Part of it's just hipster fashion, of course. Putting that aside, though, there may be reasons why it matters. Scaling up production while maintaining quality

Part of it's just hipster fashion, of course. Putting that aside, though, there may be reasons why it matters. Scaling up production while maintaining quality and consistency is actually very difficult. You simply can't stock supermarkets across the country using small-batch brewing methods, so it's inherently a sign that they've moved away from what made them good. Even if they're still much better than the "swill", they're probably no longer the best thing you could be drinking and it's time to search for a new favorite.