Goose Island Founder and CEO, John Hall, stepping down, joins new InBev board

Reads 5883 • Replies 34 • Started Thursday, November 15, 2012 4:14:01 PM CT

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Message joet P admin beers 2900 º places 125 º 07:28 Fri 11/16/2012 Originally posted by MlhopeTC Originally posted by HighWine This sucks! We all hate BMC for not satisfying our sophisticated and discerning palates. Now B is forming a craft advisory board with a credible craft brewer. If they start addressing MY needs as a consumer, I’m done! Yeaaa I think you are missing the point here. The disdain isn’t because they are forming a craft advisory board, it is because they attempt to crush craft breweries we love through tons of borderline ethical tactics. At least that is it for me. This is exactly it. Macros are now raising small craft brewers, creating their own labels and both mimicking and exploiting successful craft patterns. We all love genuine good tasting products. What we have to acknowledge here is that it’s just going to get increasingly hard to determine if what you’re getting is an original quality product or a facsimile. A good product is a good product and if AB dialed in Saison Dupont I would probably buy the shit out of it, but what we’re getting now isn’t that message. It sounds to me like the message is "how do we hit your tastebuds in a way that maximizes profit and increases buying behavior using all the dirty marketplace tricks at our disposal using craft insider info from fallen angel Greg Hall". Garrett Oliver’s opinion - why care? We’re winning and they’re trying to copy us. Just keep doing what we’re doing. <-- Cool message.
Message keanex beers 1802 º places 65 º 07:39 Fri 11/16/2012 I don’t like giving my money to a company who is trying to keep the small breweries down. Sure it’s great what AB-InBev has done for GI production, but the fact that they appointed their own CEO to GI instead of a high exec of GI simply stepping up is unsettling for me, the CEO means a lot for a company.
Message levifunk beers 12 º 07:52 Fri 11/16/2012 Originally posted by joet A good product is a good product and if AB dialed in Saison Dupont I would probably buy the shit out of it, but what we’re getting now isn’t that message. It sounds to me like the message is "how do we hit your tastebuds in a way that maximizes profit and increases buying behavior using all the dirty marketplace tricks at our disposal using craft insider info from fallen angel Greg Hall". This is what gives me hope. They are buying places like GI in hopes to gain "insider information" in the craft beer world. They are hoping to be able to make a cheap product that tastes like craft beer so they can start stealing back that market share craft beer has taken. The reality is as you said, "a good product is a good product", you can’t cut corners and there is no magic marketing scheme. In the end, if you don’t make a good product, you won’t gain back that market share. I see this as a potential win-win for us. Either BMC wastes their money failing to mimic craft beer and their market share continues to erode, or they come out with some great stuff.

Message joet P admin beers 2900 º places 125 º 08:01 Fri 11/16/2012 The grapes in my backyard go to the InBev of wine, Constellation Vineyards. They’re sold under the Ravenswood brand. They are bottled with a label that says "Belloni Estate" and are only available at Ravenswood tasting room across the valley. While the vineyard manager of our hundred year old vineyard hates the corporate intrusion and bitching about "viticultural practices", there’s not much more to InBev negatively affecting the wine. I’m saying that good beer can come out of this too!
Message JoeMcPhee P beers 12092 º places 543 º 08:26 Fri 11/16/2012 Originally posted by TheAlum Originally posted by HighWine This sucks! We all hate BMC for not satisfying our sophisticated and discerning palates. Now B is forming a craft advisory board with a credible craft brewer. If they start addressing MY needs as a consumer, I’m done! I love this post. Craft is here to stay. The big companies are adapting by adding craft brewers to their portfolios and trying to put something on the market that people like us want. They can’t end it.. they have to embrace and try their hand proper else they’ll be left behind. MolsonCoors has purchased several smaller craft breweries here in Canada (Granville Island and Creemore Springs) and consolidated their distribution across Canada. They’ve also opened a craft beer themed spot in Toronto where they’re brewing more experimental stuff. Although, I’m not a huge fan of either of the micros they purchased, the quality still seems to be there, and the stuff they’re putting out at the brewpub location is pretty tasty. If the big guys can make good beer - I say more power to ’em. I don’t like some of the tactics they use, but as a consumer, I’m more interested in what’s in the glass.
Message JMerritt places 72 º 08:53 Fri 11/16/2012 Originally posted by joet it’s just going to get increasingly hard to determine if what you’re getting is an original quality product or a facsimile. I have to admit, I’m more concerned with quality product than brand loyalty. If it tastes good and is reasonably priced, I’m happy.
Message CLevar places 23 º 09:44 Fri 11/16/2012 Originally posted by JMerritt Originally posted by joet it’s just going to get increasingly hard to determine if what you’re getting is an original quality product or a facsimile. I have to admit, I’m more concerned with quality product than brand loyalty. If it tastes good and is reasonably priced, I’m happy. Yep. While I will continue to support local craft/small brewers, I think it’s important to understand WHY that is. I support these brewers because, on average, they make a better product for my tastes than the mass produced lagers at a price that I am willing to pay. If these trends change, I would be willing to at least start trying more Big Beer products.

