Defining Craft in the Acquisition Age

One truth made abundantly clear in 2014, a year in which a number of prominent brewers took on significant outside investment: Not all cash is created equal.

On one side of the equation sit companies like Founders (Mich.), 10 Barrel (Ore.), and Blue Point (NY), all of which were bought out – in part or in whole – by larger, international beer companies. While those three brands will now be able to use the money and the distribution reach of their new investors and owners to grow, there’s a definitional downside: they’ve left the ranks of the craft realm, at least as established by the industry-representing Brewers Association.

Still considered craft breweries, however, are those that sit on the other side of the formula: those breweries that sold partial stakes to the private equity firms that have increasingly focused on craft beer, like Sweetwater, Southern Tier and Uinta…CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY AT BREWBOUND.COM