While the craft beer industry proudly wears descriptors such as independent, traditional and micro on its sleeve, big brewers were on everyone’s mind at the Craft Brewers Conference & BrewExpo America in Philadelphia earlier this month. Deals, specifically the pending $100 billion merger between Anheuser-Busch InBev and SABMiller, were the hot button issue of the convention as smaller breweries try to sort out what the union might mean for America’s constantly growing and shifting beer landscape.
“Deals are what’s on everyone’s mind, and I think it’s because people don’t know how to feel about them,” says Paul Gatza, director of the Brewers Association.