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InBev buys Northern Brewer/Midwest Supplies

 
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rcrabb22




Joined: 23 Dec 2010
Posts: 462
Location: Illinois


PostLink    Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2016 2:09 pm    Post subject: InBev buys Northern Brewer/Midwest Supplies Reply with quote


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Not sure what to make of this development. An article in Bloomberg published this morning confirms the deal has been done.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-10-19/big-beer-wants-in-on-homebrew-anheuser-busch-inbev-buys-top-diy-brewing-supplier
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kal
Forum Administrator



Joined: 12 Dec 2010
Posts: 11116
Location: Ottawa, Canada

Drinking: Pub Ale, Electric Creamsicle, Mild, Pliny the Younger, Belgian Dark Strong, Weizen, Russian Imperial Stout, Black Butte Porter


PostLink    Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2016 2:49 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

It's been an interesting read over the last week as this went from crazy rumour to truth.

I don't really know what to make of it. The pessimist in me would argue that they're trying to squish any kind of homebrewing or craft beer movement at the source (buy them up and close them down) but I don't think that's the case.

The article does bring up one interesting possibility: That it's mostly about PR, that today's homebrewers are tomorrow's craft brewers. Get these homebrewers used to seeing InBev around now as the 'friendly giant' and not the enemy, and when they go pro maybe they'll be more open to working with / selling out to / being acquired by InBev in the future. Not sure. This doesn't match with InBev's claim of taking a hands off approach however. If the homebrewer (who later becomes a craft brewer) didn't know or see an InBev presence while they were homebrewing, how's that help with PR?

InBev did also say "At the end of the day, we want to help spread our passion of homebrewing even further and one day make homebrewing as common a hobby as gardening or cooking". So maybe they think that there's going to be a massive upswing of brewers almost in the way that beer was made 100's of years ago where it was made in every kitchen, and people will need supplies.

I've said this before about brewing appliances (all-in-one boxes you put in your kitchen like the PicoBrew Zymatic). When many were poopoo'ing them, to me it meant that homebrewing was getting to the point of the 'average' person being interested in interesting beers which can only be good for the hobby as a whole. The more people that are interested in homebrewing, the more selection we'll have in terms of ingredients, the easier it will be to find what we need. Imagine a day when everyone brews their own beer at home (either in small kitchen appliances or full blown Electric Breweries) and we stand outside on our lawns talking to all our neighbours about what we brewed last. How cool would that be! To me this InBev acquisition is just another sign that times are still slowly changing towards that outcome.

Interesting times!

Kal

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Ozarks Mountain Brew




Joined: 22 May 2013
Posts: 737
Location: The Ozark Mountains of Missouri


PostLink    Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2016 7:03 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I think its a pr thing, look how much attention is going around and how many times the name is mentioned in forums, the bad boy actor gets in the news faster???
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Walts Malt




Joined: 27 Sep 2013
Posts: 119
Location: Farmington, MN

Drinking: Two Hearted Clone

Working on: Planning my Fall Brewing Schedule


PostLink    Posted: Thu Oct 20, 2016 1:51 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Northern Brewer is my local homebrew store and has been since their original store on Grand Ave in St. Paul. I like the people who work there and will continue to support them for that reason. Now if they replace them with high school kids that only know how operate the till, I'll need to reconsider. For now, they have great selection, good prices, and less than 10 minutes from my office.

Always sad to see things like this happen, but going back to the original owners who sold to a private equity group I think we have to consider what we would all do for our exit strategy from any business.
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Walts Malt




Joined: 27 Sep 2013
Posts: 119
Location: Farmington, MN

Drinking: Two Hearted Clone

Working on: Planning my Fall Brewing Schedule


PostLink    Posted: Thu Oct 20, 2016 1:52 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

That being said, I'm probably going to try and use more and more of Kal's links here to purchase additional hardware items that I need from time to time.
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kal
Forum Administrator



Joined: 12 Dec 2010
Posts: 11116
Location: Ottawa, Canada

Drinking: Pub Ale, Electric Creamsicle, Mild, Pliny the Younger, Belgian Dark Strong, Weizen, Russian Imperial Stout, Black Butte Porter


PostLink    Posted: Thu Oct 20, 2016 2:04 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Walts Malt wrote:
I'm probably going to try and use more and more of Kal's links here to purchase additional hardware items that I need from time to time.

Thanks Walt! That's appreciated!

Kal

_________________
Our new shop with over 150 new products: shop.TheElectricBrewery.com
We ship worldwide and support our products and customers for life.
Purchasing through our affiliate links helps support our site at no extra cost to you. We thank you!
My basement/bar/brewery build 2.0
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