seven best/worst sellouts of 2015

best/worst craft beer sellouts of 2015 according to Greg Parker

Best
*And by best I mean the least worst or most inevitable and thereby the brewery was kind of scummy from day one.

• Full Sail, they may have turned their backs on the consumer, but at least everyone at the company got a vote.
• Golden Road, if ever there were a brewery that was created with the intent of selling out, it was Golden Road. In fact, if you ever bought their beer thinking ‘this is a nice little locally owned craft brewery who is really a part of the craft movement’ you are a dummy. Suspicions should be high when Yale is on the resume of a craft brewery founder.
• Lagunitas, because if you believe the loquacious owner of Lagunitas, it’s really just going to be good for American craft beer because he is taking it international. Wow, Tony Magee, the patron saint of the small craft brewer, we’re so lucky to have you. And no thanks for not returning the one email I sent you.
• Firestone Walker, they seemed to have found the ideal partner. a family owned brewery that is much larger than they are that already have a track record of buying craft breweries and maintaining the quality and integrity of the vision. Just like the brewery, the deal is hard to hate, or love.

Worst

• Elysian, for god’s sake, they are right in our back yard and made a beer essentially as a middle finger to corporate america. Is nothing sacred?
• 10 Barrel, another up and comer in the northwest who made a ridiculous video about how selling out was really gonna help them focus on what they did best, like making exploding bottles of beer. I just barfed a little.
• Ballast Point, no other sale put blood in the water for the sharks to smell like these dicksticks selling and consequently publishing the price of one billion dollars. que lastima, i still feel like that’s a bad dream that i’m bound to wake up from.

My list is anything but comprehensive. Do me a favor and list out the sellouts that agitate you and consequently all your friends on Facebook can either boycott them as well or go buy their beer as some sort of moronic statement against you and for corporate America.

 
hugs and kisses.