THE BEER BEAT: This just might be the Pour Fool's greatest rant: "Open Letter to The Bud Sell-Outs: Cowboy Up, Whiners."

"There is one old saw that the 'owners' of these former craft breweries should take to heart and if any of you have never heard it, allow me ... 'You Made Your Bed, Now Lie In It.' "

Ladies and gentleman, give it up for Steve Foolbody (The Pour Fool).

It's the best summary yet offered, as truthfully attesting to the phenomenon of Trojan Zombie Afterlife Breweries and their former owners. Here's a relevant non-brewing history lesson.

Vidkun Quisling, in full Vidkun Abraham Lauritz Jonsson Quisling, (born July 18, 1887, Fyresdal, Norway—died October 24, 1945, Akershus Fortress, Oslo), Norwegian army officer whose collaboration with the Germans in their occupation of Norway during World War II established his name as a synonym for “traitor.”

It's too bad the word Quisling has gone out of fashion, isn't it?

Open Letter to The Bud Sell-Outs: Cowboy Up, Whiners

 ... To be precise about this, there is no more "Ely**an Brewing" in Seattle. That brewery is now, accurately, Anheuser Busch Seattle. It's the same with all those others who sold out. Breckenridge Brewing is now Anheuser Busch Colorado. Devil's Backbone is now Anheuser Busch, East Bicycle, Virginia. Karbach: AB Texas. Four Peaks? AB Arizona. Golden Road Brewing is now ABLA. 10 Barrel is now Anheuser Busch of Bend, OR. Blue Point Brewing is now ABNY. Wicked Weed is now Anheuser Busch North Carolina, RateBeer.com is now ABRateBeer.com...

...and the first craft brewery to sell out to AB, Goose Island Brewing of Chicago, is now, literally and practically, Anheuser Busch Brewing Company of Chicago, Illinois.

This is not hyperbole or any attempt to insult all these breweries and their present staffs or anyone except their former owners...I'll get around to them in a few minutes. What this is IS an attempt to introduce some honesty into this ongoing discussion. These companies may have retained the original owners as figureheads - hood ornaments, as I have come to think of them - but they are, in fact and legally, owned by Anheuser Busch and its parent company, AB/InBev, based in Leuven. Belgium and in Brazil. They may have the same signage and you probably will never see any banners around that say, "A Wholly-Owned Subsidiary of AB/InBev", but that's just because AB knows now and has known for at least the past 25 years that MOST of us who have been involved in the Craft Beer Boom see them as the minions of Satan, if not actually Satan himself. Their 120 years history of corporate thuggery and ruthless suppression of the entire American beer industry was what drove me to hate them but then they also set themselves up as a blatant and committed adversary to the entire Indie/Craft culture, speaking and acting as if our decision to drink something else was either just youthful folly or an organized attempt to usurp what they see as their Divine Right to dominate All Things Beer in America. They endlessly ridicule small, independent American brewers as "amateurs" and the beers as "bitter and stale", ridiculing the idea that creative brewing is a worthy idea, with smarmy, self-congratulatory ads like their notorious Super Bowl TV spot, in which they singled out - as the sign of effete craft pretension - a "Peach Pumpkin Ale"...which a brewery they had acquired about sixty days earlier, the aforementioned "Ely**an", has just produced a month before. These are the people who declared open war on craft brewing, while saying, out of the other side of their mouths, they see themselves as "a friend to brewers everywhere".

Many of the owners of those craft breweries who bent over and greased up for AB had, themselves, made loud and brash statements about the evils of AB.

SNIP

All of these people are different personalities and make different beers. But one thing about them has become suspiciously and almost eerily identical: suddenly, as though by magic, selling a brewery to the avowed enemy of the culture that built their own businesses...was okay. Just like that; many of them literally the same day that they signed the papers. It may be a little Alex "Douchebag" Jones-y of me to suggest it but it's...it's almost like Anheuser Busch's marketing department produced a list of talking points for their newly discredited hood ornaments to use in speaking about their Whore-Out Moment and told them to just keep on repeating that and For God's Sake, STAY ON MESSAGE!

