Ok this is slightly dated, but wow:
I think he’s got it!
I dunno. Dylan still sold records after going electric. 
I get where he says that InBev is the enemy of craft brewing but I don’t understand his hostility at the two brothers selling out. The author obviously has no understanding on how much energy and capital it takes to successfully run a brewery. Frankly, the authors idealism is what is really over the top. I love the people in craft brewing and I undoubtably love the beer but I love my family and myself more and if the price was right you betcha I’d sell.
+1,000,000,000
People in the “Punk scene” hated the band Greenday for “selling out” and going commercial with a big label record contract. Now I get to listen to them too. I’m guessing that the band and their families cry every time they look at their bank statements.
It really seems to me that he is pissed off about who they sold out to. I have consumed many an AB beer but after years in restaurant industry dealing with them and their partners in crime, I have seen some of what he speaks of and heard about the rest. When it comes to family, selling the business( not selling out) is the best and often only choice, just don’t sell out to first group with the biggest check, without understanding who they are or what they are about. This of course assumes that one is as passionate about the craft beer industry as one has been about one’s own piece of it. I think his example of leaving the extra cash on the table in order to sell to a more worthy option is a pipe dream, but I understand the ideals behind it. I’m not looking to open or sell a brewery, but I am done purchasing AB beers
You sell out to the highest bidder.
I’ve help start and sell off several businesses in my younger days. Keith is right when he says you sell to the highest bidder.
Making some moral or high-minded decision to sell your business to the “right” people usually isn’t an option and normally ends with the big company putting the little one out of business and taking the prize anyway. In the end it just means you sold your life’s work for less than you could have.
A brewery is a business and should be managed and cared for like one. IMHO
YMMV
Paul.
This is the exit strategy in every other startup industry.
I agree to an extent. Business is business. But I also think part of the issue is the American idea that business isn’t successful without constant growth. “Does every brewery have to distribute everywhere” is almost the same question as “Does every restaurant need to be a chain?” What’s wrong with running a small business? If you got into it to expand 100x and then cash out, that’s fine, but it’s not my personal goal nor is it what I want in a local business.
Also, you have a family? How much money do you need to take care of 10 dogs? ( EDITED TO ADD WINK TO INDICATE HUMOR).
That article is total BS. I wonder what the author would do on a similar situation.
2 sons (17 and 12) a wife, 2 dogs (a great dane and mix) 3 cats, 2 guinea pigs and a pet ball python. The goldfish died a couple months back.
I think this reflects my thoughts on the topic. My biggest personal value is the personality and creativity of the ‘mom & pop’ brewer. If a family can make a decent living and provide employment to one or more people, that is wonderful. I’d be happy never drinking another beer from a publicly traded company.
I know that the downward pressure on beer prices, largely as a result of macro-breweries makes this very difficult. Perhaps it is right at the tipping point. The investment required to have a brewery that can provide the owners with enough income to raise a family is substantial.
But I also think that some of the tactics and language of the macro-brew world sounds a bit like desperation. For them it is like a slow death by 10,000 cuts. The simple fact is that even though they utterly dominate beer sales, their percentage is shrinking. And it continues to shrink despite buying the likes of Goose Island or 10 Barrel Brewing. This is failure in the corporate world.
The bottom line vis. the PourFool is that I think the blogger is feeling personally betrayed. It was not just business. It is a weird fact that it is out of a loving relationship that the extremes of domestic violence can come. It is as though 10 Barrel Brewing is having an extramarital affair. As they say, “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.” I don’t know the relationship that existed between them, the many conversations about shared values, and the symbiotic work that went into the relationship, but it sounds substantial.
And here is evidence for some of what I said above: http://247wallst.com/special-report/2014/12/15/beers-americans-no-longer-drink/
Miller Genuine Draft, Sales loss (2008-2013): -58.3% !!!
Author makes it pretty clear. :
stevefoolbody says:
November 11, 2014 at 6:29 am
YES, to reply directly to your question, I ABSOLUTELY would take the $3 mil from ANYBODY else who understands values and integrity over $5 mil from AB.
Which is where my comment wound up. It’s great to hold the high moral ground but faced with the cash it’s got to be tough to stick to your guns. I think the photo of the 10 Barrel tee shirts says a lot though, and he feels it was just another marketing ploy, not a business model for the brewery. I’ve never had their beer and don’t know the Cox brothers, but it does sound as though he feels personally betrayed. I am sure I would feel about the same way if one of Cincinnati’s small local craft brewer’s (2 of which came home from GABF with medals) sold out to AB. That said, Keith and Jon both make sound business statements, brewing professionally is not a hobby, they are in it to get paid. I was told by the owners of a restaurant chain I worked for (I worked in the 7th unit): we are here to work as hard as we need to, to get bought up by a big conglomerate. It worked they got bought out within 5 years of me working for them. Money talks
Whatever. If he cares that deeply, he should start his own brewery and take all the risks involved so that he can support the community.
I grow weary of the beer snobbery from people who will never, NEVER, drink a beer brewed by _________.
If it’s good beer, it’s good beer. I don’t see beer purchases as part of a mission driven life. What you drink doesn’t say anything about who you are as a person.
I also grow weary of those who presume to have the right to make other peoples choices for them.
It’s fine to be sad and disappointed, but the moral outrage is a bit over the top.
And, as far as what the author would do when faced with the $3MM or $5MM question, I doubt he’d take the lower amount. He says that now, but he’s not been faced with the actual choice.
+1. Selling for half the amount assuming the ‘virtuous’ buyer will uphold the moral high ground is naive and probably just plain dumb. Having said that, America is slowly becoming one big generic strip mall - great local businesses make it better.
No doubt. And I do my best to support local businesses.
That said, when their inventory is 1/3 more expensive than their competitors, I struggle with it.
Yeah. I pay a little (not a lot) more at my LHBS. But there’s no shipping, waiting and I verify it’s right. But in general it is tough to draw the line between buying local and paying more.