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" I&amp;#039;m not sure Lagunitas Brewing Company makes a single bad beer. I count their always-hoppy offerings like Hop Stoopid, A Little Somethin&amp;#039; Somethin&amp;#039;, and especially Lagunitas Sucks as some of the greatest\u00A0craft beers in\u00A0the land. At the same time, it&amp;#039;s hard for me to think of a single beer I detest more than the\u00A0typically-skunked Heineken Lager.\u00A0 You might think today&amp;#039;s bombshell\u00A0that Heineken purchased 50 percent\u00A0of Lagunitas might have me crying in my local IPA. But I don&amp;#039;t really care.\u00A0As I wrote in 2013 when the vaunted Boulevard Brewing sold out\u00A0to Belgium&amp;#039;s Duvel Moortgat, this can be a good thing. Two years ago, one of my favorite breweries in Goose Island\u00A0sold out to big, bad Anheuser-Busch InBev. Was the acclaimed Chicago brewery soon producing thin, corn-and-rice-packed assembly\u00A0line lagers? Were Goose Island commercials suddenly\u00A0packed with bikini-clad bimbos and the\u00A0bros who love them?\u00A0Not at all. In fact, InBev&amp;#039;s injection of funds allowed Goose Island to open a 130,000-square foot barrel warehouse and up production on their most acclaimed and sophisticated offerings, such as\u00A0Bourbon County Brand Stout and their wine\u00A0barrel-aged Sour Sisters. Some five years later, I can now find lower-end Goose Island beers like Honkers Ale at most\u00A0airports and stadiums in the U.S. The adventurous brewery is also experimenting\u00A0more than ever\u00A0and will\u00A0release a Bourbon County variant aged in 30-year-old Heaven Hill bourbon barrels later this year. The Beauty of Mergers\u00A0 Though it&amp;#039;s\u00A0too early to tell in some cases, it&amp;#039;s hard for me to think of a corporate buyout that has negatively\u00A0affected a craft brewery&amp;#039;s quality.\u00A0Not the pioneering Anchor Brewing who sold to the Griffin Group in 2010 and is still committed to its long-held artisan beer-making practices.\u00A0Not Anderson Valley Brewing who also sold to a business group in 2010 and\u00A0found great success with\u00A0obscure styles like a salty gose beer.\u00A0Not Founders Brewing, who was partially sold to the Spanish Mahou-San Miguel Group in 2014 yet still manages to produce the epic KBS. Not Blue Point or Elysian Brewing, who were also purchased by InBev in 2014 and 2015, respectively.\u00A0And certainly not Firestone Walker, who also merged\u00A0with Duvel earlier this year and\u00A0continues to release\u00A0original offerings like their blonde barleywine, Helldorado. I&amp;#039;d expect the same things to happen to Lagunitas. At best their beers will\u00A0become more widespread\u00A0and\u00A0more adventurous.\u00A0And at worst? Maybe Lagunitas Sucks will start being packaged in clear green bottles and become\u00A0Lagunitas Skunked.\u00A0In that case, we will have finally lost one great brewery to corporate maneuverings.\u00A0 As of this writing, America has over 3,500 other local\u00A0craft\u00A0breweries. Some are good, many are\u00A0bad. But with so much great beer to choose from it doesn&amp;#039;t really matter if we lose\u00A0a brewery or two.\u00A0There will always be a Dogfish Head or Carton Brewing or Hill Farmstead none of us have yet\u00A0heard of, and that&amp;#039;s a good thing.\u00A0I guarantee we will soon see more craft breweries sold to massive corporations. Especially as craft brewery owners get older and\u00A0see the immense wealth floating in the air\u2014nearly $101.5 billion in earnings last year for the beer industry\u2014that could\u00A0build their retirement. Perhaps you think this is a slippery slope\u00A0covered with the blood and ale of those\u00A0sell-outs. Perhaps you imagine a doomsday scenario in which\u00A0InBev, SABMiller, Heineken, Duvel, and maybe some Chinese conglomerate eventually owns most of the old craft breweries.\u00A0You know what?\u00A0I still won&amp;#039;t\u00A0care, and I&amp;#039;m\u00A0not so sure that would mean we&amp;#039;re\u00A0drinking foamy\u00A0water.\u00A0 In fact, I predict the beer industry\u00A0will\u00A0begin to resemble\u00A0the liquor industry. You know, the industry where\u00A0an Italian amaro-maker like Campari can also own an American, family-run bourbon distillery like Wild Turkey, as well as SKYY Vodka and about 20 other international brands. Where Diageo seems poised to own just about everything you can possibly pour down your face.\u00A0Or where a Japanese company like Suntory somehow manages to own Jim Beam and Maker&amp;#039;s Mark bourbon-wise, Laphroaig and Bowmore in the scotch realm, and even a brand that makes cupcake vodka. Have any of these brands grown worse? \u00A0I\u00A0doubt it. It&amp;#039;s\u00A0time we admit craft beer is a business, no better and no worse than any other multi-billion dollar business. Sure, its products can get you drunk and make you\u00A0hug people more than normal, but\u00A0in the end, it&amp;#039;s still a business that needs to make a lot of people a lot of money.\u00A0There&amp;#039;s nothing wrong with that. Aaron Goldfarb is the author of\u00A0How to Fail: The Self-Hurt Guide,\u00A0The Guide for a Single Man, and\u00A0The Guide for a Single Woman. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/food-drink/drinks/a37746/i-dont-care-who-owns-your-favorite-brewery/>