this holier than thou attitude people have taken about breweries that choose to partner with ABI, Constellation, Hedge Funds is played out. Simply put, if you don’t agree with breweries selling than don’t buy their product. Good to day to you.
July 10, 2018 @ 9:11 am
Hey Pat,
Re: Clickbait and sensationalism – Sorry I’m actually good at what I do and drive traffic with articles people want to read.
Re: Ballast Point – You would have to be living under a rock to not have felt many different negative emotions after Ballast Point sold to Constellation. Are you saying that didn’t happen or still isn’t a thing, especially in their hometown of San Diego. They are great guys who took great rewards, that’s never been disputed. This article merely pointed out that Nate Soroko never jumped on that hater bandwagon.
Re: Industry fans and pundits are against ABI and Heineken due to their predatory business practices and their ability to squash options on the shelf and at bars and restaurants. It’s not as simple as just ignoring ABI brands when their foot soldiers and management are working around the clock to make sure they are the only beer in town.
Hopefully you are still making that *awesome beer* you are so famous for in Georgia.
Good Day to You!
July 11, 2018 @ 3:44 pm
No, Pat’s right. Saying that a person that has been working in this industry much longer than you is “living under a rock” is downright disrespectful.
Wait, do you work in the industry even…?
July 11, 2018 @ 3:49 pm
Jacob, did the Ballast Point sale invoke negative emotions in San Diego, specifically peers in the industry?
Re: Industry – We don’t work shifts at any breweries. Does that disqualify us from providing coverage and analysis?
January 26, 2019 @ 7:16 am
I’ve hated Ballast Point for years before they sold out for being a leader of pricing beer way too high. They basically proved to the industry that dumbasses will pay $14 for a 6 pack of IPA. Fast forward to current year and $20 4 packs are everywhere and I fully blame the trend on BP.
July 10, 2018 @ 4:14 am
“The reality is that a vast majority of beer drinkers care about flavor, not ownership.” Really? Well if that was true (and it’s not) why do companies like AB InBev spend billions of dollars creating faux craft labels like “Shock Top Brewing ” and acquiring established craft breweries like Elysian, Devils Backbone, and Wicked Weed? Seems to me if beer drinkers only cared about “flavor” (as you claim) AB InBev would be free just to produce beers under their own flagship brand, no? The reality is craft beer fans DO care about ownership because they know the tactics of “big beer.” They aren’t interested in competing in a free market. They have one goal and that’s to crush their competition through acquisition and other strong-arm tactics. Craft beer fans don’t like to give their money to a multinational who uses their huge financial clout to lobby for anti-craft legislation, engages in shady business practices, markets and promotes an anti-craft message, and snaps up beloved local breweries ….all in an effort to crush the competition. It’s not capitalism. It’s cronyism.
July 10, 2018 @ 3:42 am
Good quality beers are not enough. Ethical commercial practices is not their specialty. AB Inbev uses their economic might to all its extent in order to destroy the competition. To compete in equal grounds is never an option for them. It is not just a matter of good beer…
July 9, 2018 @ 10:42 pm
Sorry but you are wrong. Big beer only cares about maximum profits. PERIOD. I worked for a brewery for 27 years that then known as Interbrew bought. Craft style beer is more expensive to produce, than a regular massed produced lager, even for InBev. More than Bud etc.. so to maximize profits ,they cut corners, sometimes slowly over time, until the drinkers don’t or can’t tell. These craft breweries that were bought up are or wont be the same ingredients now and/ or sometime down the line. I’m not pissed that I no longer work for this brewery that Interbrew eventually closed the doors. Just stating facts of what they do that you don’t know about
July 9, 2018 @ 10:27 pm
John – no disrespect to your opinion but I am 180 out from that. I wouldn’t think to speak for the “vast majority” of beer drinkers and I am far from a uber-geek beer nerd. Ownership does matter, because of ABI’s predatory distribution tactics, their overall business practices, and their derision for craft beer. I have so many good craft breweries where I live, putting out amazing craft beer (Norfolk, VA) that I don’t lack for choices to say nothing of breweries close to me (Richmond). I will give them my loyalty and my money first and then independent national breweries. That goes for bottle shops in the area as well. I’m sure the breweries being absorbed by ABI make good beer but it doesn’t matter to me. I’ll never know because I won’t drink their beer. It is personal to me and that’s my choice. Cheers!
July 9, 2018 @ 7:26 pm
The reality is that a vast majority of beer drinkers care about flavor, not ownership.. It is the uber-geek beer nerds who want to keep craft beer the equivalent of the high school A/V club who get their manties in a bunch when a label is sold to “big beer”. A craft (whether it is beer, food, or artwork) is something that requires particular skill and results in something unique. Ownership does not diminish the skill or unique flavor of labels owned by “big beer”. That’s why the masses care more about flavor than ownership, which gives ABI the wins you wrote about. I would not be surprised to see “big beer” labels at this year’s GABF, because even so-called “craft beer geeks” know that “big beer” labels produce good quality beers.
