The Commons Gathers Around Third Anniversary

Times flies when you're having fun. And they've been having fun while making good beer at The Commons since 2011. They're holding a party to celebrate their success this coming Saturday, Dec. 6, at the brewery on SE Stephens.

When Mike Wright decided to start this place three years ago, he had no idea how successful his little business would be. Today, The Commons has earned widespread respect for its line of Belgian-influenced beers, some of which have won medals at the World Beer Cup and GABF. Their beer is widely available at stores, restaurants and finer watering holes in Portland and beyond.

There are those who think opening a brewery is the secret to great wealth and adoration. But building a brand in the hyper-competitive craft beer marketplace is an arduous task, even if you have great beer. Wright and his compatriots, Josh Grgas, Sean Burke, Travis Sandoval and others, have leaned on their expertise and a lot of hard work to make The Commons what it is.

Wright at the 2012 celebration

This year's anniversary celebration will be the last in the brewery on Stephens. As most who read this know, Wright and Co. have been diligently working on a new and significantly larger space on SE 7th and Belmont. They hope to be open there by the spring, though they are realistic enough to know these things don't always happen the way you plan.

There will be no bottleshare this year. That had a been a prominent and well-attended event the past two years, and will return once they are in their new space. It seems the current landlord is uncomfortable with use of the common areas in the building. That's unfortunate, but somehow understandable given the appeal of these events.

Regardless, the beer list for their Third Anniversary is really fantastic.

Opening Taplist

• Urban Farmhouse: The flagship saison has been on tap #1 since the day the brewery opened.
• Buckwheat Grissette: Belgian table beer with Buckwheat and Brettanomyces.
• Trillium: Blended farmhouse ale aged in Pinot Noir barrels with Brettanomyces Bruxellensis, Brettanomyces Lambicus and house grown cultures.
• 3rd Anniversary Stout: Imperial Stout featuring 10 different malts aged in Bourbon barrels previously used for Bourbon Little Brother and Brotherly Love. 
• 2014 Bourbon Little Brother: Sneak preview of their popular winter bottle seasonal. Belgian Dark Strong Ale partially aged in Bourbon barrels. 
• 2014 Maybelle: Farmhouse ale aged in wine barrels with BSI’s Brettanomyces Bruxellensis variant Drei.
• Putin from the Wood: Baltic Porter aged in Bourbon barrels.
• Pils: Northern German Style with Perle and Spalt hops.  

5:00 PM Taplist

• Gin Enkel: Possibly the last keg of one of their most popular beers. Belgian table beer with spelt and rye aged in fresh Old Tom Gin barrels with apricots. 
• Dark Czar: One off Baltic Porter/Imperial Stout blended with Stumptown Guatemala Finca el Injerto coffee and vanilla beans.
• …plus a special to be announced keg from a friendly Midwest brewery. 

The party gets underway at 2:00 p.m. and will run through 9:00 p.m. or so. Obviously, this isn't the only beer event in the city this weekend, but it will be a good one. You aren't going to have a better opportunity to Gather Around Great Beer, a slight modification of The Commons tagline. Come toast the success of this humble brewery.

Celebrating three years

Holiday Ale Fest Returns for 19th Year

They say Pioneer Courthouse Square is Portland's living room. Assuming that's the case, Portland's living room will welcome back the Holiday Ale Festival next Wednesday through Sunday. This is the event's 19th year, if you're counting.

There aren't really a lot of secrets with respect to this festival. It routinely features bold beers. These aren't run of the mill beers.The great bulk of what you'll find pouring here is made specifically for the event. They have a way of getting some great stuff. We're talking high octane ales, barleywines, barrel-aged beers, etc. Perfect for winter.

As most know, the HAF is housed under clear, heated tents. The weather may turn out to be perfectly dreadful outside, but it will be warm and toasty under the tents. So you won't need to wear your favorite ski outfit to be comfortable. Views of the city skyline and the holiday tree add to the festive appeal of this event.

Another interesting thing about the HAF is it seems to attract people from all over the place. I've mentioned this in previous posts, but it's worth mentioning again. I can't count how many times I have met people who are from faraway places. They come for this event and for all that is Portland.

