In Part One we discussed the definition of craft beer. In Part Two we explored how the idea of “localness” should factor into the idea of craft beer. Now, in the third installment of our “State of Craft Beer” series, we examine the argument between brewing beer for the craft versus for the cash.
It started in 2011. That was the year Anheuser-Busch InBev purchased Chicago’s hometown favorite Goose Island Brewing, much to the shock and disappointment of its customers. The hits kept coming, and when A-B InBev followed up with acquisitions of 10 Barrel Brewing and Elysian Brewing, the craft beer community showed its teeth.
One fan was so angry about the 10 Barrel buyout that he created a site called Sell Out and Die, where he attributes the brewer’s “demise” to a “drunk stampede of Anheuser-Busch’s corporate Clydesdales.” Ouch.
For many craft brewers, starting small and staying small is their MO. They’ve come from generations of brewers, or they homebrewed for 20 years and finally decided to quit their desk job and do what they love for a living. Either way, it’s ultimately about the beer.
“You cannot let the tail of money wag the dog of inspiration.” – Sam Calagione
Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head goes so far as to suggest that going public is anti-entrepreneurial. “You cannot let the tail of money wag the dog of inspiration,” he says.
The American Dream of making it big, it would seem, may not apply to craft brewers, whose customers are almost religiously devoted all things small and local.
So what makes craft beer different from other start-up industries—technology, for example—where selling out is the ultimate goal?
Jeremy Danner, ambassador brewer for Boulevard, thinks it has to do with the product itself. “As craft brewers, we’re very lucky to have such a passionate base of fans,” he says. “We’re not making car tires or batteries. We’re making beer that folks are going to put into their bodies, and they want to feel good about that.”
Todd Usry, brewmaster at Breckenridge Brewery, thinks it’s about authenticity. “The big thing to me is, the craft beer industry was built on individuals and their stories,” he says. And whenever a craft brewery sells out, that unique voice is lost.
But predatory Big Beer isn’t necessarily the only threat to craft beer. Many brewers harbor a growing concern that a new generation of brewers is entering the industry for the wrong reasons. Choosing profit over passion, these brewers are opening “startup for sale” breweries whose primary objective is quick growth and an eventual buyout.
Over the span of his 14-year career, Chad Miller of Denver’s Black Shirt Brewing has noticed a major change in the type of advice new brewers ask him for. Rather than discussing their passions, like they did in the late ’90s, up-and-comers have started approaching him about how to cash in on this rapidly growing industry. This example illustrates one of the biggest differences between Big Beer and craft beer: One is in the business of making money, and the other is in the business of making beer.
But let’s be realistic. All businesses—regardless of whether they were born of passion—have to make money to survive. “Let’s pull the veil back,” says Michael Peticolas of Peticolas Brewing bluntly. “Businesses are here to make money.”
While he believes you should be in this business because of passion—like he is—he isn’t naive. And it may be too soon to tell whether passion and economics can co-exist long-term.
So how worried should we be? Will the pursuit of profit eventually overtake passion for the product? As a whole, probably not, agree most brewers. But Chad Miller offers a cautionary tale.
“Familiarize yourself with the story of Easter Island,” he suggests. “There are cautionary lessons to be learned from a society whose sole mission was to build bigger and bigger for fortune, fame and notoriety that eventually led to their demise.”
Duly noted.
Be sure to check back for the fourth installment in our “State of Craft Beer” series, where the growing trend of specialization amongst craft brewers is analyzed.