"This will help us grow and make Better Beer!"

"This will make it easier for you to get our products!"

"This will mean that our brewers can be even more creative!"

"This doesn't mean, anything, really!"

"We expect a great partnership* with AB/InBev and they're just here to advise us and make us more efficient!"

And my own favorite...

"Nothing has changed!"

I have personally watched people parrot that last nugget twice, in person, and saw actual spittle flying from their mouths. That's the Hail Mary of these empty phrases; the fall-back exclamation when it appears that your bullshit is not selling. "Nothing has changed! Really. We're just the same company you've known and trusted (translation: "handed over your money to"), all this time!"

Bullshit.

THE BEER BEAT: Just so you know, Devil's Backbone is a Trojan Zombie Afterlife Brewery, Beer Necessities has perished, and AB InBev remains a pack o'vermin.

Look, everyone.

It's another marvelous handcrafted "craft" brewer from somewhere else, coming to Louisville because ... America.

Virginia brewery expanding distribution to Louisville, by Bridgett Weaver (Business First Louisville)

Beer ye, beer ye: A Virginia brewery, focused on lagers and other traditional German-style beers, soon will distribute to Louisville.

Devils Backbone Brewery, located in the hills of rural Virginia, will join Louisville's growing brew options. It will appear on tap to Louisville bars and restaurants early next month, shortly after the Super Bowl. Bottle distribution at retailers, bars and restaurants is expected to start in April.

The reporter follows with a Horatio Alger-like story of a small, growing indie brewer, and that's really nice and everything, but unfortunately she omits a highly pertinent fact: Since 2016, Devil's Backbone has been stone cold dead, at least insofar as independent "craft" brewers are concerned.

You see, 2016 was when Devil's Backbone was swallowed whole by the brewing python otherwise known as AB In-Bev, a fact that caused the Trojan's Backbone Brewery an embarrassing problem back in August, 2016.

Amid deal with Anheuser-Busch, craft brewery gets kicked out of its own festival, by Fritz Hahn (Washington Post)

Next weekend, representatives of 85 breweries from across Virginia will gather in the fields surrounding Devils Backbone’s Basecamp Brewpub in Roseland, Va., for the fifth Virginia Craft Brewers Fest. They’ll be joined by a crowd of 3,000 beer lovers, some of whom will be camping — and even “glamping” in deluxe tents — in the adjacent meadows. Three Sheets to the Wind, a yacht rock cover band, will perform.

The event has come a long way since 2012, when two dozen breweries brought 48 beers to the same location for a crowd of 1,250 to taste, and a few dozen beers were judged in the first Virginia Craft Beer Cup competition. Devils Backbone’s Schwartz Bier was named best of show, the first of the brewery’s three consecutive titles. (Talk about a home-field advantage.)

But 2016 is a transitional year for the festival: This will be the first time it won’t include the announcement of the winners of the Virginia Craft Beer Cup, which has grown to award medals in 30 categories. This will be the last time the festival will be held at Devils Backbone, in the shadow of the Blue Ridge Mountains. And for the first time, the brewery that helped found the festival and hosts it won’t be eligible for any awards.

That’s because on April 12, Devils Backbone, Virginia’s largest and most decorated brewery, announced it was being acquired by Anheuser-Busch, the parent company of Budweiser, for an undisclosed sum. The backlash was immediate. On the brewery’s Facebook page and in online beer forums, former fans posted screeds accusing the brewery of selling out and swearing they would never buy another Vienna Lager. (Those were the nicer ones.)

Yes, Devil's Backbone is yet another Trojan Zombie Afterlife Brewery in AB-InBev's High End collection of trophies. In 2015, the Pour Fool provided context for deals like this one.

