Portland Kettle Works & Labrewatory Owner Endorses AB/InBev While Criticizing Brewers Association

This is the first Hop-Ed column, The New School's opinion section.

Local brewery owners and brewhouse/tank fabricators Portland Kettle Works have incited some controversy by throwing their support to Anheuser-Busch/InBev while criticizing the Brewers Association.

In an emailed statement, (also posted to its blog,) Portland Kettle Works and The Labrewatory owner Thad Fisco uses a meeting with Brewers Association members to frame his criticism. The lengthy defense of InBev and other large brewers by Fisco dropped at the same time small brewers are gathering in Denver for the Craft Brewers Conference, which is produced by the BA. The Brewers Association is a not-for-profit industry trade group representing small and independent brewers. The BA has championed the use of the words "craft beer" and brewery, independent brewer and the "Independence Matters" campaign.

"Anheuser-Busch, Heineken, Constellation Brands, MillerCoors, Mahou San Miguel, Kirin, Asahi and the other big players are fully invested and very engaged in the business of craft beer" writes Fisco.

In my own emailed response I asked Fisco how he can defend their anti-competitive assaults on craft beer by throttling distribution and shelf placements, as well as documented pay-to-play strategies. Rather than address these isssues directly, I was directed to comment on the PKW blog.

"The competition is healthy and helps to drive innovation and quality throughout the industry."

asserts Fisco, of InBev and other major corporate players influence.

The pro-corporate beer argument basically amounts to the idea that they are bringing more fans into the fold who will enjoy craft or "premium" beers, thus increasing craft's market share. The entire argument hinges on the BA's stated goal of 20% market share, a lofty goal that ultimately is just a meaningless marker if it's counting corporate mass produced product.

"While the BA is engaged in protectionism, AB InBev is experimenting and redefining the market in an effort to remove barriers to entry for the 80% of non-craft beer drinkers.  Independent brewers have a lot to learn from their efforts to grow demand in an increasingly competitive business," writes Fisco.

I spoke to Sam Holloway, founder of Crafting A Strategy and board member of Oakshire Brewing, who is mentioned heavily in Fisco's letter. Holloway disagreed that Fisco was letting ABInBev off the hook.

"I don't think Thad's email was a full endorsement of AB InBev, far from it," - Sam Holloway.

However, Fisco's impassioned defense of InBev does not once mention any criticism of their tactics, in fact just the opposite.

"The evidence shows that the big brewers are not out to destroy craft beer, craft beer drinkers, or craft breweries."

Fisco is apparently ignoring the numerous documented occasions of their shady dealings and repeated out in the open media assaults on craft beer.

"AB InBev and the other large breweries that have invested in premium beer offerings are helping raise all boats"

That's a theory that may have once been true and that the late-great Don Younger subscribed to, but that was when we had a couple dozen breweries in Portland. Not approaching 100. And as we have seen in recent years in Oregon, (and across the country) the surge of brewery openings and InBev and Miller-Coors buyouts are pinching the bottom line and putting breweries out of business. It's simply not true that AB/InBev's investment in premium beer is raising all boats, more like its wake is sinking them, or at least making those ships take on water.

The New School's Eugene correspondent Aaron Brussat weighs in:

"Growth in business is a measure of success."Yes, well that's one measure of success. Another measure may be how good your beer is, or how you support your local community, or how many facebook followers you have. That statement is almost meaningless unless applied to a specific instance, and while more money sometimes equals more success, I think you can use the WalMart example of putting thousands of small businesses out of business and taking money out of communities that growth in business also has negative consequences. Amalgamation of business on a large scale, with its purported efficiencies, eliminates the fractal effect of having many small, specialized businesses that may not be the most efficient but that produce dollars, jobs, and intangible positive effects on the people who work for and patronize those businesses.

Dude, this is crazy. Though I don't agree with the BA's re-definition of craft to continuously include Boston Beer even though it's a publicly traded company (and thus not independent - which I think is/should be shorthand for "independently owned"), this statement of support by a relatively small business is ridiculous and it sounds like they've drunk the $Kool-Aid$ and are angling to be purchased by a large brewery conglomerate.

What happened to the BA's 20% by 2020? That's obviously not going to happen, though it might if it decided to take the AB pill and include all the "craft beer" it produces. But who fucking cares about a round number? Despite its flaws, the BA does present a threat to the capitalist paradigm that is bolstered by the current administration, and that is exactly what the economy and beer industry need in order to prevent corporatocracy and monopoly under the guise of a diverse portfolio. "Craft" is not part of a portfolio, especially if that portfolio also includes Bud Light; how is that not completely obvious to everyone? It's the ouroboros of beer. Budweiser eats its young.

Add to that, and shame on PKW for supporting a business that would do this, the latest lawsuit against AB InBev for intentionally mimicking the brandingof another beer and another company: Patagonia. No regrets on AB's part because it, like Heineken USA does when it gives away its draught systems in Washington State, can just pay some millions-of-dollars fines no problem, all the while maintaining its innocence. If that represents PKW's imagination of what craft beer is, maybe the real craft breweries who purchase their products should think again.

The BA is a not-for-profit, and is run by a board of directors with term limits (basically the opposite of the companies PKW is supporting; do you even Brito, bro?). If there is enough of a voice to move it in a different direction by consensus, then it will. So get in there.