6 ms·

Eat local is a big movement. Drink local should be just as important to those who drink. It supports the local economy. It’s more environmentally friendly. And

Eat local is a big movement. Drink local should be just as important to those who drink. It supports the local economy. It’s more environmentally friendly. And the beer is usually way better to boot.

spacemadness 4y ago
This smells like large breweries asking their financial journalist friends to start pushing back on small breweries eating into their margins. Dedicating an article to “are too many small breweries are a problem?” is a bit too convenient of a slant when other options are on the table. “Stop creating breweries, it’s too risky. Drink InBev” essentially.
- bacchusracine 4y ago
  >Drink InBev I will honestly quit drinking altogether first. I hate these big corpos who buy up what was a good brewer and a line with several good beers and immediately start changing the recipes and the process to destroy the beers. I've suffered through it too many times now to call it anything but malicious. What is the point in damaging an established brand, tarnishing an established product which will bring in money from people happy to pay for those flavors other than spite. In twenty plus years I've only seen a buyout happen once without it destroying the beers. No, if my only choices are the swill that companies like InBev produce I'll find something else to drink. It's about the flavor. Take that away and I'm gone and so are a lot of people.
  - spacemadness 4y ago
    I don’t drink much anymore these days but I absolutely noticed this when they bought Goose Island a long time ago. The flavor changed overnight. They can’t just buy everyone to quell indie beer geekdom once and for all but they sure continue to act like corporate bullies all the same.
    - bacchusracine 4y ago
      Goose Island was one of the examples I was thinking of. A shame. It really was an almost overnight change. And for what? To take a good series of beers and ruin them? As I said, I'm here for the flavors. Take those away and I leave with them.
      - nerdponx 4y ago
        Their goal is to make money. They believed, correctly, that at least some consumers wouldn't care about or even notice a change in recipe, maybe because people broadly associate Goose Island with good-quality craft beer and continue to buy it. Consider this model: Goose Island with the old recipe sold K units per year at $P profit per unit. The new recipe can sell K/l units per year at $P×i, where l is the % of customers who switch away and i is the % increase in profit. If K × P < (K/l) × (P×i) then it's profitable to switch to the new recipe.
        Kon-Peki 4y ago
        Goose Island sold after their peak. They weren’t the best small brewer in Chicago anymore and many wanted to go do other things. For example, one of the brewmasters moved back to his hometown in Michigan and started a pretty well-regarded hard cider place. Speaking of, the “wine trail” in Southeast Michigan is worth it - not for the wine so much (it’s not bad, but it’s not anything to write home about), but that excellent small independent distilleries and breweries have popped up and now a large group of people with a wide variety of tastes can have fun alternating between the 3.
  - bsder 4y ago
    > hate these big corpos who buy up what was a good brewer and a line with several good beers and immediately start changing the recipes and the process to destroy the beers. <Cries in Ballast Point>.
z2h-a6n 4y ago
While I'm all for drinking local beer, is there any available data on whether it's actually more environmentally friendly than beer made by larger producers? I can imagine some aspects of the brewing process that would tip the scales either way, e.g. economies of scale favoring large producers, potentially-shorter supply chains favoring small producers.

spacemadness 4y ago

This smells like large breweries asking their financial journalist friends to start pushing back on small breweries eating into their margins. Dedicating an article to “are too many small breweries are a problem?” is a bit too convenient of a slant when other options are on the table. “Stop creating breweries, it’s too risky. Drink InBev” essentially.

bacchusracine 4y ago
>Drink InBev I will honestly quit drinking altogether first. I hate these big corpos who buy up what was a good brewer and a line with several good beers and immediately start changing the recipes and the process to destroy the beers. I've suffered through it too many times now to call it anything but malicious. What is the point in damaging an established brand, tarnishing an established product which will bring in money from people happy to pay for those flavors other than spite. In twenty plus years I've only seen a buyout happen once without it destroying the beers. No, if my only choices are the swill that companies like InBev produce I'll find something else to drink. It's about the flavor. Take that away and I'm gone and so are a lot of people.
- spacemadness 4y ago
  I don’t drink much anymore these days but I absolutely noticed this when they bought Goose Island a long time ago. The flavor changed overnight. They can’t just buy everyone to quell indie beer geekdom once and for all but they sure continue to act like corporate bullies all the same.
  - bacchusracine 4y ago
    Goose Island was one of the examples I was thinking of. A shame. It really was an almost overnight change. And for what? To take a good series of beers and ruin them? As I said, I'm here for the flavors. Take those away and I leave with them.
    - nerdponx 4y ago
      Their goal is to make money. They believed, correctly, that at least some consumers wouldn't care about or even notice a change in recipe, maybe because people broadly associate Goose Island with good-quality craft beer and continue to buy it. Consider this model: Goose Island with the old recipe sold K units per year at $P profit per unit. The new recipe can sell K/l units per year at $P×i, where l is the % of customers who switch away and i is the % increase in profit. If K × P < (K/l) × (P×i) then it's profitable to switch to the new recipe.
      - Kon-Peki 4y ago
        Goose Island sold after their peak. They weren’t the best small brewer in Chicago anymore and many wanted to go do other things. For example, one of the brewmasters moved back to his hometown in Michigan and started a pretty well-regarded hard cider place. Speaking of, the “wine trail” in Southeast Michigan is worth it - not for the wine so much (it’s not bad, but it’s not anything to write home about), but that excellent small independent distilleries and breweries have popped up and now a large group of people with a wide variety of tastes can have fun alternating between the 3.
- bsder 4y ago
  > hate these big corpos who buy up what was a good brewer and a line with several good beers and immediately start changing the recipes and the process to destroy the beers. <Cries in Ballast Point>.

z2h-a6n 4y ago

While I'm all for drinking local beer, is there any available data on whether it's actually more environmentally friendly than beer made by larger producers? I can imagine some aspects of the brewing process that would tip the scales either way, e.g. economies of scale favoring large producers, potentially-shorter supply chains favoring small producers.