Ownership has long been a much-discussed and often contentious topic within the craft beer world, and it has frequently been in the spotlight again over the past year.
The tightening of economic conditions combined with rising costs across the board for brewers have proven to be something of a perfect storm, one that has left a trail of administrations, closures, sales, and changes of ownership in its wake.
Many of those changes have impacted our infographic guide to Who Owns Your Beer? While there hasn't been a shockwave-inducing takeover anything like Kirin-owned Lion's acquisition of the Fermentum Group in September 2021, there has been movement at the bigger end of beer – not least at Lion.
Since buying the Fermentum brands, two have ceased to operate – Forest For The Trees and Two Birds Brewing – while Lion have also shuttered a couple of the brewpub-based operations they'd created themselves: Tiny Mountain and Bevy.
VIEW WHO OWNS YOUR BEER?
Arguably the biggest moves in the world of ownership since our last major update of the infographic, however, have come elsewhere within the space we christened Indie Families when we first wrote about it in 2019. Back then, we were referring to those groups of beer and other drinks brands amassed by Stone & Wood (as Fermentum), Gage Roads (under the Good Drinks banner), Mighty Craft (formerly Founders First), Tribe Breweries, and Bickford's.
In the period since then, as well as Fermentum selling to Lion, Mighty Craft have invested in Better Beer but are no longer involved in others; in the past month, they've announced plans to sell Jetty Road and FogHorn while stating they're open to offers for their share in Better Beer. Earlier in 2023, Tribe Breweries went into and out of administration.
Add to that the arrival of two other members of the Indie Families, well, family. Catchment Brewing Co took on sibling brands Fortitude Brewing and Noisy Minor in the middle of 2022 and then played a lead role in bringing Ballistic Beer Co back out of administration earlier this year. And, as of October last year, fellow Inner West Sydney brewers Wayward and Batch have combined their brands, teams, and venues under the name Local Drinks Collective. Meanwhile, Adelaide brewery Little Bang was bought by an SA pub group in June 2022, although they don't appear on the graphic as they're currently the only beer brand in the group.
As such, we've redesigned the Indie Families section of the infographic so we can update it instantly every time there's a change within any of those groups. Or when a new one appears, something that can't be counted out given the challenges still facing business owners.
Of course, this is without even referring to the crafty brands created by the supermarket giants. With Coles (Vintage Cellars, First Choice and Liquorland) – their main play is centred around the Tinnies range, which has included "collaborations" with actual breweries in the past. As for the Endeavour Group – for whom Dan Murphy's and BWS are the bricks and mortar outlets – they continue to keep recipe designers, contract brewers and brand designers busy creating new beers under the Pinnacle Drinks banner.
All in all, it makes the world of ownership in beer as complex and fascinating as ever. We hope our updated graphic helps you make sense of it all.
VIEW WHO OWNS YOUR BEER?
James Smith launched The Crafty Pint in 2010, two years after moving to Australia from the UK. He was taken to Mountain Goat within weeks of landing in Melbourne, joined their indoor cricket team, and is still navigating the rabbit hole that is craft beer to this day.
The beers that turned you on to good beer:
- Watching pints of McEwan's 80 Shilling settle when visiting family in Edinburgh.
- Pints of flat Bass from the jug at the Cap & Stocking in Kegworth.
- A first Paulaner Hefeweizen when working in Munich in 1998: “This smells of bananas!”
- Castle Rock Harvest Pale – how could a 3.8 percent ABV beer be so good? (It turns out it was an early example of the three Cs – Cascade, Centennial and Columbus – in an English bitter).
- Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA poured through hops at the Sunset Grill in Cambridge, MA, in the company of a man who turned out to be the Beer Nut (while we were both covering a double murder case at the time).
- Ordering a Mountain Goat Hightail on my first day as an Aussie resident as it was local and I’d never heard of it; “A dark Australian beer; well I never…”
- Murray’s Icon 2IPA at Beer DeLuxe Fed Square, recommended by a guy I’d not long known who's now the main man at Fixation, served by Mik Halse, now head of sales at Hawkers. How could an Australian beer smell as good as that?!?
You've got three beers to turn someone else on to good beer; what are they and why?
- Any really good, fresh and balanced West Coast style IPA. Punchy hop aromatics are the most obvious way to capture someone's attention and these IPAs, done well, present the key components in beer (if you're sticking to just water, malt, hops and yeast) in harmony yet with the volume turned up.
- Saison Dupont. Arguably a selfish choice here as I bloody love the broad saison style and dearly hope it will finally take hold in Australia one day. Given a choice, I'd probably crack one enlivened with Brettanomyces like Molly Rose Matilde for myself but, when it comes to turning on someone new, you've got to go with the classic.
- Rodenbach Caractère Rouge. Because if you don't enjoy or can't appreciate this beer, I'll never win you over. And because Filip, the fruit and wood specialist at Rodenbach that designed it, is a beautiful human.
The last beer you enjoyed:
Fixation IPA at The Incubator.
Three things that represent you:
- The Soft Bulletin by The Flaming Lips
- Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
- Golden Plains
NB All articles written by James in the first eight years of the site appear as By Crafty Pint. Today, that's used for collaborative efforts by the wider team.
