"Takeovers" - a considered view

Yeah, well, you know, thatā€™s just, like, your opinion, man

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No - itā€™s the writerā€™s opinion! I do like to see all sides discussed tho. Iā€™m going with how stuff like takeovers affects breweries Iā€™m familiar with. Not unhappy so far with Heineken/Lagunitas and the Unibroue thing. Still very unhappy with what the old AB did to Celis in Texas so many years ago. However the new AB has resumed making Hoegaarden. The crystal balls on takeovers remain murky for the most part.

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Claiming there is no such thing as craft beer community is just ridiculous. Also conception that craft beer = quality is just wrong.

Was dissapointed with his piece about Goose Island Balham which seemed like a promo article.

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Clearly there are craft beer communities within ā€œlocalā€ areas. But when it comes to international relationships (Claimstake goes to Warpig may be an example), maybe there should be another term. Not coming to me tho. I just donā€™t think the term community is useful as a world wide concept.

Boak and Bailey potted this take pretty comprehensively.

"But if they expect to benefit from the Community during the startup phase, in terms of PR, labour, and even financial investment, then it only seems fair to allow those who perceive themselves to be part of that Community a moment of dismay when the brewery withdraws from the informal contract. (Dismay not including abuse, of course, especially when directed at staff manning social media.)

Or, to put all that another way, the Community is real, but it isnā€™t universal, isnā€™t Utopia, and shouldnā€™t be a cult. "

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Not sure whatā€™s worse: the website design or the opinion.

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You missed my reference.

Clearly.

Jeebus, that Goose Island piece is terrible.

However, I agree with him on the matter of ā€œcommunityā€, though. Any definition broad enough to cover everything people want it to cover is loose enough to be effectively useless. It might work as a concept on local scales, but thereā€™s no commonality of purpose and cooperation over intercontinental scales.

Iā€™ll start with Croatia since thatā€™s what Iā€™m most familiar with. There is a community around craft beer in Croatia. Roots of that community are in strong homebrewing scene which eventually gave us first craft breweries. It may not work that way on world scale, but there is some kind of camaraderie between the beer geeks, be it through RB, BA, UT, twitter or meeting a random person at the bar.

Sorry, but I fail to see that around Nescafe or Stella (examples mentioned by Martyn). Thanks to the craft movement (yes, I know, not sure how to call it) beer is somewhat special, not comparable with any other mass product.

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True. Likely because the accessibility of the necessary ingredients permits home brewing. Which starts many associations. Wine? There is a lot of interest in home wine making, but to translate from home to commercial production? There used to be a very few producers in California who started little stores and sold their own products. There were local cliques/communities who went to them. Long gone. Wine moved to wealthy elites starting their own vineyards. Table grapes ripped out to be replaced with wine grapes. Little hope for placement on store shelves. So wine clubs! Which donā€™t really create person to person interactions.

Beer? Taprooms are sort of like those long gone wine stores. Little groups of loyalists. Many of whom belong to several groups. Beer festivals bring even more together. There may not be a single overarching craft beer community, but there hundreds of them (if not thousands) which are cross-fertilized by brewer collaborations. And then there are hops. Something to get creative with. Something to excite people. In so many ways vinification just canā€™t create communities like brewing can.

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To that point, what other industry is so noncompetitive that producers regularly collaborate with one anotherā€¦ also, breweries (Beavertown, Other Half, Mikkeller) throw massive festivals showcasing the product of all their competitors. Take a look at AB-Inbevā€™s Okfestā€¦ almost every beer there is one of its own products. Or look at a brewery like other half who, last time I was there, had Cellarmaker and Foam beers on tap. Or the Green City festival which was attended by dozens of potential competitors (i.e., people making the same exact style of beer as OH). The only industry that comes to mind with this level of collaboration is music, in which bands throw festivals and invite all their friends and regularly collaborate with other artists, be it on songs, compilation albums, splits or whatever. Craft beer is a community in the same way there is a punk community, a metal community, or a jam band community.

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Your argumentation is terrible. Examples that support a claim cannot be used to prove a rule, they are merely anecdotal. However, examples that counter a claim can be used to falsify that claim. So, for example, if Zywiec beer festival existed, your claim would be utterly blown out of the water. And it does. Ooops.

That article is nonsense, so many fallacies and flawed arguments. Iā€™m not sure why someone would even bother to reply to it. For the LOLs listen this (the speech starts around 6:30):

I always felt (and lived) it that way. Going to festivals - home and abroad - in order to know different beers/bands, sharing 'knowledge" with other enthusiasts, always trying different styles (let it be Ipas, Lagers, sours or power/black/gothic).

I think itā€™s not a coincidence that members ot the craft beer community come from the metal/punk scene or vice versa

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I canā€™t follow your logic. @mansquito has provided numerous examples of why there is a craft beer community. What evidence have you provided to the contrary? Does Zywiec have a beer festival, I canā€™t tell? Additionally, perhaps the craft beer community varies across regions/countries.

community - a feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals.

Over my years, I have come across a lot of people that I felt fellowship with b/c of our hobby. This includes other drinkers, brewers, bar tenders, and sellers/distributors. Iā€™ve shared beers, made friendships, traveled, and communicated from this hobby. I definitely see and believe to be part of the community. Perhaps some donā€™t share the same feeling. I think arguing that whether there is a craft beer community is mostly arguing about how you feel rather than some sort of objective truth. Simply put, if you feel that bond to others there is a community and if you donā€™t then you are not part of the community.

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Room for lots of diverse craft beer communities.

CAMRA should be considered one - but not a universal one.

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better put, thanks.