Let's talk good beer

[over the mountain]

Ballast Point being bought out for a cool 1 BILLION dollars ... wow.

" Additionally, the bottom 60% of households in income now consume 40% of the nation’s craft beer volume. The Brewers Association pushes craft beer as an “affordable luxury,” and this is obviously catching on."

--------

Bottom Line

The acquisition of these craft breweries by Big Liquor simply makes sense. Time and time again, and throughout every sector, we see that one of the main obstacles to increasing profit margins is scale. While these local breweries could certainly benefit from nationwide sales, expansion costs would probably be too much for them right now.

Now that they are in the hands of Big Liquor, these companies can leverage existing resources to expand affordably. The real question will be whether the big brands can maintain the homemade quality that gives craft beer some of its appeal. On top of that, it will be interesting to see whether “hip” young consumers move onto new local breweries as their old favorites get bought out.

If one thing is for sure, it’s that people love drinking craft beer. Whether the same consumers will continue to drink craft beer brought to them by Big Liquor remains to be seen, but this could end up being a major cash cow for the industry leaders.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/craft-...211409534.html


I have no problem with someone like Ballast Point selling out to big biz. As long as the quality is still there, it might make the same beer cheaper. I would love to see sculpin at 10-12 a sixer vs the current 14-16. ballast point is pretty much a big biz beer now anyhow.

Honestly i hope russian river gets sold out so they will distribute out here. i doubt that dude vinny would sell out bc he seems obsessed with his product but i would love to be able to pick up a bottle whenever .. or at least ship it directly to customers so you can control the quality.