Been lurking for awhile, reading like crazy as I build my business plan for a 20BBL brewery. As I have been a homebrewer for over 15 years and studied beers from all over and followed the rise of many craft breweries, I begin to see a trend among craft brewers that seems like a self-destructive process:
Growth for the sake of growth.
Many of the craft brewers that have blazed the trail for craft brewing in America have become the very behemoths that they swore they'd never be. Many have merged with others and formed conglomerates, changed their brand or sold to private equity, only to later be sold again or ultimately went away. Some have become producers of over 1M BBLs annually. Can we really still call that craft beer? Can beer that is brewed in 250BBL kettles really be called "crafted"?
What is the threshold at which quality, any fraction of it, is sacrificed for quantity? Personally, my goal for my brewery is to never cross it. I' m interested in what others would call that line.
Growth for the sake of growth.
Many of the craft brewers that have blazed the trail for craft brewing in America have become the very behemoths that they swore they'd never be. Many have merged with others and formed conglomerates, changed their brand or sold to private equity, only to later be sold again or ultimately went away. Some have become producers of over 1M BBLs annually. Can we really still call that craft beer? Can beer that is brewed in 250BBL kettles really be called "crafted"?
What is the threshold at which quality, any fraction of it, is sacrificed for quantity? Personally, my goal for my brewery is to never cross it. I' m interested in what others would call that line.
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