Back in 2011, beer geeks were abuzz when Anheuser-Busch announced they were purchasing Chicago’s Goose Island. A whole host of emotions - outrage, disappointment, and fear that the news was the beginning of the end for craft beer - spread throughout the beer industry and craft beer community. Three years later, when news of A-B’s purchase of Blue Point spread, it appears that beer geeks sighed and bellowed a collective “meh.”
“I give Zero Fucks that this particular brewery has been taken out of the craft beer category,” The Full Pint proclaimed, saying that Blue Point was irrelevant because their beer ratings on Rate Beer were low. “Nail in the coffin,” a reader exclaimed on Twitter, “but not like I am reaching for Blue Point beers these days anyways.” On Beer Advocate’s forums, an echo chamber for beer snobs, one member called it a “non-factor for me. Blue Point bottles collect dust in my area, I’ve had maybe 2 of their beers and was left unimpressed.”
It seems that among a subset of the craft beer community, a beer conglomerate buying out a brewery doesn’t matter to them, because that brewery didn’t brew beers that appealed to their own tastes. Blue Point didn’t get by for 15 years brewing bad beer. Here’s why, regardless of what you think of Blue Point’s beer, you should care about the deal:
