Anheuser Busch trying to take over the Homebrewing market?

I’m new so I don’t know so much about the players in the hobby. I just learned that Northern Brewer is owned by Anheuser Busch and homebrewers don’t like that. I was told to stay away from any of their homebrew businesses as the little guys selling are going out of business because of them. Have you heard of this?

There are threads galore on this issue in this forum.  Just search AB InBev and you will get a lot of history.

Mostly, the consensus is that AB InBev might get greater market control and use that control in ways that adversely affect homebrewing, whether by running the little LHBS retailers out of the market or altering supply availability and pricing, or a host of other nefarious things, including distribution of so-called craft beer that isn’t made on a small scale and suffers from the original quality pre-InBev from a particular brewery that InBev purchases.

Cheers and welcome to the Forum!

I refuse to buy anything from Northern Brewer because they cherry pick the reviews they allow on their website - I know that from personal experience.  However, I did hear many years ago that Anheuser-Busch was loosing market share to the craft brew industry, which is why they bought Goose Island Brewing.  So, I would not be surprised if they did buy NB.  NB and MoreBeer are very closely related, so if they bought NB, they most likely got two birds with one proverbial stone, if you will.

Morebeer is AFAIK unrelated.  Midwest Supply had been bought by NB before ABInBev bought them both together. ABI has done some PR to suggest they really support the homebrew and craft sectors and just want to get on the bandwagon.  A search of the forum as mentioned will probably turn up a link.  Everyone has to decide for themselves what ABI involvement means to them.  I avoid NB just because I get better service elsewhere.

Robert, you are correct.  My mistake.  It is Midwest Supply, not MoreBeer.

ABInbev is driven by a corporate business model. That business model produces a LOT of good for a LOT of people thru sponsorship, charity, employment, etc. However, their business model also eliminates competition to gain market share. Bitter sweet.

I normally try to stay away from NB as well.  However, I recently had to replace the pump on my wort chiller and bought a Riptide pump.  I shopped around to try to get the best deal on the pump and NB had the pump with the flow control stainless steel head as a complete unit for less money that I could buy the pump and pump head separately from other sources.  So I bit my tongue and ordered it from them because it saved me almost $100.

That said I too get really good service from other sources (like More Beer and Brewers Hardware Supply) on various brewery items and will continue to use them whenever possible.

Did you check Brewhardware for that Riptide?  That’s where I got mine.

I don’t see my sign that ABI is trying to control the homebrew market.  It seems to be more to be aware of trends that they can use to their advantage.

This is indeed true, or at least it was. One of their customer service reps told this to me point blank. But that was 5-6 years ago (before they were bought, I believe), it might be different now.

I think the fact that you just recently learned about this strongly disputes the contention that ABI is trying to control the homebrew market. If ABI had that purpose it would be more aggressive and you definitely would have heard about it sooner.

For ABI it seems a lot more like the goal is integration across all aspects of the beer and brewing world. It gives them more data, more sales opportunities and the ability to leverage scale.

I would partially agree and note that I said it was a fear of homebrewers that AB Inbev would get control, not that it had achieved that at this point, but AB InBev seeks more control in every market that it enters, does it not?

In this case, I really think the idea is what reverseapachemaster said.  There’s just not enough money in the homebrewing market for it to be worth it to them.  The idea is to harvest info that can be used in other pursuits.  IMO.

You both are probably right, as it may help forecast trends for emerging craft styles or specialty ingredients or any number of trackable data…though one would think that there are more efficient ways of mining that data (a la Amazon’s recent location search - municipalities laid bare inumerable treasure troves of data which Amazon gladly accepted.)

ABI has enough money to experiment.  I doubt “most efficient” is a criteria.  They’re more interested in keeping an eye on trends.

If they were looking to really take over the homebrew supply market and make it impossible for anyone else to compete, I would think they would be sure to have the lowest prices on every item, everyday.  Throw in cheap or free shipping and choke off the competition.  After all, they are big enough to float the loses until they are the last shop standing.  Once the rest were gone they could jack up prices or just shut the doors and leave everyone out it in the cold.

When I’ve been shopping for larger items, I haven’t seen them going that route.  Sometimes they have a deal, sometimes they don’t.  Time will tell, but for now they seem to want to be in the game so they know what’s being played.

Paul

Yep, as I mentioned earlier, I get better service elsewhere,  and in that I include better prices, and WAY better shipping rates.  ABI could surely do to the competition what the big boxes have done to the mom and pops if they cared to (as they’ve demonstrated in commercial brewing and beer distribution.)  I still find my family owned LHBS my best source most often.  And online, just about anybody but NB/Midwest.  I think Denny’s got the right idea.  They just want to be in the loop.  For now at least.

Another benefit for ABI is NB selling their own clone kits for beers from breweries they’ve bought up, which promotes interest in those breweries.  They also can similarly hype South African hops and the beers using them, as they control the whole SA hop crop.  Lots of opportunities without taking out the competition.  They really just need the one outlet.

By “control[ing] the whole SA hop crop” they have eliminated competition. Likewise for “selling their own clone kits for beers from breweries they’ve bought up, which promotes interest in those breweries.”

Edit:  I’m neither for or against their business model, just cognizant of it.

Right, but they don’t benefit from further taking over the homebrew marketplace.  They have an online outlet.  They don’t have to engage in the hassle of wider licensing or distribution of their kits.  They can promote the products they already control.  There’s really no tempting money for them, as has been mentioned, in the general homebrew supply business, as there is in controlling commercial production and supply chain.  I wouldn’t worry about them running down my LHBS.  They’re after bigger fish.  But they can both learn from homebrewers what the interests and trends are, as Denny suggests,  and influence the influencers, if you will.  It’s all about promotion, as I see it.

I don’t think that is true. ABI invested in RateBeer but I haven’t seen them push to control online beer reviews or beer forums. ABI invested in one of the beer journalism sites (Good Beer Hunting?) but hasn’t pushed to control that market. ABI bought out NB/MW but two of its largest competitors (MoreBeer, Adventures in Homebrewing) have both expanded since that acquisition.

AB InBev owns ZX Ventures which owns Northern Brewer and Midwest Supplies and has other homebrew investments.

I bet ZX Ventures is semi-autonomous and is just an investment arm to AB InBev corporate. AB InBev probably only cares about ZX’s ROI. They don’t have time to worry about which malt or hops or kit we prefer from the homebrew store. They can get that information much easier by purchasing market trend data.