No doubt but so far the many bets from BB do capitalize on craft beer hasn’t also turned to be terrible successful and they are trying to get rid of many of their purchases after a relatively short period of time due to lower sales compared to before their purchase. So it clearly turned out so far that overestimated how much they can sell craft beer to people who don’t really care about beer.
Don’t kid youself that you care more about beer than anyone else.
There’s certainly a “Catch and Kill” aspect to Big Brew’s acquisition strategy. But it’s hardly the kiss of death. More like “Hey, they built some loyalty we can profit from.” They play the odds. And they’re more successful at it than you think.
It’s always amused me that people conclude that any given garagiste with a brew sculpture somehow immaculately conceived and executed a world class Beer X. Did they all apprentice with a 200-time gold medal winner? Obviously not. Degree in zymurgy? Almost never.
I have a friend who makes very good beer. He’s a roofer. He bought a clone beer recipe book, and has riffed some creatively. The closest he’s been to Belgium is Tennessee. Never worked in the beverage industry. No guru, no method, no teacher. But if you think he knows a lot about beer, you’re dreaming.
Revering obscure beers is only that.
The data doesn’t support your assessment
Show the data, then.
You write as if Big Brew is a cursed, clueless, money-losing monolith that can’t brew good beer or make money. If this were true, every label acquisition would fail, and they would stop buying labels. Obviously that’s not happening. In fact, BB has been doing pretty well reselling brands. See, https://www.seattletimes.com/business/local-business/seattles-redhook-brewery-sold-by-bud-light-owner-ab-inbev-to-tilray/#:~:text=Redhook’s%20future%20owner%20is%20cannabis,umbrella%2C%20the%20companies%20announced%20Monday.
Do you believe none of AB InBev’s 400 labels make good beer?
A very small % of their beer are good beers - big food corporations are successful because they make the smallest denominatior food, not good food. ABI or McD or JitB etc etc don’t make good food just the cheapest (low quality ingredients) food which meets some minimal quality criteria
You’re hilarious. There are many, many good beers in the AB InBev stable. Some are budget beers, and many cater to certain national and regional taste preferences.
I suspect you just categorically abhor Big Brew out of some need to be and drink “special”.
So, no data? While you’re at it, please back your BS about “cheapest (low-quality ingredients)”
ABI using GMO rice
Miller Light, Coors Light using corn syrup
Corona uses PGA
Yuengling uses corn grits
And there are many more examples of big beer using HCFS and other cheap ingredients. There goal is to make the cheapest possible beer by cutting corners through cheap ingredients. All big beer conglomerates will also have some craft beers in their selection but it will be only a very small percentage. It is no different than McD - they are using the cheapest beef with cafo to make the cheapest possible burger - it’s still a burger but taste lousy and not worth its calories.
Head Cheese by Great Notion Brewing (Portland, OR) - Milk Stout
Strangely watered down milk stout - starts with some roasted coffee and light chocolate notes but very fast gets quite light in flavor. Some peanut flavors in the background but quite artificial. Some sweetness from the lactose but also some astringency in the finish. Overall quite disappointing milk stout
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No it’s not. It’s to make money. No brewer throws its money away. At least for established brewers making substantial volumes of a beer year in and year out, they strive to attain consistent flavor profiles. That entails tweaking and balancing the processing, hops, grains, malt and additives. Small craft brewers have the relative luxury of being inconsistent, as reflected in the common happenstance of 20___'s Beer X winning gold and being rated 100, and the same brewer’s next year’s Beer X garnering crickets.
I live in an ag region where not only are there many established successful, medal-rich craft brewers, but also extremely high-quality local wheat, barley and hops production, and specialty malters. There’s still not enough to go around, certainly not enough for a single large brand to brew on an industrial scale.
As they grow in sales and production, consistency and ability to source enough of the same or like constituents becomes more important if they want to stay in business. Likewise the cost of those constituents. And they still generally produce good beer.
To think or espouse that Big Brew is somehow knowledge- or talent-deficient is just wrongheaded. And if you think about it, it’s chauvinistic and elitist.
If you would read what I wrote you would realize that I never said that Big Brew doesn’t have knowledge or talent. What I said is that Big Beer (as with any other large food conglomerates) prioritizes costs over quality as long as they meet a minimum criteria. And there is nothing wrong about it - similar to many scientists at Nestle, Unilever, McD there are many scientists, brewers etc at Big Beer who might have different priorities in their overall goals which are different as they would work at a small craft brewery (or a small independent restaurant)
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Oh. I’m pretty sure you said: “BB often doesn’t understand good beer” No?
I wrote “ BB often doesn’t understand good beer (and the craft beer world)…” - the last part is important in this context. BB understands the technical part of making good beer but they don’t understand (or better care) that the majority of people who drink craft beer won’t continue drinking the same brands once they are bought by BB and often changed.
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You understand that you wrote in the conjunctive, right? This quote is merely one, express instance of your attitude arrogantly demeaning large brewers’ knowledge and competence.
How is it that brewers become large, if not by dint of knowledge and competence?
Branding, marketing, financial prowess etc. are key attributes to become successful - do they need some knowledge and competence ? Definitely, but it won’t be a critical factor as long as they meet some basic standards. (And that’s not even specific for BB but even if you compare different sized craft breweries, those which became big didn’t have more knowledge but better branding, marketing etc. The reason why those bigger craft breweries don’t become BB is that they aren’t pushing towards really make their beer cheap enough by cutting many corners through cheap ingredients and they are focusing too much on non-mainstream beers, e.g. IPA, sours, stouts, porter
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Your prejudice is showing, and it’s not a good look.
I’m not even a particular fan of Big Brew. But that has to do with their business practices, not their brands’ brewing prowess.
I’m out. Have fun with your obscura.
Brewing is relatively simple, in most cases (not talking Lambic, here). I started in '86 and learned from the Papazians and I could really well emulate many brews. Brown ales are a cinch, as are most ales. Lagers you need some cooling, but most were pretty easy for me. Takes patience, but the techniques aren’t above the grasp of a commoner like me. Problem with homebrew is that the prices of the raw materials to make it have gone up to the point where you’re paying about as much to make the stuff as it would be to buy the stuff. There is no way to perfectly copy Guinness Stout. Plenty of American made stouts I like, but there’s only one Guinness.
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The prices of which you speak gore garagiste and giant alike.
I suspect there would be a substantial die-off if it weren’t so easy for “craft” brewers to set up a pub and charge $7-8 for a pint (Hint: There’re 248 pints in a barrel).