Because things tend to get a little nuts during prime time, organizers again say the best days to taste are Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday. The first two days are good because a lot of working stiffs can't get down there until the evening, if at all. Folks who show up on Friday or Saturday will likely have to deal with some lines, although it usually doesn't get too wild until mid-afternoon.

There are plenty of details available on the event website here. For example, you can pre-purchase a tasting package there. The beer list is there. A couple of significant factoids to keep in mind: This is a 21 and over event and the kiddies are not welcome.

As for recommended beers, I'm quite sure everyone can manufacturer their own hit list from the online program. If you want to know what the experts are tasting, there are plenty of online and print sources you can consult. As for myself, these are a few of the brews I hope to try:

13 Virtues Brewing Co.

Barrel-Aged MAX Stout

Imperial Stout

10.5% ABV, 70 IBU

Aged in both Eastside Distillery and Bull Run Distillery Whiskey barrels for three to four months, supposedly offers the complexity of oak and vanilla notes and textured layers of deep, dark secrets. I'm sold.

Firestone Walker Brewing

Luponic Distortion 

Double IPA

8.5% ABV, 75 IBU

A complex blended IPA boasting huge citrus notes by the crafty use of Cascade, Centennial, Citra, Amarillo, Chinook and Simcoe hops. Sounds worthy.

Fort George Brewery

Santa's Dinner Jacket 

Bourbon Barrel Aged Imperial Red Ale

8.3% ABV

Aged in Bull Run Distillery barrels. Sipped slowly and allowed to warm, this beer tells a story of time spent in the barrel infusing this heftily hopped ale with notes of port, sherry, caramel and toffee. 

Gigantic Brewing 

Red Ryder BB Gun

Cranberry Saison

6.3% ABV, 22 IBU   

The sweet aroma of cranberries melds perfectly with spicy saison yeasts. There is just enough fruit and tartness to balance the beer's finest pilsner malt. Sounds like a live one.

Hopworks Urban Brewery

The Incredible Abominable of the Enchanted Barrel Forest 

Barrel Aged Imperial Winter Ale 

9.0% ABV, 100 IBU

The infamous uncle of the renowned Abominable Winter Ale.This imperial version was aged in freshly emptied Woodford Reserve Bourbon barrels and features notes of vanilla and spice mixed with the already delightful flavors of citrus and caramel.

McMenamins Edgefield Brewery 

Lord of Misrule   

Rum Barrel Aged Imperial Mexican Mocha Stout 

7.6% ABV,. 24 IBU

This dark and spicy imperial brew was made keeping all the joyful customs surrounding this ancient practice in mind. Brewed with cacao nibs, kilned coffee malt and habanero peppers, then aged in rum barrels post-fermentation. 

Migration Brewing 

Frankie Claus

Belgian Imperial Stout

11.8% ABV, 60 IBU  

This Imperial Belgian Chocolate Stout was brewed with French cocoa, Belgian Trappist yeast, and plenty of attitude. Frankie Claus is layered with notes of banana, cocoa, dried red fruit and toasted almonds, creating a very smooth 11.8% ABV stout with a soft, warming finish.

Portland Brewing

Bourbon Barrel-aged Imperial Stout 

Bourbon Barrel Aged Cherry Stout

10.0% ABV, 25 IBU

Brewed just for the 2014 Holiday Ale Festival, this massive brew boasts a huge backbone from seven different malts, a Northwest hop profile, and notes of roasted coffee balanced by delicious cherry flavors from an Oregon-grown sweet cherry puree.

Stone Brewing 

New Desecrator

Black Barley Wine

12.0% ABV, 100 IBU

This black barley wine has nearly the same profile as Stone Old Guardian, but surrounded by de-husked darkness. To give this demon its own flair, Stone fed it generous portions of Herkules, Amarillo, Comet, El Dorado and Pacifica hops. Coming in at 100+ IBUs, Stone says New Desecrator may just kill Santa Claus and end your holidays early. Yikes!

