Hey, is that beer you’re buying truly a “craft beer” (at least by the Brewers Association definition)? Understanding who owns what brands in the beer industry today has become an increasingly complex challenge for customers and journalists alike. Last month, CBB’s Chris Crowell wrote a post on how he forgot Blue Point Brewing Co. was owned by AB InBev.
Even as a small, independently-owned website that provides daily coverage of the small, independently-owned craft beer industry, the terms small and independent are sometimes even lost on us. Case in point: I forgot that Blue Point Brewing was a Big Beer-owned entity and had this news set to run today. I thought it was a nice, harmless charity beer post (and it is). Can’t beat giving to charity, right? This led to the following exchange within our business chatbox:
Keith: Blue Point brewing? Come on, Krull!
Chris: No good?
Keith: Guess you’re working for big beer now.
Chris: Ha. Who owns them? I cant keep track.
Keith: AB InBev. Ha. I know. It’s working!
And he’s right! This is what they want! I mean, mostly Blue Point Brewing is so forgettable to me that I just glossed over the news completely, but it does make me think that slowly, overtime, maybe we will all just start to forget who owns what, or become so fatigued that we won’t pay attention as much, losing today’s current angst. I was going to just replace this post with something else but instead I thought I’d leave it because: 1. I found my brain fart to be more illuminating than my other usual brain farts and 2. hey, it’s still for charity, right?
Do you think you know more than CBB Editor Chris Crowell? Is that even a challenge? Then maybe try taking Fortune’s craft beer quiz above. It’ll test your understanding of which local breweries have sold out to Big Beer. Knowledge is power. Use that power to buy genuine craft beer this weekend.
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