You’ve read the news. I do not think that Sapporo understood this about Anchor Brewing:
Fritz Maytag’s final words in video are, “I think when our brewers put the malt (from the barley field they just visited) into the mash tun they remember, ‘That’s the stuff, there it is.’ It gives our company something that’s hard to duplicate.”
Today, Jeff Alworth wrote:
“But [the beer industry] can’t continue as the same industry represented by Fritz Maytag’s wonderful, traditional, innovative, local, and independent little brewery if that brewery itself couldn’t survive.”
I disagree, because . . . limiting myself to five reasons, with apologies to thousands of other contenders . . . Scratch Brewing, Wheatland Spring Farm + Brewery, Bow & Arrow Brewing, Primitive Beer, and Spaceway Brewing.
Wonderful. Check. Innovative. Check. Local. Check. Independent. Check. Traditional? Not if it gets in the way of making something delicious.