Craft Beer Continues Blistering Growth in Portland

Maybe one of the worst kept secrets in beer is that Portland is the top craft beer market in the country. This has been the case for many years and, but the numbers continue paint a pretty crazy picture, based on IRI (Information Resources, Inc.) stats I've been looking at in a couple of industry publications.

During 2015, the craft segment grew 11 percent and ended with a 44 share (dollar volume) in Portland grocery stores. The next closest segment was Domestic Premium, which lost more than 1 percent to finish at just under 20 share.

Keep in mind that IRI expanded the definition of craft to include Blue Moon, Shock Top and Leinunkugel for 2015. Those brands were flat and combined for less than 3 percent of craft dollar share for the year, which means fake craft brands aren't contributing much to overall craft growth here, as expected.

You might think growth in the craft segment is being driven by the large breweries, places like Deschutes, Widmer, Portland Brewing, Bridgeport, New Belgium, etc. But that's not the case. In fact, the big guys collectively lost more than 1.5 percent dollar share for the year, led by Gambrinus/Bridgeport at -14 percent. This isn't your grandpa's craft beer market.

It turns out a few up-and-coming breweries showed the biggest percentage growth for 2015. Hop Valley led the pack, up 86 percent and accounting for nearly 2 percent of the market in dollars. I have no idea which specific brands drove that growth, but I suspect it has a lot to do with releasing more options in price-friendly six-packs of bottles and cans. Hop Valley's dollar growth ($1.7 million) led the entire market.

Of course, there's more. A host of mostly smaller breweries combined to overcome what the larger breweries lost, a trend started several years ago. Be careful about reading too much into the graph below. Why? Because Ninkasi's 10 percent growth and Sierra Nevada's 21 percent growth represent a lot more volume (in beer and dollars) than the big growth numbers posted by Breakside, Three Creeks, etc. The graph is best seen as a rough visual aid.

We've known for a while that Portland is an increasingly brutal market for macro lagers. It's actually worse than it looks because IRI is based on retail sales and does not include beer sold in taverns, pubs, restaurants or independent convenience stores. If all beer sold in Portland were part of IRI, craft's market share would easily exceed 60 percent in dollars. Well, that's what I've been told by people who know about such things.

There's not much more to say, except let the beatdown continue.

The 2016 Plan: No Quitters at Anheuser-Busch

Like 'em or hate 'em, you have to give the folks at Anheuser-Busch credit. They've been called anti-competitive sociopaths and delusional sycophants. But one thing you never hear them called is quitters. They don't know the meaning of the word.

I've been reading various reports on the AB strategy for the coming year and it is mesmerizing. The guys evidently believe there's no such thing as a dead end brand that can't be returned to viability via truckloads of cash and retread marketing schemes. Never mind the actual product.

The big idea, as usual, is gaining market share, something AB hasn't done since 2008. There's a pile of PR schlock behind that goal. Some of the themes include "investing in the future" and "strengthening relationships." Just the kinds of things you expect to hear from talking heads in a woebegone organization.

Of course, growth is tough when you've got a bunch of brands in freefall. AB has been losing share in the premium segment for years, and the decline is redlining with young drinkers who are uninterested in the products and largely unreachable via traditional advertising channels. It's a serious problem.

That reality is driving investment in the so-called High End, which expanded with the acquisition of several craft breweries in 2015. Expect a continuation of that theme in 2016, as spending will reach a new, unspecified high. The High End segment likely represents the best chance they have to offset declines through the rest of their portfolio.

Their goal with the High End segment is aggressive. They hope to double whatever the growth rate is in craft beer. If craft hits 20 percent growth this year, AB wants the High End to reach 40 percent. It's probably unrealistic, but that's what happens when you're desperate to grow your numbers and your new product pipeline is vacant.

They do have winners in the High End. Goose Island IPA, now brewed in factories everywhere, had a big year in 2015. AB wants it to be the #1 IPA in the land this year. Its other craft minions, including 10 Barrel, Elysian and Blue Point, also did well. Then there's Stella Artois, which was up 20 percent and will receive additional investment in an effort to double volume within a few years.

Along the lines of refusing to quit on flat-lining brands, the suits are determined to revive the fortunes of Shock Top, their very own fake craft brand. They are upping the ante considerably, spending more out of the gate than they did all of last year. Among other things, that money will buy Shock Top a Super Bowl spot. You won't want to miss it. Trust me.