Cigar City vs. AB: An Open Letter to Joey Redner, by Steve Foolbody (Pour Fool)

 ... Sooner or later, some brewery owner is going to stare down the barrel of one of those prohibitive buy-out offers from Anheuser Busch or AB/InBev or whatever that pack o’ vermin is calling itself this week and they’re going to think beyond the planetary-scale impact such dollars will have on their own bank accounts and realize that pulling the trigger on this deal, while making that villa in the Bahamas a lot more feasible, is also going to sentence them personally and their staffs to forever being considered sell-outs and greedheads and douche-nozzles by many, many of the same people they saw come into their taprooms and growler stations when they were just starting out. It will permanently remove them from serious consideration when American craft beer fans speak of the country’s great breweries. Because the instant the last curlicue at the end of their signature trails out on that sales agreement, that brewery is no longer a part of that booming American phenomenon called “Craft Beer”. It cannot be. Because it is now nothing more than a regional outpost for corporate greed, bean-counting, arrogance, and Money Is Everything thinking.

Beautiful: "Pack o’ vermin."

Subsequently it was revealed that Redner actually had made it all the way to the altar with AB InBev before the deal fell through, after which Cigar City quickly eloped with Fireman Capital, which owns Oskar Blues, among others.

Al this preceding background was necessary for a welcomed death notice.

Actually I'm glad I barely knew Beer Necessities existed, or I'd have been compelled to crusade against it.

Repeat after me: "Pack o’ vermin." Like a plague virus, nothing AB InBev touches can be considered healthy or good.

I reiterate: Follow the money. There's enough excellent beer out in this and any other market to preclude supporting vermin with your money.

THE BEER BEAT: On inauthenticity, disinformation, RateBeer and those disembodied breweries of the Trojan Zombie Afterlife.

Today, recommended reading.

Jim Vorel's essay appeared in mid-2017, and nicely outlines a position of beer-drinking principle when it comes those breweries in the Trojan Zombie Afterlife Quadrant.

The BS Arguments of Craft Beer Sell-Outs: How Brewery Buyouts Hurt Craft Beer, by Jim Vorel (Paste Magazine)

Let me tell you who I care about, in the world of beer: I care about the craft beer industry as a whole. I care about selection and availability of great craft beer, and at night I dream of a world where great beer from independent breweries can be accessed just about anywhere.

That dream is currently under attack, primarily by so-called “Big Beer,” but not entirely. For all of the wrangling and shady dealing that AB-InBev and MillerCoors are conducting in the American beer market, equally disturbing is the propensity of beer geeks and even food & drink publications to rationalize and apologize for the buyouts and practices that are currently driving craft beer into the most dangerous situation it’s faced in more than a decade. In some cases, would-be allies are willingly parroting back the exact marketing copy that AB-InBev would love to place in their mouths. Other times, beer drinkers are simply accepting the bullshit reassurances of just-purchased breweries who have huge monetary incentives to be dishonest.

But don’t take our word for it. We’re not here to simply rant and rave—we’re here to give you specific examples of BS rationalizations you’ll see in the wake of every major brewery buyout. We’re here to point out the logical chasms and blatant hypocrisy that proliferate in the public response to buyouts. And we’re here to point out exactly why these buyouts are so capable of devastating the craft brewing industry.

More recently, Fritz Hahn brilliantly connects the dots between AB-InBev, ZX Ventures and RateBeer.

The world’s biggest brewing company is thirsty for your data, by Fritz Hahn (Washington Post)

Anheuser-Busch InBev is the biggest brewing company in the world, but it has a problem it can’t shake ...

... But as sales of hoppy IPAs continue to surge, and sales of Light (and Lite) macrobrews continue to drop, AB InBev is recalibrating its approach. Rather than buying up as many craft-beer producers as it can, it’s using its vast resources to buy data — tons of it — through a little-known division called ZX Ventures.

"So where are the growth opportunities?"

That’s where ZX Ventures comes in. According to its mission statement, “ZX Ventures is hopelessly dedicated to creating and analyzing the data necessary for determining our ideal strategies, products and technologies. We believe that the more we know and learn about our consumers and products, the better chance we have of anticipating their needs in the future.”

Translation: They want to know everything about purchasing patterns and decisions. What are customers looking for? What are influencers thinking? How can they make it easier to get AB InBev’s products into the hands of people who might want beer?