Of course, there will be a number of special beers tapped during the course of this event. If you want to follow that stuff, there's a mobile version of the Holiday Ale Festival website that your smartphone will automatically detect. Tune in there for on-the-fly updates on special tappings and locations, as well as other event details.

Jon Abernathy's 'Bend Beer' Earns Two Thumbs Up

Bend Beer: A History of Brewing in Central Oregon by Jon Abernathy
Foreword by Gary Fish
The History Press/American Palate, 171 pages
$20

Bend, Oregon is widely recognized as one of the top beer cities in the country. In fact, articles published in the national media have routinely referred to it in recent times as Beer Town USA. That's based largely on the number of breweries per capita and the quality of the beer.

Jon Abernathy's new book traces the transition of Bend (and Central Oregon) from frontier homesteading to the timber boom era to recreation, tourism and, finally, beer. It's a long and winding road, with a number of fascinating stopovers along the way.

The first thing you realize is that Bend's history does not parallel that of Portland, Oregon's largest city and the place where craft beer in the state was born. Henry Weinhard Brewing had a dominant presence in Portland and the Northwest for more than a century. There was only a small brewing presence in Central Oregon until Deschutes Brewing was born in 1988. That's when Bend's beer trajectory starts to line up with Portland's.

Without many breweries to write about in the early period, Abernathy focuses mostly on the economic development of Central Oregon. The area possessed a tiny population of subsistence farmers and ranchers. Bend wasn't even incorporated until 1905, largely a result of the fact that the area was economically isolated. That changed in a big way with the arrival of the railroad in 1911, which opened to door to the timber era and dynamic growth.

Strangely enough, the coming of the railroad and the launch of the timber boom era coincided closely with state prohibition in 1916. Bend had been a haven for saloons and brothels from its early days and the temperance movement was greeted by many. But not all. One of the more fascinating stories from the prohibition period involves the role Central Oregon played in the manufacture of moonshine for the region. I won't give it away, other than to say the countryside "lit up at night."

Confiscated still

By the time Prohibition ended in 1933, Bend's economy was dominated by timber. Taverns and bars opened or reopened and the beer flowed. Bond Street, the eventual home to Deschutes Brewery and Public House, once again became a bustling strip. The area's beer experience during the period following Prohibition mirrored that of the country, as the national brands moved in.

The timber era began to decline by the late 1950s, gradually replaced by recreation and tourism. Mount Bachelor (known at Bachelor Butte until 1983) led the way as a magnet for visitors from outside the area and accounted for a growing financial footprint. As the onslaught of the national brands intensified during the post-World War II era, Central Oregon aligned with the rest of the state in supporting regional brands Olympia and Blitz-Weinhard.

Deschutes under construction. 1988.

Gary Fish was operating a restaurant in Utah and watching the craft movement expand in the mid-1980s. He looked at the brewpub model and saw something he liked. Northern California is where he wanted to establish a brewery, but high real estate prices and competition proved problematic. His parents, having visited Central Oregon, suggested he take a look at Bend.

Deschutes Brewery opened in June 1988, less than a year after Fish visited the area to check things out. Abernathy documents several interesting points here. First, there were others who had plans to open a brewery in Bend around this time. None succeeded. Second, Deschutes was not an instant success by any means. They were problems with employees, customers and infected beer. These were uncertain times.

Collection of Jubelale bottles

"You could shoot a gun off in here a lot of nights and nobody would notice," Fish is quoted as saying. Some nights he sent employees home and ran the place alone business was so slow. That's a hard concept to fathom today, given what Deschutes has become.

Most of the second half of the book deals with Bend after Deschutes. Abernathy rolls through the successes and growing pains at Deschutes and traces the history of breweries that came later: Silver Moon, Cascade Lakes, Bend Brewing, 10 Barrel, etc. The names and travels of countless brewers, many of whom passed through Deschutes and other places on their way to their own gigs, are tracked.

Bend Brewing

Because it happened after the book was published, Anheuser-Busch's purchase of 10 Barrel Brewing is not covered. That's probably just as well. Any future edition of this book will certainly address that deal and the not-so-friendly response to it. For now, interested folks will have to be satisfied with news reports and blog coverage.