The best I've saved for last. Bud Light, which has been in steady decline in recent years, will get the biggest investment ever. The guys simply refuse to quit on their pet brand. Instead, they'll leverage their connection with the NFL, including several Super Bowl ads and team cans. Some cities will even get NBA cans, apparently. Because everyone knows the road to improved brand identity and credibility is paved with fancy new packaging.

Some people say the guys at AB don't have a sense of humor. But that can't be true. When you stubbornly hang onto flagging brands and your only winning strategy is buying up your competition because you don't have any new ideas of your own, you better have a sense of humor.

OSU Hops and Brewing Archive Gets Eckhardt Papers

Somewhat lost in the hubbub over the various festivals and events happening these past few days was a press release posted on Oregon State University's website. The release announced that the papers of the late Fred Eckhardt have been acquired by OSU's Hops and Brewing Archives.

Eckhardt's contributions to the craft beer movement in Oregon and beyond are well-known. As the release notes, he was an advocate, critic, mentor, educator, historian and more. He is quite rightfully considered one of the founding fathers of craft beer in this country.

The papers apparently document Mr. Eckhardt's travels from the 1970s through the 1990s, the period in which he established himself as the dean of American beer writers. He spent considerable time visiting brewers and publishing his thoughts in articles and in several notable books. It isn't a stretch to say he pushed brewers to be more aggressively creative than they might otherwise have been.

Adding Eckhardt's papers to the Hops and Brewing Archives means they will be available to researchers studying the formative years of the craft beer movement. This is significant because, as I discovered while researching Portland Beer, the early breweries did a poor job of recording their histories. It's hard to blame them. They didn't know what was going to happen.

The papers of Fred Eckhardt will surely provide insight into what was going on behind the scenes in the early craft breweries. Hopefully, his gift will encourage others who have studied this history to share their materials. The materials I assembled while researching my book, including interviews, photos, news clippings and more, already live in the OSU Archives.

For the unknowing, the Hops and Brewing Archives were established in 2013. It's mission is to preserve the history of hops growing and craft beer. This is apparently the first archive of its kind in the country. That make sense, I guess, given the proximity to hops growing and great beer.

There's more information on the Hops and Brewing Archives website here. Besides research materials, they are actively collecting items connected to early breweries...things like labels, signage, promotional items, etc. These folks are doing great work and deserve whatever help we, as writers, authors, brewers, etc., can give them.

Expect Millennials to Continue Drinking Heavily

Looking through the flood of beer-related emails in my inbox, I was amused to see a story announcing the possible end of craft beer. Hey, I realize click bait is a fact of life these days, and I make a conscious effort to steer away from those links. But this was too good to ignore.

The crux of the story is that the millennial generation is moderating its consumption of beer and other alcoholic drinks. This news comes via a poll of 5,000 drinkers, age 21-35, in the UK, US, Mexico, Brazil and the Netherlands. 75 percent of these folks say they moderate their alcohol consumption most of the time because it improves their quality of life.

Heineken has actually launched a "Moderate Drinkers Wanted" campaign designed to tap the supposedly shifting millennial values. You may have seen the ads, which have been airing during sporting events and similar programming. Heineken apparently thinks the good citizen motif is worth something.

The whole thing comes as a huge surprise to me. Most of my experience mingling with these folks at festivals, bars and such is that they exert little self control when it comes to drinking. Maybe the poll sample wasn't large enough to be representative. Or maybe Oregon millennials weren't polled.

Of course, if millennials really are throttling back on alcohol consumption, it's bad news for craft beer. Because these folks are probably the biggest driver of the crazy, off-the-hook growth we've seen over the course of the last few years. The industry desperately needs them!

The reason these folks have pushed growth is they are aggressively promiscuous drinkers, constantly searching for new flavors, innovative styles and bizarre interpretations of almost anything drinkable. You might say they'll try anything once. Or twice.

It's really hard to imagine a scenario in which millennials seriously cut back on their drinking. These folks may be fickle and probably are more prone to shifts in attitude and habit than prior generations. But there are a lot of things driving their drinking.

Such as the fact that many American millennials have been saddled with tremendous education debt. Many don't and won't own a house or car. Due to unfunded liabilities in public and private retirement funds, millennials will be asked to finance the retirement of the baby boom generation while working shitty jobs in a downsized economy. And don't forget the trampled environment and corrupt political system they're inheriting.