ZX Ventures’ broad portfolio includes last year’s purchase of Northern Brewer Homebrew Supply and Midwest Supplies, two of the largest home-brewing businesses in the country. It also has a minority stake in PicoBrew, the countertop home-brewing system that uses Keuriglike “PicoPacks” to make beer in a certain style or mimic the recipe of an existing brand.

In October 2016, ZX Ventures purchased a minority interest in RateBeer, a 17-year-old international beer-rating site that has grown to become one of the largest online databases of crowdsourced beer, brewery and bar rankings in the world. But neither RateBeer nor ZX Ventures publicized the deal until June 2017, when beer website Good Beer Hunting published a story about the move. ZX Ventures did not respond to requests for comment for this article.

Because it's all about the information, and RateBeer is like a homing device fixed to the throats of the "craft" beer sheeple.

If e-commerce is off the table, then the most important way for AB InBev to make money in an increasingly crowded marketplace is to get the right beer in front of the right customers at the right time. And right now, the world’s biggest brewer is tapping into a steady flow of data that can help it do just that.

If Trump were to consider deporting counter-revolutionary swine like these, I might consider voting for him.

ZX Ventures is a global incubator, operator, and venture capital team backed by Anheuser-Busch InBev. We are a small army of futurists, dreamers, doers, designers, engineers, scientists, marketers, brewers, builders, and data geeks.

MAINTAINING CONSUMER BONDS
Our goal is to make products, services, and technologies that bring people together and provide solutions for consumer needs. We want to positively impact society and our environment and celebrate the best this life has to offer. We're not afraid to break the mold of tradition, including launching businesses that sell directly to our customer-base. Yes, our aim is to generate profits, but those won’t come without first creating smiles, laughs and making the world a better place through innovative products, technologies, experiences and services. The more positive connections we facilitate, the more we learn about our consumers and products, and the better chance we have of anticipating their needs in the future.We truly believe that the consumer is the boss and constantly center our actions around what best fits their needs.

I'll venture one prediction about the future, in the sense that "IPA" already is sucked dry of meaning and lost to those of a "craft" persuasion. Just as decades of mass-market insipidity rendered the style "Pilsner" moot, so will the supermarket aisle stacks of Trojan Zombie Afterlife "IPAs" commoditize the concept.

Not a bold prediction, just an obvious one.

THE BEER BEAT: It's a cornucopia of ephemera, from Quaff On to Lazlo Toth.

When Flat12's taproom debuted in Jeffersonville in December of 2014, with the promise of brewing on site to follow (spoiler alert: it never did), I felt slightly vindicated.

It long had been my stance that for certain breweries of size and ambition in the central and northern sectors of Indiana, it would be a viable strategy to establish a toehold in the Louisville market by leveraging a few select advantages afforded taprooms in our state.

Part of me still wants to make a deal with someone like Daredevil -- great beers, better people -- and mimic the Flat12 setup right here in New Albany. In the absence of such, wouldn't it be wonderful if bars and eateries on the "sunny side" would feature the wares of otherwise lesser known Indiana breweries? Think outside the revolving kaleidoscopic box and become a destination?

But I digress. 

What I didn't anticipate in 2014 was (first) that Big Woods/Quaff On would be the next brewery to fulfill my prediction, or (second) that it would do so not on the Indiana side, but in the vacated Doc's Cantina space in Louisville.

The Quaffers are good folks, too, and I wish them the best, assuming the waterfront deal goes through. If it doesn't, maybe they can take over the former Bank Street Brewhouse facility, increasing the prospect of my miserly current/former business partners cutting a damned check without involving SCOTUS in the process.

For me, hops are added bitterness.

Could a brewery be coming to the Doc's Cantina site on the waterfront?, by Sheldon S. Shafer (Courier-Journal)

A Hoosier restaurant group that owns a chain of breweries and restaurants across Southern Indiana is seriously weighing the reopening of the long-closed dining spot at Waterfront Park most recently operated as Doc's Cantina.

Ed Ryan, the CEO of the Big Woods company that also produces Quaff On Brewing Company, said in an interview Thursday that "we are definitely interested" in the Waterfront Park site.

