This is what happens when Anheuser-Busch Inbev, the world’s largest brewing company, purchases Northern Brewer, one of the largest homebrew supply businesses in the United States (as you’re likely aware, Anheuser-Busch Inbev acquired Goose Island Beer Company in 2011).
“A crummy commercial?! Son of a bitch!!”
— Ralphie Parker, 1983
From the instructions: http://docs.northernbrewer.com.s3.amazonaws.com/allgrain/AG-GooseIslandMilkPorter.pdf
“· 4.5 lbs Goose Island Milk Porter Brewery Edition Grain Blend”
This is what bothers me, when you start to see proprietary recipes and ingredients that you don’t know what they are. Might as well just start brewing Mr. Beer.
I agree. Nothing good was gonna come from this (or any other) ABI buyout IMO.
This is what several of you guys predicted would happen.
I am not a fan. I would rather just buy a six pack…
I’m pretty proud that almost all of my recipes are my own (with help from this forum of course).
I like how “open source” most companies/breweries make their recipes and procedures. Doesn’t seem to be the case with NB/INBEV anymore.
I think someone should archive all of the old Brewing TV episodes and recipes before they are gone forever.
I’m with you there. Initially, I was going to say what’s the big deal. NB and others have been working with breweries to put out kits for many years. This is not really that different, but then you’ve got a secret mix of grains.
It’s not like any two brewers will have those kits come out exactly the same anyway.
Yep, exactly. When it starts getting proprietary from ABI owned breweries, it kinda starts defeating the spirit of the hobby ( as well as showing true motives). Sharing recipes here is a pretty cool thing, all the while knowing that no one’s version will be identical. Each his own, I guess.
Paranoia
The Destroyer
…if you are buying pre-made kits to clone a beer you like, do you really care what the grain bill is?
If I’m buying a kit and cloning I guess I don’t care what the grain bill is, but what I do like is the openness and sharing of information that is lacking with this kind of stuff.
And this seems weird, beer is a food product right? Don’t they kinda have to tell us what the ingredients are?
Probably not. But the secretive nature is disappointing regardless. No paranoia here, but the buyout of NB is starting to look like I feared it might and hoped it wouldn’t. Oh well, doesn’t mean I have to buy there.
Yes, if I have to pay $63 for an all grain kit, I’d like the recipe. I’m pretty sure that I could brew it for half that.
They’re probably not marketing to me.
I’m sure this will get me some comments, but…
Could it be possible that AB/goose is big enough that they actually have malts custom malted/kilned to certain specs that you wouldn’t be able to buy because it is custom made for them? I’m not saying that is the case, but it seems well within the realm of possibility. So why bother try to make a close replica with some standard ‘home brewer’ malts (I’m just thinking of the normal catalog that you would see at an average homebrew shop) instead of just pulling some of the malt off the silo that you are making the stuff with in the factory?
I guess I don’t see the evil in it. Does anyone say “Screw Williams Brewing for not telling me exactly what is in their English Stout Malt Extract!”? If yes, I’ve never heard it. NB/AB/INBEV/Satan is using the brands it has to cross sell across brands, it’s not that weird.
https://www.williamsbrewing.com/ENGLISH-STOUT-EXTRACT-33-LBS-P3491.aspx
Not exactly the same, that’s just malt extract that they are calling Stout Extract, but most Homebrew shops call it Dark extract.
This buyout thing doesn’t bother me yet. I stopped ordering from NB and Midwest years ago when they were bought out by an investment company and their customer service and speed of processing orders dropped. I’ll be more concerned when they start trying to prevent other homebrew shops from selling kits similar to their beers or their homebrew kits…or if they become the exclusive stores for major homebrew products or brands.
I don’t think it’s a huge deal, but I have always liked that I could look up a kit, download and print the recipe, and brew it on my own with ingredients purchased at the LHBS. With an undisclosed list of grains, I can’t do that. I’m not likely to actually buy the kit anyway, so no loss to me. If I want the milk porter I’ll head on over to the tap room. Which also isn’t going to happen because traffic there is a nightmare.
Good point
Both NB and Midwest Supplies started changing their pdf instructions awhile back (before the AB-InBev acquisition) to not include the grain bill. They would instead have a statement similar to “check all ingredients listed on the box are present.” You could get around this with some, as they would usually include a picture of the box on the website. I’ve noticed that’s been less common lately, as well.
When everyone was first discussing the acquisition, I made the joke you’d soon be able to get a Bud Light Lime kit from NB. Looks like I wasn’t too far off…
+2
Maybe. I brewed a few clones when I first started. I found it helpful to be able to look at the recipe and see where those flavors came from and what proportions of different grains produced flavors I liked. If the goal is just to clone beers or brew solid recipes then I agree, it doesn’t really matter.