These kids have got a tough road ahead and it's going to drive them to drink. The only real danger to craft beer is that millennials will shift to hard liquor. They're going to need it.

Hanging with the Kings of Oregon Craft Beer

One of the great things about being on the fringe of the craft beer industry is you occasionally get exposed to something you might not otherwise have experienced. When it happens, you sometimes realize you had a gap in your knowledge base.

I've been consuming craft beer for about 30 years. For 15 or so of those years, I brewed my own beer, which was sometimes pretty good. My tastes have expanded to include a wide range of styles in recent years.

Knowledge and hands-on experience can lead you to think you know something about good beer. I have no trouble identifying what I like and don't like in beer. Finding off-flavors and obvious flaws isn't a huge problem.

But I never realized how little I knew about beer until I spent a day judging beers with professional brewers and industry-connected folks this past Saturday. It was like wandering in a minefield.

The judging was organized by Willamette Week as part of 2016 Oregon Beer Awards. Something like 50 folks spent two days evaluating more than 500 Oregon beers in a bunch of categories. Winners will be announced at the Oregon Beer Awards in late February.

For my part, I was involved in evaluating more than 50 beers in five categories. You might think that's a lot of beer and maybe it is. But sampling is done from small cups and judges almost never drink all the beer from any cup. Contrary to what some think, this isn't a drunk fest.

The way it worked is teams of five or six judges convened at tables to evaluate a group of beers of a particular style. Each table had a team captain, someone with significant prior experience in beer judging. Jamie Floyd of Ninkasi, Darron Welch of Pelican and Tonya Cornett of 10 Barrel-Bend led teams I was part of.

You know you're in trouble when you look around the table during sampling and see pros making extensive notes on most beers. In front of me, I've got a few thoughts scribbled down, mostly related to flavor profile, obvious flaws, bitterness, color, etc. Uh oh.

As the discussion starts, the pros are talking about flaws, some of them very minor, and where they likely came from. What? "The stale character of this beer is likely the result of old malt." Seriously? "That one has a slight veggie profile, probably due to hops stems in the boil." Say what? "I detect a hint of barf in that one." Yuckers.

You eventually work your way through the group of beers, identifying the ones with disqualifying flaws and those that are competing to move to the next round of judging. In the end, the group reaches a consensus on the top three. Compromise happens. This ain't Congress.

Reflecting on the experience, it occurred to me that this was a little like graduate school. When I reached graduate school eons ago, I figured my undergraduate program prepared me well. Wrong. The grad school learning curve was super steep, just like Saturday.

How the pros are able to surmise the origins of good and bad profiles in beer is beyond me. It's pretty amazing to see that in action. I have to say I have a renewed respect for these folks.

Big thanks to Breakside's Ben Edmunds for directing the competition and to Willamette Week's Steph Barnhart for organizing. A fine time was had by all, or most.

As noted, winners will be announced at the OBA ceremony in February. Be there.

CBA Shows True Colors with Pabst Deal

Back in November, I reported that Laurelwood was shifting its contract brewing from the CBA's Woodinville, Wash. facility to Full Sail in Hood River. Laurelwood will be just fine brewing large scale packaged product at Full Sail. But it wasn't their choice to make the change.

The way it apparently came down is the Craft Brew Alliance told Laurelwood it wanted out of the contract. It was a little puzzling. This had been a good arrangement for both parties. Why end it? Well, sometimes you need to see the full picture. And it was revealed this week.

On Monday, the CBA announced it has entered into an agreement by which Pabst will begin brewing a subsidiary brand, Rainier Mountain Ale, at the Woodinville brewery this spring. Further, Pabst has the option of purchasing the brewery outright at any time in the next three years.

For its part, Pabst is pleased as punch that they will be brewing a Rainier brand in its home state. It makes for a nice story, if nothing else. They will apparently revive several archived Rainier brands. Mountain Ale, to be packaged in iconic 16 oz bottles, will be first. Pabst's portfolio is loaded with crap brands, most of which are brewed by MillerCoors. That isn't going to change. Even standard Rainier won't be brewed in Woodinville. Pity.

Pabst was able to negotiate a deal for the Woodinville brewery because the CBA no longer needs it. Expansion and modernization at the Portland brewery, which will be capable of producing 750,000 barrels annually, means (as one source put it) the CBA will soon have a very efficient brewery in Portland and a very inefficient one in Woodinville.