Ryan set the odds of having a waterfront restaurant in Louisville at 50-50 or better.

My Southern Indiana Sun King fantasy involves the leading Indianapolis brewery taking up residence amid the South Clarksville development project -- centered in the old Colgate building, underneath the massive clock and looking out on the Louisville skyline, with a German-style beer garden and even salumi in the shade.

And yes, salumi is a real word.

Sun King Brewery Refreshes Tap Room with New Oca Restaurant, Dining Space and More Fresh Beer on Tap (Indiana On Tap)

Sun King Brewery, one of the leaders of the independent craft beer movement in Indiana, is excited to announce the opening of Oca in its refurbished Indianapolis Tap Room. Oca is a sausage-centric restaurant and cheese and salumi counter developed by Chris Eley, named one of America’s top 20 food artisans by Food & Wine and owner of Indianapolis’ Goose the Market and Smoking Goose.

The boy is dreaming a bit too much, so let's take a look at Stan's "best of" for 2017. I might do one of these, too.

Critic's List: Stan Hieronymus’s Best of 2017 (Craft Beer & Brewing)

The prolific author of critically acclaimed beer books and noted hop expert, took a few minutes to reflect on the past year and the breweries, beers, trends, and more that stood out from his travels.

Favorite Beer Trend
Lager beers that taste of lager malt with lager fermentation character.

Least Favorite Beer Trend
Lager beers without lager malt or fermentation flavor.

Has the trend of megabrewery imperialism slowed in 2017? Perhaps. Here's a handy guide to knowing where your money lands.

The Definitive Timeline Of Craft Beer Acquisitions (VinePair)

Who owns what is a hot topic in craft beer. Independence is such a hallmark of industry identity that the Brewers Association, the largest representative body for craft beer, recently created a seal to designate which breweries are and are not independently owned.

Buyouts from big breweries get the most attention, but sales amongst independent breweries are also endemic.

VinePair analyzed brewery sales and acquisitions to create the most comprehensive timeline of craft brewery acquisitions available today.

We define craft using the Brewers Association's guidelines: The brewery produces 6 million barrels or less, is less than 25 percent owned or controlled by a large alcohol beverage company, and uses traditional brewing ingredients and methods.

In like fashion as captive zombie brewers becoming shelf-space drones, we always need to be aware that in the realm of "free" markets, golden moments usually are mere seconds away from usurpation at the behest of an entrenched economic interest.

Wines Are No Longer Free to Travel Across State Lines, by Eric Asimov (New York Times)

For a golden moment, motivated wine lovers could rely on high-speed internet as a sort of national wine shop. A consumer in Little Rock, Ark., for example, unable to find particular bottles locally, could order them from a shop in New York. It required only a willingness to pay shipping costs.

Those days are no more. In the last year or so, carriers like United Parcel Service and FedEx have told retailers that they will no longer accept out-of-state shipments of alcoholic beverages unless they are bound for one of 14 states (along with Washington, D.C.) that explicitly permit such interstate commerce ...

 ... (other) states — urged on by wine and spirits wholesalers who oppose any sort of interstate alcohol commerce that bypasses them — have stepped up enforcement efforts. Retailers say that the carriers began sending out letters to them a year ago saying they would no longer handle their shipments.

Where Buying Wine From Out of State Is Still Permitted
Alaska
California
Idaho
Louisiana
Missouri
Nebraska
Nevada
New Hampshire
New Mexico
North Dakota
Oregon
Virginia
Washington, D.C.
West Virginia
Wyoming

And, to depress you even further, a bourbon lover tells a story quite familiar to many "craft" beer lovers. From the first flush of young love ...

THE CYCLE OF BOURBON GEEKS, by Fred Minnick

Remember when you were a new bourbon consumer?

Ah, the good old days. You walked into a store, chatted with the liquor store owner and grabbed a bottle in the perfect price point for your wallet.

 ... to the point when things get complicated.

And therein lies the final stage of bourbon geekdom: complaining.

