What are you drinking right now?

Interestingly enough, Devils Backbone, which was purchased by AB InBev earlier this year, is hosting the Virginia Craft Beer fest but will not be eligible for any awards because they no longer fit the definition of craft brewer. I've never been a huge fan of their stuff, anyway, though they make some nice high-end baltic porters and such. They're moving away from DB next year.

Anheuser-Busch InBev's craft brewers turn hermits in their own kingdoms

Amid deal with Anheuser-Busch, craft brewery gets kicked out of its own festival

 

Also, Jason Oliver, who is the lead brewer at DB, is all over the comments section of that Post story trying to separate fact from fiction. Interesting tack on his part, though he's not been afraid to try to hammer home the fact that DB's beers aren't going to turn into Bud Light overnight.

 

People love to think they will, though.

 

From Brewersassociation.org

Independent
Less than 25 percent of the craft brewery is owned or controlled (or equivalent economic interest) by an alcoholic beverage industry member that is not itself a craft brewer.

AB owns 50% (pretty sure at least) of Goose Island. Are they not considered a craft brewery? Duvel owns Ommegang and Boulevard. Heineken owns half of Lagunitas. Don't think any of those beers taste like Bud or Heineken, but guess the association makes the rules.

 

Goose Island is no longer really considered craft, nor is Founders or Lagunitas ... that doesn't mean they're not good beers. (Well, Goose's IPA is crap, but that's not the point.) I still like Lagunitas' Little Sumpin' Sumpin' and Sucks quite a bit. But when you get that much of your funding from the behemoths, you can't really be considered craft.

 

Goose Island's Summer Kolsch is fantastic

 

I'm good with Goose's wheat, too. If I'm snobby about anything, it's the freshness of IPAs, and with so many local options, I generally go with one of those. Wheats/pils/kolsches, etc., tend to have a little bit longer of a shelf life.

 

If the current craft boom results in better quality beer from large producers, that's a win.

 

It's silly to dismiss out of hand the craft brewers that are bought by Macros. Yeah, Blue Moon is crap, but it is in Bud's interest that the craft brewers it buys produce the same good beer. The small brewers get better distribution, access to great brewers, and possibly cheaper costs.

 

Powder Hollow Brewery West Coast Style IPA. Never heard of this brewery in Enfield CT but my buddy went there on a visit to Thomas Hooker Brewery. It is good.

 

Yet Yuengling and Sam Adams are craft brewers.

Yuengling, Boston Beer again top list of U.S. craft breweries

Maybe it sounds like someone who uses the eyeball test to judge a HOF, but when I think good craft brewer I'm definitely putting Goose and Lagunitas in front of Yuenglings and Sam. Love Yuenglings, but Goose is better. And it pretty much is the same as it was before AB came along.

 

Stone Mocha IPA.