Rumors had been circulating that the Woodinville facility was for sale. The CBA brass surely preferred sale to closure, and the arrangement with Pabst is a step in that direction. Moreover, it buys time for the CBA to fully shift production to Portland while Pabst gets comfortable in Woodinville. Sale of the brewery seems imminent within the three year timeline.

In case you're wondering, the Woodinville facility, better known as Redhook Brewery, was built in 1994. It has a capacity of around 200,000 barrels a year and has brewed Widmer and Redhook beers, as well as contract brands, like Laurelwood. This is where Widmer brewed all of its hoppier brands, a result of the fact that the Portland brewery was unable to handle those beers. But never mind.

The CBA is striving to consolidate production and increase efficiencies wherever possible. Shifting Northwest production to Portland is part of that. They're also leveraging a partnership with Blues City in Memphis, which brews Kona brands for the eastern market and allows them to contract brew non-owned brands at their Portsmouth, N.H. brewery. Efficiency, efficiency, efficiency.

CEO Andy Thomas says the CBA has never worked more closely or been more closely aligned with the interests of its mentor and part-owner, Anheuser-Busch. Right. The comment makes a ton of sense when you look at what they're up to. And there's more.

Recall that CBA beers are distributed by AB around the country, an arrangement dating back nearly two decades. Now comes news that they are pushing Kona brands into Brazil via ABI subsidiary Ambev, which dominates the beer market there. In the US, the CBA is a party to AB's anti-competitive incentive program, whereby distributors receive giant bonuses for selling AB products while dumping or ignoring independent craft brands. Great stuff.

Of course, none of this matters all that much to Laurelwood, which is where I started. They've been asked to let the CBA know they'll be done in Woodinville, another way of asking when they'll be ready to go in Hood River. Time is money and the bean counters are clock watching.

No word on when the CBA will become a fully-owned subsidiary of Anheuser-Busch. Sometime in the not-too-distant future, I suppose.

Upright's Ingenious, Creative Approach

In a market flooded with breweries that can't wait to get bigger so they can brew and sell more and more beer, Alex Ganum's little brewery in the basement of the Leftbank Project Building represents an alternative approach to beer and marketing.

The brewery graciously provided members of the media with one of those intimate excursions in tasting the other night. We worked our way through a couple of upcoming bottle releases while a relaxed Ganum talked about what they were doing with each beer. 

In case you don't know, Upright specializes in Farmhouse-style beers with a Northwest twist. Ganum and his staff are experts at creating barrel-aged brews that incorporate assorted regional fruit and other delights. The results are often mesmerizing. 

Of course, Farmhouse beers are not the only thing they do. Ganum also likes to embark on some fairly quirky projects. Several years ago, he brewed an interpretation of Bud Light. No joke. Unlike the original, Upright's version was rather tasty. Their Engelberg Pilsner was named Beer of the Year in the 2015 Willamette Week Beer Guide. They get pilsner.

Despite the fact that they make great beer, Upright is largely an undiscovered destination. I don't believe the place is underrated, as a recent blog poll suggested. Underrated and unknown are different issues. People just don't know much about Upright, the direct result Ganum's chosen path: limited production, limited distribution and limited taproom hours. You get what you play for.

If you look at OLCC stats, which are strictly a rough guide to what's selling (we've been through this before), Upright sold 924 barrels in Oregon during 2013. They then sold 874 barrels in 2014. Final numbers for 2015 aren't yet published, but when they are Upright will be about where it has been for the last two years. Production is more or less static.

That's a nice strategy if you can pull it off. Upright has done so by creating a premium product that is reasonably priced and sought after. Like boutique wineries, they sell a lot of bottles out of their tasting room. In the case of the upcoming releases, Ganum said he expects to sell more than 50 percent of the production direct to patrons. 

When you pursue this business model and you're comfortable with the work and satisfied with the money you're making, you don't need to mess around with expansion and debt. It also means you don't need to sell out to private equity or Anheuser-Bush. You're only concern is to continue making great beer that people want to buy and drink. Pretty sweet. 