We, bourbon fans, start out so enthusiastic, eager to learn and taste, always wanting to give back and make new friends. But eventually, we hit a breaking point, crushed by something (often marketing hype) and get settled into our own ways and what we like. I’m guilty of being a curmudgeon for little things like Wild Turkey changing its packaging. What was wrong with the old bottle?

Flavored whiskey, sourced whiskey, lawsuits, age statement dropping and unwarranted back stories are all reasons some people get irate toward distillers. But there was a time, as a new consumer, we just enjoyed the whiskey and didn’t involve ourselves in the whiskey drama.

Ignorance is bliss.

In closing, we desperately need humor. Here's a loosely beer-related 1980s throwback courtesy of Don Novello.

Many old-timers will recall Novello in the role of his Saturday Night Live character, Father Guido Sarducci.

Fewer remember how Novello first came to be known as a writer and comedian.

In the 1970s, Novello started to write letters to famous people under the pen name of Lazlo Toth (after Laszlo Toth, a deranged man who vandalized Michelangelo's Pietà in Rome). The letters, written to suggest a serious but misinformed and obtuse correspondent, were designed to tweak the noses of politicians and corporations. Many of them received serious responses; Novello sometimes continued the charade correspondence at length, with humorous results. The letters and responses were published in the books The Lazlo Letters, Citizen Lazlo!, and From Bush to Bush: The Lazlo Toth Letters.

The Lazlo Letters, Novello's first book of stilted letters to celebrities, caught the attention of Lorne Michaels, producer of Saturday Night Live. Novello was hired as a writer for the show's third season in 1977-1978 where he remained through the fifth season, and returned as a writer in the eleventh season. He also appeared numerous times on the show in the Father Guido Sarducci character.

George H.W. Bush had just been elected president when Novello/Toth wrote this letter. Note that misspellings were part of the shtick.

From: Lazlo Toth ...... November, 1988
To: President, Anheiser - Bush Company

Dear Mr. President: 

I used to occasionally drink your BUDWEISER Brand, that's how I know the name of your company, and all the fine products you make, light as well as Dark. I have a marketing idea that goes with your name since you have the same name as our new President, George Bush. Since he wants a "kinder, gentler nation", I thought up the idea for you to sell a new beer, -- BUSH BEER -- A KINDER, GENTLER BEER. Maybe it should be BUSH LIGHT, I'll leave that up to you, you're the beer experts, I just come up with the ideas. I'll settle for half a cent a bottle or can -- or 2½ cents for a six pack (a half cent discount on my side) and I'll donate half of what I make to President Bush to help pay off the deficit. I think it's a great marketing gimmick to let people know that everytime they're drinking a BUSH BEER they're helping to pay off the nation's deficit. And here's another line I just came up with to show you I have more than one:

Don't drink and drive --
Drink and pay off the deficit!
DRINK BUSH BEER!
A kinder, gentler beer!
And take a cab.

I know it's not much time, but it sure would be nice to have this stuff on the shelves by Inauguration Day, Jan. 20, 1989. Don't give me this "we can't do it that fast" excuse, -- we've got more than two months, plenty of time! Don't forget, the advertising line is already done, we've just got to get the lawyers going with the contracts on your end. Should I fly there to sign the papers or do you just want to mail them to me? My social security number is available upon request, but I hope I'm not going to have to pay taxes on this.

Did MacDonough know the letter was bogus? Some of Novello's victims got the joke, others not.

To: Lazlo Toth ...... December 9, 1988
From: Jack MacDonough, VP, Anheuser-Busch, Inc.

Dear Mr. Toth: 

Thank you for contacting us regarding your idea. As you are probably aware, Anheuser-Busch retains the services of many creative sources. These sources provide us with many ideas and concepts. Some are used; some put on the shelf for future consideration; and there are many that are never used at all. In addition to these agency sources, Anheuser-Busch receives thousands of ideas from people like yourself each year. As I'm sure you can appreciate, the likelihood is very small that such an unsolicited idea would be accepted. In keeping with company policy, we cannot accept unsolicited ideas on a confidential basis. Before considering an idea submitted by an individual outside the company, we ask that person to sign one copy of the enclosed agreement, keep one for his or her records, and return a copy to the undersigned, along with a description of the concept/idea. Once this is done, the appropriate department will evaluate the proposal and determine our interest in it. Because each of the ideas we receive is given individual consideration, we anticipate that it will be approximately four to five weeks from the date we receive your release before we are able to reply to your proposal. Accordingly, we ask that you be patient during this period. 