As many who read this surely know, I wrote the history of Portland beer. The Bend book shares the same publisher and, as you can see, the same cookie cutter cover layout. I have never met Jon Abernathy, but we had several online conversations regarding his project. Still, no one told me I had to like his book or recommend it. Bend's story is really quite different than Portland's for reasons that are readily apparent as you read the book.

At the end of the day, some of the most interesting history is local history. For it is local history that traces the development of communities and people most clearly. Jon Abernathy does a fine job laying out and explaining the forces that shaped the transformation of Bend and Central Oregon from frontier to modern times. The brewing part of that history happens to be most prominent after 1988. Still, there is great history here.

This book will be of interest to residents, non-residents and tourists who want to know how Bend and Central Oregon became what it is today. The hoards that travel the Bend Ale Trail annually will find plenty to like here. The story is well-researched, well-constructed and expertly written. And it will occupy a seminal place in the literature of this area for years to come.

Jon has launched a series of events in support of the book. Some have already taken place and I assume they have gone well. Here in Portland, he will appear at Powell's Books on Burnside on Friday, Dec. 5.  He will partner with Brian Yaeger, whose book, Oregon Breweries, comes out next week. Both books have Facebook pages and websites with more info. I urge interested folks to learn more.

Breakside Highlights Special Releases, Library Flights

The last time I mentioned Breakside Brewing here was last December, when I said there were my brewery of the year for 2013. That comment was based mostly on the fact that they had created some truly amazing specialty beers to go with some terrific standards, like their IPA and Pilsner.

Head brewer Ben Edmunds and his team have continued to build on that theme in 2014. The production brewery in Milwaukie has enabled them to do large batches of the popular standards, which you can find almost anywhere at reasonable prices. Meanwhile, smaller batches of seasonals and funky, barrel-aged specialty beers are showing up, too. I'll get to those shortly.

Looking at OLCC numbers, and keep in mind that these are Oregon-only numbers (limited to beer made and sold here), Breakside's overall production is rising. For all of 2013, they produced 3,178 barrels. Through August of this year, they produced 3,521 barrels. If monthly trends hold, they will easily pass through 5K barrels by the end of the year. As noted, these numbers do not include out-of-state sales, which are increasing.

Of course, rising production numbers suggest a strong following. Breakside bumped up the buzz in that area by winning two medals at the 2014 GABF. Breakside IPA took gold in the American Style IPA category and Wanderlust IPA won bronze for American Strong Pale Ale. Lots of good news at Breakside.

And there's more. Edmunds and his brewing elves have made great progress, but they continue to forge ahead with the release of new specialty beers and a new rare beer tasting program at their Milwaukie Brewery and Taproom. Below the details:

La Tormenta (dry-hopped soul ale): 7% ABV, 22 IBU
An experimental ale that combines a mildly tart base with a tasty and aromatic blend of tropical, fruity hops. Notes of grapefruit and lemongrass are present. This is a fantastic beer. No wonder it's one of Breakside's most popular small batch beers of the year. It will be available on draft and in bombers. The Portland release party happens tonight (11/20) at Beermongers, where they will have a flock of Breakside beers on tap.

Imperial Red: 8% ABV, 93 IBU
This is essentially an Imperial Red IPA and has enough backbone to offer a nice alternative to standard winter beers. But it's the aroma and flavor provided by Simcoe and Amarillo hops that make this beer special, with notes of pine resin and grapefruit. Imperial Red is so smooth you won't even notice the added alcohol, so watch it. This is a draft only release and you'll find it at Breakside and select locations. It's disappearing quickly, so get it now.

Country Blonde: 7.2% ABV, 27 IBU
A wheaten saison conditioned on Gewurztraminer grapes and a blend of wild yeast and bacteria that includes three strains of Brettanomyces and Lactobacillus. I tasted this beer, along with Imperial Red and La Tormenta, at a Tuesday night media event. It is excellent. Country Blonde will be available only in bottles probably limited to Breakside locations.