Message MaltOMeal beers 1094 º places 46 º 10:18 Fri 11/16/2012 Originally posted by JoeMcPhee Originally posted by TheAlum Originally posted by HighWine This sucks! We all hate BMC for not satisfying our sophisticated and discerning palates. Now B is forming a craft advisory board with a credible craft brewer. If they start addressing MY needs as a consumer, I’m done! I love this post. Craft is here to stay. The big companies are adapting by adding craft brewers to their portfolios and trying to put something on the market that people like us want. They can’t end it.. they have to embrace and try their hand proper else they’ll be left behind. MolsonCoors has purchased several smaller craft breweries here in Canada (Granville Island and Creemore Springs) and consolidated their distribution across Canada. They’ve also opened a craft beer themed spot in Toronto where they’re brewing more experimental stuff. Although, I’m not a huge fan of either of the micros they purchased, the quality still seems to be there, and the stuff they’re putting out at the brewpub location is pretty tasty. If the big guys can make good beer - I say more power to ’em. I don’t like some of the tactics they use, but as a consumer, I’m more interested in what’s in the glass. You can’t take the example of one macro corporation and paint that across the industry. The head of ABInBev has a history of buying up breweries, followed by cost-cutting in the form of shuttering plants, relocating others to places where labor costs are cheaper, tinkering with recipes by switching to cheaper ingredients, etc. He is an MBA finance-type of guy, not a beer aficionado. His goals are to increase market share and profit margin. He cares nothing about whether or not the product he puts out is what the consumers are expecting. If he loses some brand loyalty he will make up that loss by going and repeating his buying and cost-cutting model on the next target he gets in his cross-hairs.
Message Reid beers 3528 º places 95 º 14:14 Fri 11/16/2012 Originally posted by MaltOMeal Originally posted by JoeMcPhee Originally posted by TheAlum Originally posted by HighWine This sucks! We all hate BMC for not satisfying our sophisticated and discerning palates. Now B is forming a craft advisory board with a credible craft brewer. If they start addressing MY needs as a consumer, I’m done! I love this post. Craft is here to stay. The big companies are adapting by adding craft brewers to their portfolios and trying to put something on the market that people like us want. They can’t end it.. they have to embrace and try their hand proper else they’ll be left behind. MolsonCoors has purchased several smaller craft breweries here in Canada (Granville Island and Creemore Springs) and consolidated their distribution across Canada. They’ve also opened a craft beer themed spot in Toronto where they’re brewing more experimental stuff. Although, I’m not a huge fan of either of the micros they purchased, the quality still seems to be there, and the stuff they’re putting out at the brewpub location is pretty tasty. If the big guys can make good beer - I say more power to ’em. I don’t like some of the tactics they use, but as a consumer, I’m more interested in what’s in the glass. You can’t take the example of one macro corporation and paint that across the industry. The head of ABInBev has a history of buying up breweries, followed by cost-cutting in the form of shuttering plants, relocating others to places where labor costs are cheaper, tinkering with recipes by switching to cheaper ingredients, etc. He is an MBA finance-type of guy, not a beer aficionado. His goals are to increase market share and profit margin. He cares nothing about whether or not the product he puts out is what the consumers are expecting. If he loses some brand loyalty he will make up that loss by going and repeating his buying and cost-cutting model on the next target he gets in his cross-hairs. Agreed, i think many are way too naive on this. This is big business
Message SamGamgee P beers 2452 º places 182 º 17:44 Fri 11/16/2012 Goose island will likely be the next Bass, Guinness, Pilsner Urquell, etc... This has happened many, many times before. It may take years, but as production increases, flavor will change until we no longer recognize the beers that the Halls owned at one point in time. AB Inbev is in the business to make astronomical amounts of money, they just happen to use beer to achieve that. I have little hope in anything they touch.