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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   37124 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of April 10, 2023

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In keeping with that, I will smugly note that I don’t drink that shit anyway and I’ll be cracking an IPA from a real industry underdog - Lagunitas(tm), a tiny subsidiary of a little-known international parent company.

I know at least a few people who actively avoid beers produced by AB InBev and Heineken (owns Lagunitas) and all their subsidiaries. This is harder than it sounds, because it's not always obvious on the packaging. I'm not going to say that I do so exclusively myself, but I do prefer locally-owned brands where possible.

This is harder than it sounds, because it's not always obvious on the packaging

Former brewery owner/operator. The Brewers Association has a campaign called Certified Independent Craft: https://www.brewersassociation.org/independent-craft-brewer-seal/

Rules are you can't be bigger than Yuengling, and you can't be more than 25% owned by a macro-brewer. https://www.brewersassociation.org/statistics-and-data/craft-brewer-definition/

Pretty much every craft brewery that puts product out in cans or bottles has adopted the logo.

So if you actually want to be certain you're not supporting AB InBev, etc., look for the Independent Craft logo.

Small breweries in the US need to sell out as their exit strategy if they want growth, due to post-prohibition regulations that severely limit interstate distribution. They go from tiny to massive in a single step, and the scaling of their recipes, methods, and processes nearly always results in a decline of quality but with a presumable increase in consistency and quality control. They’re not “bad” for being sellouts; they’re typically worse for the drinker in small but noticeable ways.

Yuengling if in your market is independent.

Hopefully it was obvious that I was being tongue in cheek! I do enjoy Lagunitas though...

Personally, I don't make much more than a token effort in that direction, but my personal preferences do tend to run me in the direction smallish breweries, including some that are very local. As a Wisconsin guy, I drink a fair bit of 3 Sheeps and Central Waters. I also enjoy the hyperlocal breweries my area that only have enough capacity to do some minimal canning. But really, there are some fantastic products that come from InBev subsidiaries and I don't see myself excluding something like Goose Island BCS on the basis of the parent company. Buying a fresh, local pale ale or lager gives me a product that I actually enjoy more than nationally distributed products, but if something is good, I'm still going to buy it.

Is it really that hard? I mean I am not drinking as much beer as I used to in my youth, but I see tons of offering from local and semi-local breweries all around. Of course, I'm not sure whether any of them may be owned by somebody who is owned by somebody who is owned by Heineken - but that's way to much effort for me anyway to figure out that. And I don't think on this stage it really matters. But I think beer is one place where one could practically shut out somebody like AB and not suffer much, in fact with almost no additional effort.

Just look for the Independent Craft seal.

It mostly depends how much beer your drink and where you are. Yuengling is local to me so I can practically ignore the whole problem. And I don't drink a lot of beer so if I took a monthly trip to the brewery up the road and bought a six pack, I'd be golden. But I think for a lot of people it presents a problem because they need a cheap local beer when most local beer is expensive.

Seconding Yuengling. It’s easier to whitelist than to blacklist when it comes to these things (or you can just not care like a normal person).

There are better beers, and there are cheaper beers, but there are no better cheep beers

Looks like Yuengling goes for about $22 for a 24 pack these days. I'd rather drink a variety pack from Oskar Blues for the $17 for 15 that I usually see locally. Maybe a buck a beer crosses out of the cheap beer range though. I think the big packs of Founders are still under a buck a beer though.

It's still $15-17 around me depending on beer distributor you go to.

Oh, nice. That's like PBR range.

A man after my own heart. Have you ever toured the brewery? It's great. Fantastic drive through the country, if you take the right route, to get there this time of year.

Is it really that hard?

Strangely, yes. They own a few random really small breweries. Wikipedia lists all of the brands they own, which includes some really small ones that appear tiny and independent at first glance.

Also they were very quiet about that ownership for non political macrobrewery vs microbrewery reasons.

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