If you can’t beat ’em, buy ’em.
Fast-growing Karbach Brewing Co. of Houston is the latest U.S. craft brewery to be acquired by a global beer giant, announcing Thursday morning that Anheuser-BuschInBev is buying it for an undisclosed amount.
The 5-year-old Karbach will be part of the company’s U.S.-specific High End business unit, joining the likes of Stella Artois and Shock Top; Goose Island, Breckenridge, Elysian and five other craft breweries; a cider company; and a hard seltzer company.
Ken Goodman and longtime business partner Chuck Robertson, who founded the brewery in a building they formerly used in their beer distributorship on Karbach Street, said existing management and brewers will remain in place and the company will retain much of its independence while also gaining access to the resources that will help it continue to grow.
“The financial piece wasn’t that important at the end of the day,” Goodman said. “It was the resources.”
High End president Felipe Szpigel cited Karbach’s Love Street Kölsch as an example of a lower-alcohol, or “session,” beer that will fill a niche in the AB-InBev portfolio.
He said he first visited the Karbach brewery during a site visit to Houston about a year and a half ago and as he talked with the owners and brewers, “I really fell in love with what they are doing.”
Brewmaster Eric Warner said the move will allow his team to collaborate with those other craft breweries.
“The High End wants to see us innovate,” he said.
Szpigel and the Karbach team said they will continue to focus on developing the Texas market for the next couple of years.
I’m sure that quote about “resources” is a reference to the ABinBev distribution network, which is more a comment on Texas’ byzantine and archaic beer laws than anything else. I’m sure the Karbach founders (and I hope their employees) will nonetheless make a nice chunk of change off of this, and more power to them if they do, but a peek at their announcement of the deal on Facebook shows that the reaction from their customers is overwhelmingly negative. This is no surprise – ABinBev has openly mocked craft beers and the people who drink them in their advertising, and well, anyone who drinks Karbach almost certainly thinks ABinBev products are exactly what’s wrong with beer and the reason why breweries like Karbach needed to exist and have done so well. From a brand perspective, it’s at best a shotgun wedding and at worst a complete hash. I’m sure that Karbach will sell a lot more beer as a result of this deal. I just suspect that very little of that beer will be consumed by people who had ever drunk it before today. Swamplot and Houstonia have more.
I like independent craft Brewers. Unfortunately, Karbach will no longer be independent. This will influence my beer purchasing.
The good news is there is a feast of indie craft brewers in Houston to choose from still.