I really would like to open a bottle shop. I’m not sure of the legality but I’d love to have a SABCO size system and sell bottles as well.
I think it would be awesome if brewers could sell at the farmer’s market. I am not sure if licensed brewers can do this. Probably not since it’s off premise sales. It would be awesome if home brewers could sell at farmer’s markets. Even if there was a small license fee I think some home brewers would pay it. That would connect home brew with the local food movement in a nice way IMHO.
In NH, brewers can sell at Farmer’s Markets (I think Maine and Vermont too). One brewery started out only selling his beer at a farmer’s market only.
These types of vanilla porters have a window. Fresh, it’s not very good. 3-6…maybe 9 months and the vanilla really shows. After that, they seem to fall apart again.
As to the breweries selling to the large companies, I think often it’s the case of the owners cashing in on their hard work of 20+ years. You saw rambunctious 40 year olds build these breweries years ago and today they are in semi-retirement mode. They can get themselves a huge paycheck that will set them for retirement, not many negative changes for the company, and the founder still stays on as the figurehead of the operation.
In the short and midterm, it’s business as usual. Long term, it may not be the best; but it’s hard for any company to operate long term.
My friend sells hard cider and cider syrup at farmers markets in Massachusetts. They are a licensed cider maker. They also sell at local stores in mostly western mass and at whole foods.
This is true if you can no longer expand your market share but these acquisitions are about expanding market share. They don’t need to cut costs on a wildly profitable business. At some point in the future, if craft beer fades into obscurity, perhaps these acquired craft brands become diluted. I agree with the line of thinking that ABI’s ultimate goal is to retake control of tap handles and shelf space by creating a single package of macro plus craft that can be sold to distributors and retailers and squeeze out the competition with the illusion of diversity.
I generally disagree that ABI cuts their product to save cash. They go to great lengths to brew beer in a non-cost effective manner, such as mashing for four hours and using beechwood to clear the beer when they could just as easily centrifuge or filter in less time. The reduction in IBUs was not done with cost in mind but with consumer preference. As Americans consumed more sugar from the 1940s forward the preference for sweeter beverages went with it and AB products followed suit.
I can’t begrudge the business owners who decide to sell. It’s nice to think about the philosophical stance of protecting the craft but by the time you’re at the top of a brewery the size of Goose Island or Breckenridge your job has no connection to a craft. You’re just managing a business. You aren’t brewing. You aren’t designing new recipes. The bigger the company gets the more removed from the production you get. It’s far easier to take a profit on something that feels like any other management job and get your uninvolved equity holders a payout and go do something else.
Way to nail it, Jeff.
A guy who was in our club and then opened his own brewery says it is a great way to kick the brewing habit. He has guys who brew. He is busy trying to sell beer and run the business.
And why is it so hard to run a small business these days? Local family businesses used to be a common way to support your family, and not a lottery ticket where you hope to get bought out before you’re run out of business. Could it be because of these anticompetitive practices by large companies?
The FTC releases a yearly summary report, and they’re available on their web site for the entire 20th century. Anyone who thinks the free market in the US means unfettered capitalism should go back and see the history of strong regulation that we had (past tense).
As a Camden Town employee (with absolutely no input in the decision to sell) I find this article by a former employee captures pretty much how most of us feel about it. If I could have decided, we hadn’t sold, but I fully understand the owners decision in the end.
I’ve always been a fan of the term “Monday morning quarterbacking”.
In my life there are two things that are the most important to me. First off my family. Second my brewery. Know that I would never sell my family for any amount. But if the price was right I would sell out Yellowhammer in a heart beat. And have absolutely ZERO regrets.
Greedy and losing ideals? I say not…
http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/news/2015/12/22/breckenridge-president-i-had-to-sell-and.html
Would anyone actually miss Breckenridge beers if they disappeared? I can’t think of a more vapid brewery.
Nope. They’re AB’s problem now. 
That vanilla Porter is one of the most characterless beers I have ever tasted.
I learned a new word because of them… so, there’s that.
Being local, I would miss their seasonal/experimental brews, but apparently those won’t be going anywhere.
Very true. If you aren’t in business to make money, you shouldn’t be in business. Ideals don’t put food on the (your) table. And if your product is crappy, the market will let you know.
I see this confusion between ‘profit’ and ‘earnings’ a lot. a profit is what’s left over after you pay for everything, including your labor. If what you want to do is make a living doing something you love profit only has to be enough to ensure a comfortable retirement. If you are in it to run a business then profit is more important because you need to show potential investors how much money can be made without effort on their part. If you are calculating your ‘profit’ as how much money you take home at the end of the year and you are actually doing work in the business you’re not calculating it correctly. If you aren’t doing any work and you are still taking home money at the end of the year that’s ‘profit’.