Are Big Beer Brands Making Craft Festivals Square?

With the meteoric rise of craft beer’s popularity and availability, there has, naturally, been overwhelming growth in the craft beer festival circuit. For beer lovers, these events, theoretically, should be paradise. On the surface, this should mean more malt-loaded carnivals with rare and nuanced beer (and many different types from a variety of local producers); more like-minded folks eager to dip their tongues into glasses of hoppy wilderness; and, hopefully, more breweries—from well-known big names to local microbreweries—with representatives ready to guide fans to exciting brews. And while partially true, the profusion of craft beer brings big brands with big money. But do these macro “craft” producers deserve a seat at the table?

According to the Brewers Association, an American craft brewer is: “small,” or has an annual production of 6 million barrels of beer or less; “independent,” with less than 25 percent of the company owned or controlled by an alcoholic beverage industry member that is not a craft brewer; and “traditional,” meaning that the majority of total beers produced must have flavors derived from traditional/innovative ingredients or fermentation processes (sorry, no flavored malt beverages allowed). This definition, admittedly, is far-reaching, as it encompasses breweries that nationally distribute their bottles, alongside local players that are just beginning to serve their beers in the taproom.
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While beverage titans AB InBev and MillerCoors still dominate the American beer market, since the 1980s—and especially within the past decade—the craft beer community has grown astronomically, also spurring the aforementioned big guys to buy out their craft competition…CONTINUE READING AT EATER.COM