Rare & Vintage Beer Library Flights

Getting a chance to taste older vintages of specialty beers, particularly flights, is great fun. You get to appreciate how beers have aged and evaluate sometimes quirky flavor profiles. This type of tasting has become increasingly popular in recent times.

To address that demand, Breakside is launching Rare and Vintage Beer Library Flights at their Milwaukie location starting Dec. 5. Flights will be 5 oz pours (three for $9 or $3 each). Choices will vary and only include beers not available on draft. The Library Flights program will be run Friday through Sunday. Check Breakside's social media feeds for weekly updates on beers.

Once again, Breakside is setting a high standard for great beer and business smarts. They obviously aren't the only ones doing good work here, but it seems to me things are looking especially bright at Breakside. 

Risk and Reward in the 10 Barrel Buyout

When 10 Barrel Brewing agreed to be purchased by Anheuser-Busch, the founders surely evaluated the risk. In the end, they decided the benefits of selling outweighed the risks associated with potential negative consequences. That's how business decisions work.

One of the angles they certainly considered is that, by selling out to big beer, 10 Barrel would no longer be considered a craft brewery by the Brewers Association. The Brewers Association, although it is home to some odd rules, has some pretty simple guidelines when it comes to craft brewers.

1. Small: Annual production must not exceed 6 million barrels
2. Independent: Less than 25 percent of the brewery is owned by a large, non-craft brewer.
3. Traditional: The majority of a brewer's volume is beer made by fermenting traditional or innovative brewing ingredients.

These guidelines have been questioned. What are "innovative brewing ingredients?" for instance. How does 6 million barrels make sense when most craft brewers produce in the thousands of barrels annually? Deschutes Brewing, one of the largest craft brewers, brewed 478,00 barrels last year. Sam Adams brewed 2.5 million barrels. What? Some say the Brewers Association has adjusted the production limit upward over the years to keep Sam Adams, the behemoth of the craft world, in. But never mind.

In 10 Barrel's case, the production limit won't be an issue anytime soon, if ever. Same goes for the traditional aspect. Where the problem occurs is ownership. Being a wholly owned subsidiary of Anheuser-Busch means they lose the craft label. Regardless of whether you think that's an issue, it is the reality.

So I was amused to see an article in the Bend Bulletin under the headline: "Could 10 Barrel Lose Craft Brewer Label?" Seriously? Folks, there isn't a question. The craft label is gone. Kaput. I enjoyed reading some of the comments, particularly those attributed to Van Havig, co-owner of Portland's Gigantic Brewing and a member of the Oregon Brewers Guild board of directors.

"Those people [at 10 Barrel] are craft brewers, period," Havig told the Bulletin. "It has nothing to do with who owns them." 

Actually, who owns them does matter to beer fans and the Brewers Association. But that's a nice way to spin it and a smart position for any brewer to take...just in case his or her brewery should be bought out by a beer behemoth at some point. Thinking ahead always makes sense. 

Whether the craft label matters is open to serious question. Goose Island lost its craft status when it sold out to AB in 2011. Widmer Brewing lost its craft status when it sold a roughly 30 percent stake to AB in 1997. Same goes for Blue Point Brewing, which came under AB control earlier this year.

The funny thing is, these breweries are doing fine. Widmer is a relevant national brand, distributed across the country. Goose Island is in the same boat. It's kind of early to say what will happen with Blue Point, but you suspect it will experience similar results.

10 Barrel is going to be the butt of jokes among beer geeks in Oregon for a while. A short-term drop in sales volume here seems likely. A lot of people have told me they will never support 10 Barrel by buying their beer or going to the brewpub that will open in Portland next spring. Fair enough.

As a kid, I was told, "You take your chances and you take your lumps." 10 Barrel took its chances selling out to AB and is taking its lumps. I don't like this buyout or those like it one bit, but I think 10 Barrel will probably be just fine in the end.

Watered Down Beer in Seattle?

It's been a sketchy season so far for the defending Super Bowl champion Seahawks. They haven't exactly been blowing the competition away. Now comes news that fans are paying for watered down beer at CenturyLink Field. Very bad.