Sincerely,

Jack MacDonough

My favorite beer last week? It's in the photo at the top of the page: Gordon Biersch's Festbier, prior to Buckingham-McVie at The Louisville Palace.

THE BEER BEAT: The Pour Fool nails it yet again, as "Budweiser Finds Another Sell-Out" -- this time, Wicked Weed.

Like others before it, Wicked Weed Brewing has died.

That's unfortunate, indeed, but from the moment the ownership of Wicked Weed passed to AB InBev, this previously independent brewery was transformed into something else.

Now it's Wicked Trojan Zombie Afterlife Weed. We'll always have our memories.

Speaking only for myself, I wouldn't drink a WTZAW beer with Donald Trump's lips. There are hundreds of other choices, and no commensurate need to deposit money in the coffers of the enemy. It was nice while it lasted, but it's all over now.

Yawn.

At times like this, I turn to the Pour Fool -- because the Pour Fool gets it. In today's agitated WTZAW obituary, Steve Foolbody makes an excellent point, to which I'll confine my quotations -- but be sure to click through to the whole piece, and absorb the beautifully righteous anger.

I can only hope the shoe-gazers among the solipsistic beer narcissist contingent can someday feel some of that anger. The world would be a far better place.

Another One Bites The Dust: Budweiser Finds Another Sell-Out, by steve foolbody (The Pour Fool)

These acquisitions have ZERO to do with wanting to "support ALL breweries, EVERYWHERE". These are all about Influence. Leverage. Insinuating themselves into a culture which is, at least in LARGE part, a reaction to and rejection of everything AB has stood for…

The ugly news broke, just this morning, of the impending sale of Asheville, North Carolina’s Wicked Weed Brewing….to a company which doesn’t give two shits about WW’s beer, P&L sheet or anything else about it…except its LOCATION…

OKAY…here’s a little primer, as we get all set to watch another fine American brewery lose its “Indie Beer” status for good… With these breweries – these, in effect, TOOLS – they can legitimately pry open the doors to state governments in places where Indie Beer is strongest.

The Pour Fool proceeds to list AB InBev's Trojan Zombie Afterlife breweries by state.

Breweries by state: WA: Elysian; 32% of Red Hook / OR: 10 Barrel; 32% of Widmer Brothers / CA: Golden Road Brewing / AZ: Four Peaks Brewing / Texas: Karbach Brewing /VA: Devil’s Backbone Brewing / IL: Goose Island / CO: Breckenridge Brewing / NY: Blue Point Brewing / HI: 32% of Kona Brewing

Then he looks at brewing states by size.

THE LARGEST BREWING STATES, BY # OF BREWERIES:
1. California
2 – 4. Varies between Colorado,Washington, and Oregon
5. Michigan (No AB ownership)
6. Pennsylvania (No AB ownership)
7. New York
8. Wisconsin (No AB ownership)
9. Texas
10. North Carolina
11. Illinois

It's a fairly obvious pattern. AB InBev's acquisitions are about chess, power and shelf space, not necessarily in that order. He notes that breweries in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin have been approached ... and among the targets coming into the multinational's cross-hairs?

The HOTTEST UP & COMERS:
1. Florida
2. Indiana
3. Virginia
4. Ohio
5. Arizona

That's right, Hoosierland; for someone, the lottery's about to hit.

Greedhead Brewers in PA,WI, FL, IN, and OH, think fast. Your payday is coming…

When it does, could brewery owners please take the Twitter advice of legendary beer writer Stephen Beaumont ...

... and pop star Steve Miller: No bullshit and fables; just take the money, and run.