Hop Talk

Not a scoop, by any means, but word is out that Magic Hat Brewing is buying Pyramid Breweries.

From the press release:

The closing of the proposed transaction, subject to the conditions referred to above, is anticipated to occur not later than August 31, 2008.

The board of directors of Pyramid has approved the transactions contemplated by the Letter of Intent.

“The combination of these two well established, high profile craft breweries will be very complementary given our respective brand portfolios and the geographies in which we predominantly operate. Additionally, there will be a number of important benefits for Pyramid to be part of a private company versus continuing to operate as a stand alone public entity. This consolidation makes both good strategic and financial sense and is well timed, particularly as the beer industry’s competitive dynamics continue to intensify,” said Pyramid CEO Scott Barnum. “The Company will continue to have offices in Seattle, its historical home, and will seek opportunities to capitalize on the enhanced assets and capabilities of the new combined entity,” he added.

Martin Kelly, CEO of Magic Hat said, “We have a great deal of respect for Pyramid’s brand heritage, award-winning beers and its dedicated employees, and look forward to consummating this transaction, which provides both strategic and financial benefits both to Pyramid’s and Magic Hat’s stakeholders.”

I have had—and enjoyed—beers from both of these brewers. Pyramid is apparently having some financial difficulties and have had to let some staff go. I guess I just don’t know what to think of it. Last year was Red Hook and Widmer, and now this.

I wonder if this is the leading edge of a wave of consolidation in the craft brewing segment. We have seen such things in other business segments; remember when there were eight “big” accounting firms? The high costs of raw materials, packaging, and transportation certainly aren’t helping matters.

Best discuss it at the pub.

(via multiple sources)

Related posts

• Widhook? (1)
• The big get bigger? Anheuser Busch and InBev subject of merger rumor (0)
• Session #6: Fruit beer - by Al (4)
• Session #13 - Organic Beer, by Ron (0)
• SABMiller and MolsonCoors to combine U.S. operations (0)

This edition of The Session is sponsored by Chris O’Brien’s, The Beer Activist. (I just love his tag line, “Drink Beer. Save the World.”) Session #13 is titled Organic Beer

Here’s a bit of context to help inspire your observations on organic imbibing. “Organic beer” refers to beers that use ingredients, supplies, and production processes that have been certified as adhering to the rules of the National Organic Program administered by the US Department of Agriculture (and similar programs in other countries).

I was going to cheap out on this session and just refer to my review of Orlio beers by Magic Hat, but I thought it might be interesting to point out some stuff about Anheuser-Busch and how they are genetically engineering rice to be used in their beers. Now, I’m just guessing here, but I doubt GE rice is considered organic.

Greenpeace made this disgusting YouTube video to let you know. Disgusting, but that’s the point, and it is kind of funny…

All of the articles I have found are about why isn’t Anheuser-Busch pointing this out. I think it is pretty obvious… they don’t have to and it would wreck their advertising of “all-natural”. The question is, can they still advertise as all-natural?

Resources:
Anheuser Busch Using Genetically Engineered Rice in Beer: Greenpeace
Anheuser-Busch Pledges to Use Only Organic Hops In Organic Beer
Anheuser-Busch using experimental genetically-engineered (GE) rice to brew Budweiser
Greenpeace: Genetically altered rice in Budweiser
Budweiser Found to Contain Genetically Engineered Rice

Update: Session #13 Roundup

Related posts

• Greener Beer Tip - Avoid Wild Hop Lager (3)
• Wolaver’s Pale Ale (0)
• The big get bigger? Anheuser Busch and InBev subject of merger rumor (0)
• Session #13: Wolaver’s Brown Ale (1)
• Session #13: Organic beer (0)