Oh, I should mention the upcoming releases, Heart's Beat and Shades. Descriptions (with minor edits) from the press release: 

Hearts' Beat was brewed first using Chelan cherries from the Baird Family Orchards. These are dark and intense, so the plan was to showcase the fruit. To achieve that, we started with our usual process of using a very basic grist with aged hops for minimal bitterness, then ran the wort directly into eight casks that contained over 100 pounds of fruit in each. A blend of two different brettanomyces strains with some lactobacillus was added and the barrels sat for a year before blending and bottle conditioning, which began in July 2015. The high tannin level lends the beer a distinct edge that holds up well against the acidity, and the amount of fruit makes the beer drink much like a cherry wine, a character that is enhanced at cellar temp over typical beer serving temperature. The Hearts' Beat is not intended to mimic Belgian Kriek or any defined style, but rather to follow in the path of Fantasia as a beer combining elements of Belgian lambics, saisons and our own whims.

Shades also uses cherries from Baird, although in this case we're talking Rainiers, which don't alter the color of the beer. This is deceiving because it's loaded with fruit flavor, again employing more than 100 pounds per cask, although this blend only comprised six barrels. We used two different lots of cherries, one notably sweet and the other tart, and inoculated the casks with three different brettanomyces strains. The beer was aged and conditioned just like the Hearts' Beat, but we pushed the brett to produce a funkier aromatic profile with a bit more acidity. 

Both beers are named after a Charles Mingus composition from the album "The Black Saint and Sinner Lady." They are set to be released together as soon as we finish the labels, with most allocated to the brewery tasting room.

Upright also expects to release annual renditions of Fantasia, Fatali Four and Billy Mountain in the near future. Each will feature a new label for the first time since their initial release.

Things are good at Upright.

The Good and Bad of 2015

Until Tuesday, it had been 25 years since I last visited Battle Ground. Back in the day, I frequented the area as a substitute teacher. Tuesday's trip was a beer excursion. I was checking out Barrel Mountain Brewing for an upcoming review.

Battle Ground was a pretty quiet town in the old days. The population in 1990 was less than 3,800 according to Census numbers. The estimated population in 2014 was nearly 19,000. Obviously, a lot has changed. There's a growing, bustling business district now. There was nothing like that in 1990. 

Barrel Mountain Brewing is a pleasing and, I'm quite sure, welcome addition to the local scene. Since opening last summer, they've built a following with a nice selection of beers and a menu I'd describe as standard-plus pub fare. 

I'll have more to say about Barrel Mountain in Willamette Week's 2016 Beer Guide, which hits news stands in February. For now, it serves as an example of possibly the most positive trend of 2015, that being the trend of small breweries expanding into suburban and rural settings. 

Having worked in Clark County from 1990 to 2009, I watched a few breweries come and go. But it was mostly a dead zone. Over the course of the last few years, things have turned. Residents are no longer forced to traverse the Columbia River to find good beer. They can find it closer to home. 

The current trend was obviously a long time coming. For many years, you had to wonder when it would happen, if it would happen. There are a lot of underserved areas, like Battle Ground, that are starved for good beer and ready to support a brewery or breweries. Finally, it's happening.

Of course, the trend isn't strictly confined to suburban or rural areas. Many underserved boroughs in cities are also getting breweries or craft-centric pubs. What's different and especially positive is that the craft movement is spreading to suburbia and the countryside. 

Some fear the US brewery count, which now exceeds 4,000, is untenable. For production breweries, there surely is a limit. But there are an almost endless number of viable locations available to small, brewpub-type operations. Expansion into these areas will likely continue in 2016. 

That's the good news.

On the Other Hand

Probably the most negative aspect of the current craft beer scene is the accelerating pace of sellouts to big beer. The list for 2015 is long and includes Elysian (Washington), Four Peaks (Arizona), Golden Road, Ballast Point and Lagunitas (California), and Breckenridge (Colorado),

No one I know expects the pace of acquisitions to slow. Big beer market share is plummeting. Craft beer market share is growing. Big beer recognizes that tasteless, mass market lagers don't have a bright future. So they're investing in the guys they can't beat. 

I have to admit being less bothered by the buyouts, which I expect, than by the reaction to them by some in the industry. There are those who see the buyouts as nothing more than some sort of natural progression in which big beer embraces craft beer as it's own and moves on.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Big beer, particularly Anheuser-Busch, is buying craft brands so it can use them to leverage its position. They want to blur the perception of what craft beer is and squeeze market access via vertical integration wherever possible, to the detriment of independent craft brewers. 

I'm truly astounded when I hear people praising what the acquired breweries are doing. "Look at all the creative beers they're brewing." It doesn't matter in the least. These breweries enjoy significant advantages over independent craft brewers. It isn't close to an even playing field.