This story was first reported by KOMO TV (it's now spread to other outlets), which had operatives collect beer samples on two separate trips to CenturyLink during Sounders and Seahawks games. Samples were smuggled out of the stadium (it's illegal to do that) in small vials and subsequently evaluated by a Seattle lab.

The lab results showed that all of the six beers tested fell short of the advertised ABV. In some cases, the shortfall was minimal and within federal guidelines, which allow a discrepancy of up to .3% below the stated number. In other cases, not so much. Below, the results.

Stella Artois

5.0% stated

4.8% measured

Bud Light

4.2% stated

3.9% measured

Redhook No Equal

5.2% stated

4.8% measured

Shocktop

5.2 stated

4.7% measured

Bass Pale Ale

5.1% stated

4.5% measured

Budweiser

5% stated

4.4% measured

There's a lively discussion about this on the KOMO site. Some folks are pointing out that it's illegal to remove beer from the stadium. Very helpful. Others point out how implausible watered down beer is, given the challenges.

One of my industry friends (not with Anheuser-Busch, which owns five of the six brands tested) says the risks of watering beer, whether in the stadium or in production, far outweigh the financial benefits. There are actual laws that include some fairly stiff penalties, I guess. 

I'm not a lab technician or scientist, but I wonder if these results could have somehow been tainted by sample sizes, storage methods or time between collecting samples and evaluating them. There ought be a more formal investigation of this mess, I think.

The timing of this news isn't good. A couple of years back fans learned that large and small cups at CenturyLink held the same amount of beer. Thus, people paying $1.25 more for a large cup were getting the same amount of beer as the cheapskates who ordered the small. Stadium suits took the Fifth..."We didn't know." Of course they didn't. Needless to say, trust in stadium management has been running a little thin of late. Now the ABV controversy.

Think about this situation for a few seconds and connect the dots. Seahawks fans are going to need more, not less, alcohol to get through this year's nail-biters. If fans think stadium management is screwing them on ticket prices and beer, they'll drink more before games and smuggle in extra booze to hold them over during the games. Getting "blitzed" may take on a whole new meaning. 

This may not work out well.

10 Barrel and the New Reality in Craft Beer

Wednesday's announcement that Anheuser-Busch is acquiring 10 Barrel Brewing of Bend drew a firestorm of commentary in social media and blog land, most of it negative. The reasons are related to how craft brands are perceived and what people think they should and shouldn't be. And who should and shouldn't own them.

Provincialism
When I was researching my book on Portland Beer, I asked a number of people why craft beer had taken off here. The theme that popped up routinely in responses was provincialism. In Portland and Oregon we have a history of preferring products that are produced locally by local businesses.

These attitudes originated during pioneer times and grew into a strong do-it-yourself culture through the 20th century. I think a good argument can be made that provincialism is on the wane here. You look around and see all these nationally-owned big box stores infesting the area and you realize there's nothing provincial about them.

However, provincial attitudes are entrenched when it comes to craft beer. That's probably because craft beer came along at a time, starting in the mid-1980s, when our provincial facade was beginning to crack. We've experienced massive growth since that time and a lot of things have changed. Yet we stubbornly hang on to craft beer as something small, local and artisan.

There truly is a sort of mythology driving that. Some of our breweries (Deschutes, Widmer, etc.) are huge by craft standards. And there's serious money being invested in hoards of beer-centric operations like taprooms, restaurants, growler fill stations and more. Craft beer is big business. Yet many beer fans continue to think of it differently.

There have been prior deals with big beer here. Bridgeport was sold to Gambrinus in 1995. Portland Brewing has been bought and sold several times. Widmer partnered with Anheuser-Busch in 1997, a deal in which AB gained a non-controlling interest in the company. None of these arrangements was greeted with enthusiasm when announced.

The Empire
It's hard to say what will happen with 10 Barrel. The founders got a chunk of cash, for sure, and you can't fault them for that. In the short run, I suspect they will continue to function much as they have. The beers brewed in 10 Barrel breweries will remain solid. Their specialty beer program may actually expand, as it has at Goose Island since the AB buyout a couple of years back.

