It is categorically NOT impossible for an American brewery to flourish, expand, and PAY PEOPLE, including the owners, and not sell out to some mega-corp or brewing conglomerate. It is NOT the inevitable end-game of being a successful business.
Seems like the sheer size of that Big Check obscures the sun and lets them think that cowering in the shadow of that will hide their dismissive actions from view of the patrons they’re leaving behind.
We’ll see what happens with NB. But one thing is an ironclad certainty: as long as brewery owners care more about raking in the $$$ than the relationship between themselves and their loyal fans, these sell-outs will continue.
We created and supported the Craft Beer Boom as a statement that we would rather spend our dollars for beer that tastes good and supports our friends and neighbors and our own local, state, and American economies.
I URGE the citizens of Oakland to fight this unwelcome, unsupported, oblivious, arrogant, presumptuous incursion into THEIR community, THEIR neighborhoods, and THEIR culture with every breath.
These acquisitions are all about Influence. Leverage. Insinuating themselves into a culture which is, at least in LARGE part, a reaction to and rejection of everything AB has stood for.
The Pour Fool 