July 10, 2018 @ 4:40 am
Gotta get your facts straight there John. Big Beer wasn’t banned from GABF, GABF prohibited non-independent Brewers from purchasing high visibility booths at GABF. And that tuke is still in effect for this year.
The “masses” don’t care about flavor. The masses care about what’s cheap, that’s why Liquor stores feature signs advertising $6 12-packs, not “We’ve got Bourbon County!”.
Craft beer drinkers DO care about quality AND independence. That’s why Big Beer does everything they can to hide their association with the craft brands they own and does stuff like purchase Rate Beer.
Big Beer does produce some decent beer. But is it better than independent craft beer? For the most part, the answer to that is “No”.
July 10, 2018 @ 5:00 am
The quality of the beer isn’t in question. The intentions of the corporations trying to take money out of the pockets of the little guy does. I was recently at an ABInBev event at a venue which I will choose to keep to myself and a rep from one of their ‘Craft breweries was trying to buy food for guests.
What’s wrong with this? First of all it’s highly illegal. They’re trying to buy customers which in the state of California is illegal in the beer world but since they have ties to Sacramento law makers it goes unchecked. This is a luxury that craft breweries literally can’t afford and that is pay to play.
Liquor companies are allowed to run the card, breweries are not.
July 10, 2018 @ 5:32 am
No sorry, thats not true at all, the craft beer community actively knows the difference ebtween big ( crasp) beer and real (craft) beer. As a result, look at how many brewers and fans have cancelled invites to many large bre fests causing them to downsize or totally cancel.
Big beer does not make good beer, as evidenced by the huge falling off of taste and quality in brands like ballast point, wicked weed, or Goose island. Their mainstream and even specialty offerings have fallen far short of sales projections and are bleeding red ink on big beers spreadsheets.
The only product that has seemingly escaped this so far is Bourbon County yet you can now go to thousands of stores and pick up the last two years releases still at regular or below retail prices. This never happened in the past.
As big beer mass produces, so quality fades and fails. The craft beer community is not interested in coorslight, michelob ultra or PBR.
Those Faux beers will fall off just like craft beer pretenders, Sierra Nevada and Sam Adams have.
July 10, 2018 @ 5:18 pm
Steven Hudson, I agreed with most of thay, but to call Sierra Nevada and Boston Brewing Company pretenders is not right. They were pioneers in the field who made it possible for other breweries to come along. They haven’t sold out, and they haven’t started shitting on their employees or their quality, and lumping them in with actual sellouts like Lagunitas and Goose Island is disingenuous at best.
July 10, 2018 @ 5:57 am
John, I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you are a troll for “big beer”. Otherwise you must be a complete moron if you truly believe that “a vast majority of beer drinkers care about flavor, not ownership..”. If that were true, how could you possibly explain the fact that the top selling beers are, and have been for years, Bud Light, Miller Lite, Coors Lite, Budweiser, Michelob Ultra, etc.??? Those “beers” have a flavor profile of stale water, yet continue to be top selling year after year. Flavor is obviously not the motivating factor for their purchase.
The *true* reality is that the vast majority of beer drinkers care about price, availability, and brand name/recognition/loyalty/allegiance/celebrity endorsement, with flavor a distant 4th. Don’t believe so? Try to get a die hard Bud Light drinker to even *try* another brand of beer. Forget it. The fact that Budweiser can be bought anywhere for little more than the cost of bottled water and is synonymous with the likes of Dale Earnhardt Jr. and other celebrity endorsements is the reason it is among the top selling – not flavor.
While it may be true that “big beer” labels are producing some good quality beers, it is only because they chose to *acquire* true craft brewers that were beginning to make a dent in their profits. Otherwise, why haven’t we seen the likes of AB-InBev create their own new brands of beers that aren’t American-style lagers? When has AB-InBev ever introduced a porter, or a stout, or even a friggin’ IPA?
July 10, 2018 @ 9:12 am
With so much great beer out there it is great that we can choose to support Independent Breweries that are not about mass production/profits and limiting resources and deceptive marketing tactics like ABI.
To some beer is just beer. It isn’t just “uber-geek beer nerds” who care about that, but it they are the ones who realize on a bigger picture what large corporations are trying to accomplish in the craft beer market and in turn help to inform the public about the difference it makes in supporting Independent Brewers.
If you want to support the WallMart of beer its a free country and you can do that. But realize that’s what ABI is with it’s tactics in the craft beer market. They aren’t the “buddy buddy” they claim to be for craft beer as their market share is dwindling and their Marquee Brands are taking small percentage hits which are actually equated into millions of dollars at times. It’s cheaper to buy up the competition to prop up their watered down beers which is exactly what their doing by purchasing breweries like 10 Barrel and Elysian.
Support Independent Craft Beer!!!