As noted, I fully expect the buyouts to continue. What I'd like to see in 2016 is more widespread recognition of what the buyouts mean for the industry as we've known it. I doubt it will happen, but I can always hope.

There's every reason to believe 2016 will be another highly interesting, entertaining year in beer. I look forward to watching it unfold. Happy New Year to all!

Anatomy of a Buyout...and Buyouts to Come

After the buyouts of 10 Barrel in 2014 and Elysian in early 2015, I figured Anheuser-Busch would soon add California and Colorado breweries to its trophy case. There was nothing sophisticated about that supposition. It was based on the fact these are top tier craft beer states.

Of course, the California buyout happened a while ago, when AB purchased Golden Road Brewing of Los Angeles. That was out of nowhere because there are fatter targets in the Golden State. The more recent buyout of Arizona-based Four Peaks Brewing was another surprise. But never mind.

The buyout of Colorado's Breckenridge is different. Perusing some of the published and proprietary reports, the acquisition makes a lot of sense for Anheuser-Busch. It represents a significant effort to improve a dreadful ground game and end a lengthy downward spiral.

Since 2007, AB has seen it's business decline by 17 percent in Colorado. Put another way, it lost 263,000 barrels in volume. I don't have the detailed numbers, but you know the losses, like those they've suffered in other states, are in the premium segment. The entire Budweiser family is in free fall, getting beaten to a pulp by craft beer. Not exactly breaking news.

The addition of Breckenridge is a plausible antidote. Colorado's fifth largest craft brewer will stop and potentially reverse nearly a decade of negative AB momentum. The brewery reportedly does 45 percent of its business in Colorado, selling around 30,000 bbls in a state of over 3 million bbls, and grew 10 percent in-state this year.

Breckenridge also has reach and potential outside Colorado, Although it is distributed in 35 states, it does 60 percent of its total business in Colorado, Texas and Ohio. So it's spread thinly in the remaining 32 states. Which means there is significant potential to expand on those numbers via the AB network in those states.

That's all real nice, but there's more going on here. AB's grand strategy is connected to how it is leveraging its business in Oregon, Washington and California, where lax laws allow it to vertically integrate via the ownership of breweries, distributor and retail outlets. That's what it's doing in Colorado.

The stats are clear. Prior to 2015, AB owned a brewery in Fort Collins and a distributor in Denver. During 2015, it acquired Breckenridge (a deal that won't close until 2016) and two additional distributors (Standard and American Eagle). As part of the Breckenridge deal, AB gets two breweries and two retail locations. Plus, it will open a 10 Barrel brewpub in Denver in 2016. By the end of next year, AB will own four breweries, three distributors and three retail locations in Colorado. They have dramatically expanded their footprint across the three tiers in the state.

What does this gibberish mean? It means that if you want to know where the next AB acquisitions are likely to occur, look for high-growth breweries that produce 50K or more barrels a year, have pubs and, perhaps most importantly, reside in states where the laws allow AB to operate in all three tiers.

The suits in St. Louis may very well look outside areas where they already have a craft presence in 2016. But my guess is they aren't done in Colorado, California, Oregon or Washington. Unless the three tier laws are firmed up in those states, there are too many fat targets to ignore.

Indiana's Goofy Cold Beer Law Lives On

When you look out on the beer landscape, you see a lot of crazy shit. Some states have relaxed their laws and made it easier for small breweries to do business. But there are other states where the laws remain as antiquated as ever. Like Indiana.

It turns out the Hoosier state is one of the few places in the country where you cannot buy cold beer in grocery and convenience stores. That's right. If you want cold beer to go in Indiana, you have to buy it in a liquor store. Beer bought in standard stores is not chilled.

This policy has been a thorn in the behind of the Indiana Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store Association, which has lobbied for years to get the law changed. Frustration reached the point where they filed suit against the state in May 2013, claiming the law to be discriminatory because it allows cold beer sales in some stores and not in others.

The retailers did not win. This past Monday, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Indiana's goofy law. A three-judge panel unanimously ruled that the state has broad authority to design regulatory systems for alcohol distribution. In siding with the state, the panel said retailers would have to demonstrate that Indiana's cold-beer regulatory scheme treats members differently for no rational reason related to the state's legitimate interest. 

What "state interest" are we talking about? Funny you should ask..or wonder. Indiana's goofy law is fear-driven. Indiana officials are afraid that relaxing it would result in many more outlets selling cold beer, thus making it easier for minors to buy beer and more difficult to enforce the law.

