Henry Weinhard’s is owned by SBMiller (who also produce Miller Beer, along with a number of other brands). Red Hook is owned is by the Craft Brew Alliance, which in turn is 32% owned by Anheuser Busch. But the PNW brew pub tradition lives on, right?
Less so. On Friday, the Elysian Brewing Company, owner of four brew pubs, including the Elysian Tangletown, confirmed it was being acquired by Anheuser Busch. The announcement quotes CEO and co-founder Joe Bisacca, saying “after a lot of hard work, we’ve grown from one Seattle brewpub to four pub locations and a production brewery. With the support of Anheuser-Busch, we will build on past successes and share our beers with more beer lovers moving forward.”
The deal is expected to close by the end of the year. Terms have not been disclosed, nor have details of what the move will mean for the individual brewpubs.
However, the Capitol Hill Seattle blog notes that employees were surprised, and not in a good way, quoting several Twitter messages, including:
https://twitter.com/ElysianDerting/status/558686365009719296
Somewhat hilariously, CHS also grabbed this tweet from CraftBeerMonger, who found a bit of promotional material back from before the Elysian contemplated this particular move:
https://twitter.com/CraftBeerMonger/status/558684517372657664
(Thanks for the tip, DOUG.)
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Why not make some money after years of work! Good for them!
We will see what happens. Below is a link to an good article about 10 Barrel Brewing’s (small craft brewer in Bend) sale to AB InBev a couple of months ago.
They don’t seem to think it is a bad thing either.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/a-tiny-craft-brewer-sells-itself-to-anheuser-busch-and-a-beer-war-erupts-2014-11-14
Even if the quality of the beer stays the same, I will be less likely to buy it in stores or frequent one of their pubs. Elysian has gone from a local company that keeps their money largely in the local economy, to a company that ships their profits overseas. No thanks.
Fortunately we have dozens of other options for local, independent Northwest beers. Unfortunately we have very few local brewpubs.
They were never really great brew pubs anyway. The beer was good, but the food was uninspired.
And the service was dreadful!!
There was much conversation about buying preBud Elysian at the grocery store yesterday. I just don’t drink anymore, so it’s moot to me.
While time will tell, I doubt that Dick Cantwell and company would do anything that would screw up thier beloved creation. AB produces mass swill, however its owner, InBev, is Belgian, a culture of quality and craft brewing. They would not buy a Cadillac just to turn it into a Prius. But, we shall see. Doug, tho, is so correct. Just go to Ballard; can’t throw a rock without hitting a new brewery, it seems.
Agree with many of the shared sentiments. At the end of the day, it is just business. That being said, I’ll be much more likely to buy other local labels, of which there is no shortage.
I can’t muster the energy to be outraged. The company succeeded, got big, cashed out. Good for him.
If craft beer brewers stopped this nonsense obsession with hopping everything until it tastes like thousand year old cabbage farts, then I will cut them some slack but right now the IPA overload is an embarrassment to the brewing scene.
I think if anyone was outraged, other than the odd straw man, it appears to have been employees who are now working for corporate beer.
IPAs are the advent of real beer. They aren’t all good, but Elysian Immortal has been a good bet every time I’ve tried it. In general, every memorably good beer has been an IPA – last one was a double IPA from Silver CIty Brewery in Bremerton, served up at the Park Pub in Greenwood where they usually have something tasty. They have more than IPAs, but the IPAs are always the top of the list to save time for people who like beer. The Brother down here at Fremont Brewing at the Wallingford/Fremont border is pretty satisfying too.
Breaking news. Apparently Dick Cantwell was in tears announcing this event to a shocked staff who had been kept totally in the dark, and was not for it at all. In other news, some people are being complete jerks to the staff, yelling at the and cussin’ ’em out. Some punk bought a 6 pack of Loser at the Cap Hill pub, then opened one up and poured it out onto the floor as he walked out. A loser with his Loser ales. How appropriate.
The owners (Cantwell included) have been trying to get the business to a sellable point for a while now. Every good business tries for that.
http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/stories/2003/12/22/smallb1.html?page=all
IF Elysian continues to brew beer in Seattle, operate brewpubs in Seattle, and probably expand that footprint, as an employer how is this not good for the local economy? Profits “going offshore” (which is a dumb notion, as anyone can own a share of this public company) or into the hands of a few private owners amounts to the same thing to me.
Of course, if the whole idea bothers you, buy something else that makes you feel good.