Craft Brew Alliance Purchases Cisco, Appalachian Mountain, and Wynwood Brewing

The article also raises this:

 

FWIW in 2017 ABI ‘announced’ they are done purchasing independent breweries:

“One aspect of the announcement that was largely ignored, however, distills what a lot of craft beer fans have wanted to hear all along: AB InBev isn’t going to purchase any more independent breweries.

“Our plate’s full,” Felipe Szpigel, The High End president, told Forbes writer Tara Nurin. “We have 10 amazing craft partners. Our focus is going to be organic.”

https://vinepair.com/articles/ab-inbev-brewery-purchases/

Needless to say but in life (including business life) the only constant is change.

If some bean counter at ABI ‘runs the numbers’ and a purchase of CBW 19 or so million outstanding shares for $24.50 represents a ‘good deal’ and the ABI management folks decide they are now willing to increase their presence in the craft beer market via acquisition then who knows what might happen here?

Cheers!

 

I had some of the beers from Appalachian Mountain and would buy them again. Hopefully they won't change their recipes but it wouldn't surprise me if it happens.

 

They're barely even a brewery at this point. All their beer is made in New Hampshire and they have a little brewpub here in Boone.

 

I suppose that's still technically the Appalachians though, right??!?

Anyway- love the Long Leaf IPA... don't get to have it outside of visits to family out there, but always on my short list of beers to get ahold of.

 

Why wouldn't you be surprised? What acquired brands have dropped in quality?

 

Which brands from breweries bought by Big Beer do you think have dropped in quality?

 

Go back to the Steve Luke thread and see what he said about Space Dust.

 

CBA's current stock price is $16-$17 per share, so $24.50 would seem to me to be a very premium price, particularly if the current bear market continues.

How do you feel about contract brewing? Because this would seem similar, except everything stays within the CBA company/network.

 

Interviewer: "What do you think about Space Dust since you've left Elysian?"

Steve Luke: "Fuck ABInBev. They don't even brew the real Space Dust any more. WE brew the REAL Space Dust, man, even though we can't call it that anymore. Also, Fuck ABInBev."

Interviewer: "What did they do to change it? Have those changes made it a better or worse beer, in your opinion, and why?"

Steve Luke: "Fuck ABInBev"

Interviewer: "That's . . . umm . . . great, but that doesn't really answer the question."

Steve Luke: "Fuck ABInBev, man. Fuck 'em."

Interviewer: "OooooooKay"

 

Haha - It totally did change though. I saw the brew logs back when I worked there and they were dialing in recipes on the larger systems at the AB breweries. Not saying it was better/worse, just different in terms of grain bill and hops. Better/Worse is somewhat subjective. Every employee I know could taste the difference when Space Dust was moved from Seattle production. If they'll admit that now depends on if they still work for AB...

All the craft recipes had code names associated with them - so like Elysian Immortal IPA was "Project Zeus" while they worked on it.

 

Was the motivation for those differences due to the difference in brewhouses? In other words did they make changes in ingredients so that the resulting beer would be a closer match to how the beer tasted at the Seattle brewery?

Or were the changes simply due to economics?

Cheers!

@Peter_Wolfe

 

I wouldn't doubt that the beer did change. I don't remember ever drinking Space Dust, though I certainly could have and just not remembered doing it, so I wouldn't be the guy to ask. Just wondering if that change was a negative one, or if it was more of a lateral shift where the beer was different but no less good.

 

Not sure if it dropped in quality but i didn't like the Goose island Oktoberfest and i usually like most of their brews. If had a weird flavor.

 

That's weird because i bought it in Va or NC. Can't remember.

 

CBA has already been brewing and distributing these breweries' beers for years.

 

My understanding was it was changed to accommodate the different brewing system and batch scale/size increases. It was always an expensive beer to brew in terms of ingredients - but the unit sale price was also high, so nobody really raised an eyebrow.

10 Barrel Joe was actually more expensive due to the hops used, but less profitable because it was line priced with other 10 Barrel offerings. Bottom line is that, at least when I was there, they weren't cheapening the brews for the sake of saving a couple pennies per barrel. They wanted to decrease costs by moving production, but they wanted taste to stay as close as they possibly could get to the original version.

 

For me personally, Space Dust was a neutral to slightly negative change. Just seemed slightly muted in terms of hop character. But the difference was comparable to having a beer on draft or bottle, extremely subtle. Other beers that got moved I actually think got better... So personal preference.

 

Space Dust :: A Totally Nebular IPA. Great Western premium two-row, combined with c-15 and Dextri-Pils, give this beer a bright and galactic Milky Way hue. The hopping is pure starglow energy, with Chinook to bitter and late and dry additions of Citra and Amarillo. Space Dust is out of this world, with 62 IBU.

This IPA was formally known as Sam named after its hops; simcoe, amarillo and mosaic, but we were told this would be a trademark issue with a large craft brewery out of the north-east, so we had to change it. We cycled though a bunch of generic names; Bob, Tom, Dick, Dan, Carl, Frank until we finally arrived on the perfect name for this IPA...Joe.

I could definitely see Simcoe, Amarillo, and Mosaic being more expensive than Chinook, Amarillo, and Citra, but none of those hops are difficult to get if you're a big brewery with a contract and economies of scale are a real concern for breweries like Elysian post-buyout.