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posted by martyb on Sunday May 12 2019, @08:59AM   Printer-friendly
from the cheers dept.

Two major craft breweries are merging. But is it still "craft"?

Dogfish Head's merger with the maker of Sam Adams fundamentally disrupts the world of craft brewing — and beer lovers have mixed feelings

Boston Beer Company, which makes Sam Adams beer, is acquiring Dogfish Head, a Delaware craft brewery. "Not only are Dogfish Head and Boston Beer two original American breweries, but Jim Koch and I worked hard with other leading craft brewery founders and the Brewers Association to develop and champion what defines independent American brewers," the Dogfish Head founder Sam Calagione said in a statement on Thursday, referring to the Boston Beer founder and chairman. "This merger better positions Dogfish Head and our coworkers to continue growing within this definition for many years to come." [...] The merger of the publicly traded Boston Beer Company, which also produces Angry Orchard cider, with Dogfish Head, the well-known craft brewery prominently featured in the 2009 documentary "Beer Wars," is sure to shake up the brewing industry.

[...] Dogfish Head posted a photo on Facebook and Twitter of Calagione sharing a drink with Koch. Though one Facebook user tagged the pair as "shill" and "sellout," not everyone who commented on the post had such a negative reaction. "To the haters: Samuel Adams / Boston Beer may not be perfect, but few people have been as vocal a proponent of craft beer for as long as Jim Koch," one Facebook user said. "I'd much rather DFH merge with them than get bought by Constellation or (gasp!) ABInbev-SabMillerCoors. We know that BBC won't force through drastic changes and expansion into other markets that the brand can't or won't handle."

[...] Not everyone was convinced, however. "Sam Adams has been completely out of touch with actual craft beer for a decade at least," one person wrote. "I don't see how this is good." Another added that Dogfish Head was the "last brewery on earth that I thought would sell out." "Not a fan," another Facebook poster wrote. "Dogfish Head has always been fiercely independent with a focus on unique and sometimes challenging beers. I've been to the brewery 6 times, to the brewpub many times. I spent my 31st birthday there and made some incredible memories. This is the last thing that I expected from DFH. What a shame."

Also at CNN and Brewbound.

Related: Playing Small is Okay, Says Judge in "Craft Beer" Case
Congress May Lower Beer Taxes, Sam Adams Could Cease to be "Craft Beer"
Craft Brewing Industry Saved Small Hop Growers
Craft Hard Cider Booming in the U.S.


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  • (Score: 2) by opinionated_science on Sunday May 12 2019, @11:49AM (5 children)

    by opinionated_science (4031) on Sunday May 12 2019, @11:49AM (#842636)

    I was a bit sad when Heineken bought Lagunitas, but they *seemed* to have left it alone.

    DFH make an *insanely* good "Flesh and Blood" IPA.

    I would be most saddened if Sam Adam's kills that beer....

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 12 2019, @01:40PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 12 2019, @01:40PM (#842657)

    Lagunitas appears to have stopped making Aunt Sally shortly after Heineken finished buying them out.

  • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Sunday May 12 2019, @01:44PM (2 children)

    by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Sunday May 12 2019, @01:44PM (#842659) Homepage
    Koch/BBC have a reputation for being good players in the game - remember the hop shortage a few years back?
    https://appellationbeer.com/blog/sam-adams-sharing-hops-with-smaller-brewers/

    And talking about Kochs - when's the Stone/Keystone dispute going to be settled?
    --
    Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
    • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 12 2019, @07:14PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 12 2019, @07:14PM (#842738)

      I'll have to differ in that opinion of Boston Beer Co and Jim Koch.
      I was a part owner of a micro-brewery in Northern CA in the 1990s.
      We built our brewery from misc used equipment. While we were REALLY brewing our
      own beer and struggling to get shelf space, Jim Koch had his beer brewed at large
      regional breweries - he was a contract brewer that did not even have any brewing facility.
      Boston Lager for the West Coast was brewed at the old (now closed) Henry Weinhards
      brewery in Portland, OR. Some would say that this is nothing bad -- except that Jim Koch
      tried really hard to hide the fact that he was a contract brewer - he really wanted to be
      thought of as another Ken Grossman, but he was not.
      His brewpub in Boston came much later.

      Jim Koch actively encouraged our main distributor to drop brands other than his own.
      He placed adds in industry magazines to this same effect. He paid for employees of
      our main distributor to attend the Great American Beer Festival in Colorado. Guess who
      they were inclined to vote for...

      While we had to actually spend our time actually brewing beer, maintaining equipment,
      Jim Koch could spend all his time on marketing and dissing other brands.

      So this story of Jim Koch being such a "vocal a proponent of craft beer for as long as Jim Koch"
      I'd say that he was a vocal proponent of Sam Adams brands, definitely not of the industry as
      a whole.

      • (Score: 3, Insightful) by FatPhil on Sunday May 12 2019, @10:55PM

        by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Sunday May 12 2019, @10:55PM (#842789) Homepage
        You can certainly afford to be more generous if you're already relatively dominant.
        --
        Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 12 2019, @07:26PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 12 2019, @07:26PM (#842739)

    [...] I would be most saddened if Sam Adam's kills that beer....

    It's doubtful they'll kill it. They'll most likely dilute it with fluoridated water, & add weight-loss drugs to it.