Tag Archives: AB-InBev

Goliath Brewery. Tiny brewhaus in the corner.

Posted on by
Reply

People ask me my feelings about 10 Barrel Brewing all the time, well, ever since the then-aptly-named ten barrel brewery sold to the ten-to-the-millionth-power barrel Anheuser-Busch/ABI in 2014. I blogged about it in ’14. I was interviewed about it in ’15. I spoke about it in the documentary PDX: Brew City in ’17. And in each case, I voiced an understanding for those who insist they’ll never buy a 10 Barrel beer as well as those who continue to buy the beer despite being owned by the largest brewing concern the world has ever known, because it’s still really tasty.

Don’t take my word for that latter point. Trust the industry beer judges who award 10 Barrel with wheelbarrows full of medals.

I took this picture (after my 30 minute interview with Tonya turned into a 2 hour interview).

Several of those medals come from the brainpan of Tonya Cornett and her tiny team of talent under her tinyHAUS imprint. It’s analogous to Eminem releasing records under the Shady Records imprint even though it’s really major label Interscope.

So. TinyHAUS brews a gamut of styles that fit under Research & Development, from cult styles such as pastry stouts to still-humming hazy IPAs and even a beloved Japanese-style rice lager. Buy them. Don’t. But if you don’t, you’re missing out on some tasty beers. Not to say indie breweries don’t make equally tasty beers.

Bend, Oregon > Bend, Belgium/Brazil

Posted on by
7

Bud Apricot Crush?

Bud Apricot Crush?

Opinions are like assholes AND beer: Not only does everyone have one but some are industrially large while others are artfully crafted.

The news is still sinking in that adorable, warm, fuzzy 10 Barrel Brewing, the homegrown brewery in the quaint, high-desert town in Central Oregon, has been acquired by beer behemoth Budweiser (ABI). The name 10 Barrel had already become outmoded considering the company ramped up to a 50-barrel system in Bend while keeping its original 10-barreler for R&D, added a 10-barrel pub in Boise, and will soon open the doors to its Portland pub* with a shiny new 20-barrel system thereby brining the total to 90 barrels already. Combine this with AB-InBev’s and it’s something on the level of 10 Million Barrels (give or take a few hundred million in overall volume).

Whether you, dear reader, personally take the “Sellouts!” side or fall into camp “Good for them,” and whether your BuyLocalism will lead to you never buying a drop of beer from this brewery now under the Bud-brella or you think that crowd’s just butthurt and it won’t affect your purchasing decision since good beer is good beer no matter who cuts the paychecks, one thing is clear: Oregon beer will never be the same again. Exactly the way it was never the same again when they bought a 30+% minority stake in Widmer Brothers and the Craft Brew Alliance. In other words, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Just ask the folks who worked at and drank beers from Chicago’s Goose Island, New York’s Blue Point, Hawaii’s Kona, Seattle’s Red Hook, and, undoubtedly, Anywheresville, USA’s next AB takeover.

*Even more than my curiosity how this will impact the forthcoming Portland outpost, I’m more curious how other brewers in the tight-knit community of Bend brewers will handle this in the short and long term. Naturally, in the now, they’re all ShockTopped, er, shocked. But will it really have any implications for them, financially? The original and graddaddy, Deschutes, is already tracking to brew 2 million barrels by 2020. Worthy just opened with a hefty pair of deep pockets. Add in Boneyard and those four already factor into Oregon’s 14 largest brewing companies. The money’s already there. We still call it “quaint,” but beer is already big business in Bend, also home to a few others.**

**Ale Apothecary, Below Grade, Bend Brewing Co., Bridge 99, Crux Fermentation Project, Good Life, North Rim, Oblivious, Old Mill Brew Wërks, Old St. Francis (McMenamins), Platypus,  Rat Hole, RiverBend, Silver Moon, and soon a few more, not counting their neighbors throughout Central Oregon.

In the end, unless the guys from St. Louis, er, Leuven, Belgium, er, São Paulo, Brazil decide to expunge the firepit, revoke the welcome sign to dogs, stop serving kids meals on frisbees, and turn the beer from delicious to disastrously flaccid like some others in their portfolio, this game-changing news will, ultimately, result in a collective yawn like the one yawned every time a beer geek gets his mitts on one of the various bottles of Bourbon County Stout. Or, locally, Widmer Bros. Marionberry Hibiscus Gose.

Y’know what else this means? The Big Boys are really, really paying attention to what Oregon breweries are up to. And they, like us, like what they see.