This is a little hard to fathom, actually. Most states have some pretty simple laws on the books requiring store owners to check ID before selling alcohol to anyone who looks to be under a certain age. They obviously have that in Indiana, but they evidently feel retailers must be closely watched to make sure they enforce the law. And the state just doesn't have the manpower.

But, hey, Indiana isn't the only state with bizarre laws. Much of the old South is still fighting the Civil War while maintaining bizarre alcohol laws written long ago. Closer to home, Utah and Colorado have some rather odd laws regarding the sale of beer that clocks in above a certain ABV. This is what you get when you put the states in charge of regulating alcohol inside their borders.

Here in Oregon, our laws are pretty soft, but it hasn't always been so. For 50 years following Prohibition, we had a bizarre law that made it illegal to sell unpasteurized beer in stores. You could sell it in restaurants and bars, but not in stores. The law was ruled unconstitutional in 1985, around the same time brewpubs became legal.

I do not know how or if Indiana's goofy law affects craft beer or beer in general. They've got 100 or so craft breweries, so they're doing reasonably well in that department. But I have to believe allowing the sale of cold beer in all stores makes sense. It's been fairly successful elsewhere.

The only thing they have to fear is fear itself. And the bogeyman.

Good News and Elephants in the Living Room

These are wild times in the craft beer industry. That's not exactly front page news, but growth and change is happening at such a shocking pace that heads are spinning. The elephant in the living room is the ongoing challenge represented by big beer.

On the plus side, we recently learned the US brewery count surpassed the old record of 4,131. Perhaps most interesting about that revelation is that the old record was set in 1873, and was followed by a period of intense consolidation, then Prohibition, then more intense consolidation. The shift back to growth began roughly 30 years ago and it's been a crazy ride ever since.

There's more. For example, IPA continues to be the dominant craft style. Big surprise. In fact, one could easily argue the popularity of IPA has overflowed into other styles, many of which are hoppier than ever. And despite the ascending brewery count, there are still thousands of communities that are large enough to support a brewery and don't yet have one.

In the midst of all the good news for craft beer is the black hole of consolidation. The billion dollar Ballast Point buyout is the lead in that part of the story, and has more than a few craft brewers wondering what their place might be worth. Breweries that sold earlier, like 10 Barrel, Elysian and Goose Island, look at the Ballast Point deal and wonder where they went wrong.

Of course, the larger story on the consolidation front is the impending buyout of SABMiller by Anheuser-Busch/InBev. The multi-billion dollar deal has the potential to turn the entire beer world upside down. That reality has raised the hackles of regulatory types and a few yet-to-be-bought politicians.

Now there's news that a group of citizens from Oregon, Washington and California has filed suit in US District Court challenging the ABI/SABMiller deal on the grounds that it will hurt consumers by restricting competition and choice. No kidding. The plaintiffs aren't asking for any money. What they want is the merger stopped.

There's about zero chance of that happening in our current political climate. They'd have about as much luck getting assault rifles banned. There's little doubt the AB/SABMiller merger, which is largely a global play, will wind up being bad news for America's independent craft brewers. But there's no feasible way to stop it. All you can realistically hope to do is mitigate the impact.

The primary threat to independent craft brewers is only indirectly related to AB's acquisition of craft breweries. You can't get too excited about that because they will never own more than a small percentage of the total number of breweries. The threat is on the distribution side, where Anheuser-Busch is working to leverage its influence and limit independent craft brewers access to market.

That's not a joke. A Wall Street Journal story outlines an AB incentive plan that rewards distributors who focus primarily on AB brands. A couple of anonymous distributors spilled the beans, telling the WSJ they can receive incentive payouts of as much as $1.5 million annually if 98 percent of their volume is in AB brands. A distributor in St. Louis just dropped Deschutes because it had to choose between the incentive program and craft.

Look, Anheuser-Busch will never own or have influence over every distributor in this country. There will always be independents that go their own way. But AB has the power, via its owned and affiliated distributors, to make things difficult for independent craft brewers. The strategy outed in the WSJ article is just one part of that effort.

Many casual and some serious beer fans have their heads in the sand, more or less refusing to see the danger. Fine. Those who do see the threat can act against it by refusing to spend money on AB products, including acquired brands like 10 Barrel, Elysian, Goose Island, etc. There's nothing personal about this. It's business. Giving good money to Anheuser-Busch helps fuel the effort to undermine independent craft brewers.

Enough already.