Saw this over at Realbeer.com. Apparently, the two largest brewers in the world, Anheuser-Busch and InBev (owner of such brands as Bass, Stella Artois, Beck’s and Hoegaarden) have struck a deal that will have A-B as the exclusive importer of several InBev brands.

This puts a huge amount of beer under the control of Anheuser-Busch’s wholesaler network. Now, I don’t have any great love for beer distributors, but they are a vital part of the business. I can’t help but think that one of two things will happen: Either A-B and InBev brands will start taking up more shelf space as A-B distributors make exclusive deals with retailers or, I hope, distributors shut out of this deal will look to other, smaller, brewers to make up the slack and that more interesting craft brews will be available on retailer shelves.

The agreement begins February 1.

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