Jack Curtin’s LIQUID DIET

I got this press release late yesterday and didn’t pay it much attention. Battling one last deadline while still chasing brewers around the country (telephonically), I figured another PR item was the last thing I needed to think about.

Andy Crouch’s The Brewers Association’s Quiet War on Blue Moon, Leinenkugels, Goose Island and Maybe even Elysian, New Belgium and Your Brewery explains why I should have looked into the matter more thoroughly and raises some Very Interesting Questions.

I am told by one of my sources that Beer Business Daily, a superb insider newsletter,  also takes on the same topic in this morning’s edition.

Is the Brewers Association bent on picking a fight with the Big Blands over what seem like pretty extraneous matters? Is it moving toward an elitist position much like that of the annoying beer geek who thinks the way to further cause of craft beer is to lord it over everyone with his own specialness for having gotten there first?

Will they actually usher Boston Beer out the door for the sin of being…successful? To be followed by others guilty of the same crime? Does ownership, particularly minor ownership, matter in and of itself (obviously it does if such investment begins to affect the product)?

What purpose would this sort of behavior serve? And for whom?

Maybe, of course, this is all a tempest in a pint glass. Go read Andy’s post and decide for yourselves if he’s on to something.

My thanks to the invaluable Stan Hieronymus for pointing me there. Since Stan was put off by Andy’s headline, I should note that I am a fan of long headers when they’re called for and thought this was one such case.  It caught my attention, which is the job after tall. Where Stan and I do agree is that it’s atop a solid piece of beer journalism.

PS: In an earlier post also questioning how the BA defines things, Andy linked to a  new definition of craft beer proposed by Jason and Todd, the BeerAdvocates. That’s worth checking out as well.

Tags: Commentary, Craft Beer //