Of course, AB did not enter into this deal out of the kindness of its heart...or strictly to help 10 Barrel build its brand in Oregon.They need to fill a deepening revenue hole caused by the collapse of Bud, Bud Light and other standards. Distributing craft brands around the country is part of that plan, and it means 10 Barrel beers will eventually be brewed in factory breweries, as happened with Goose Island. The quality of those beers will likely suffer.

Acquisitions are just one part of AB's effort to maintain its position in the industry. There will be more buyouts. Even so, AB cannot buy craft breweries fast enough to make up for the volume they're losing with their mainstream brands. Another piece of the action plan involves buying up distributors in some states, including Oregon, so they can use discounting and other tactics to leverage their position. There's also an effort to slow the growth of craft beer by lobbying for restrictive laws, new and existing, in some states. A rather shameful resume.

Given Anheuser-Busch's body of work, they and 10 Barrel should have expected the uproar that materialized this week. Social media, which didn't exist when the prior deals happened, magnified the beatdown that descended on them. I understand comments were deleted and people were banned from social media pages. The banter reached such a crescendo that AB and 10 Barrel reached out to "sympathetic" media outlets (sorry, no names) in hopes of creating some positive spin. Ingenious.

Perspective
Honestly, I completely get the emotionally charged response to this deal due to Anheuser-Busch's unlikable corporate persona. At the same time, I think a lot of people are holding onto some fairly outdated notions about craft beer. It is no longer particularly small or particularly local or necessarily driven by idealistic values. Craft beer is big business, and getting bigger by the minute.

The buyout of 10 Barrel isn't the end or even the beginning of the end for craft beer. Not even close. However, this deal and the one for Goose Island suggest an end to roughly three decades in which craft brewers flew mostly under big beer's radar. Those days are gone forever. And the line that previously divided craft beer and big beer is blurring.

Millennials and Craft Beer in the Digital Age

It's hardly a secret that Millennials are a force to be reckoned with in modern American business. They make up an increasingly significant portion of the 25-45 age group business covets and targets. This is as true of the beer industry as any other.

The problem for business is the Millennial demographic is not receptive to traditional marketing strategies and tactics. You cannot effectively reach them via print, radio or television advertising. One might argue that's because they are fixated on computer, tablet and phone screens. But never mind.

There are a lot of things businesses have to keep in mind with Millennials and plenty of places to find that intel if that's your thing. Generally speaking, these kids identify more personally and emotionally with brands than prior generations. They demand to interact and be part of the brands they respect.

The platform that makes this stuff happen is provided by the combined emergence of the smart phone and social media, which allow good and bad experiences to be widely spread electronically in the blink of an eye. This kind of instant publicity was unheard of 10 years ago. Today it drives the success of many businesses...and Millennials are heavily immersed in it.

When it comes to beer, Millennial tastes are vague and transient. They want to experience a wide range of flavors, which means they are receptive to inventive approaches and bizarre blends, and somewhat bored by traditional styles. In short, they are regularly looking for something new and different.

That reality is forcing suppliers and retailers to radically increase the number of available choices. A reliable industry source expects the number of SKUs on the market to double within 10 years. That's a significant increase given there are already something like 10,000 SKUs out there.

These changes mean chaos for big beer, whose leadership is dominated mostly by folks who have been around for 20 or more years. Age alone isn't the issue. The more serious problem is they are stuck in an antiquated mindset. Expensive ad campaigns and traditional media are yesterday's news...they fall flat with Millennials.

Craft beer is another story. Small breweries and pubs never had the luxury of using expensive, traditional media. Building a brand identity took years. Then came social media and the smart phone. Today, craft-centric businesses are leveraging the digital space and effectively engaging with the all-important Millennial demographic. Craft brands are being built quickly, almost overnight in some cases.

In other words, the brand building shoe is now on the other foot. Being small and unable to afford expensive advertising tactics has put the little guys ahead of the big guys in the digital, Millennial age. If nothing else, you have to appreciate the irony.