A US trade body representing small and independent brewers has launched a Take Craft Back campaign as it protests against the power of ‘big beer’.
The Brewers Association (BA) has unveiled a joke crowdfunding campaign to buy AB InBev, which it describes as ‘the international conglomerate that has been busy acquiring small breweries across the country’.
BA claims that in recent years, ‘big beer’ has been attempting to buy its way into the ever-growing craft beer segment.
The campaign aims to highlight the difficulty in distinguishing craft brewers from those owned by multinational companies.
Take Beer Back has released a three-minute video featuring an actor called Andy walking through Boulder’s Upslope Brewing Company.
“Since 2011, Anheuser-Busch InBev has quietly acquired ten small and independent breweries, but they won’t tell you that on their packaging,” he said.
“Independent craft brewers refuse to be muscled out by ‘big beer’ and we are uniting on an unprecedented scale to take on ‘big beer’ and their efforts to make it harder for beer drinkers to find their favourite independent craft beers at their favourite bars, liquor stores and restaurants.”
Brewbound reported BA’s craft beer programme director Julia Herz as saying: “It’s a tongue-in-cheek campaign about a serious message.
“We are trying to bring awareness to the fact that there are a lot of different brewers – big and small – and if you care about supporting small brewery businesses, then you should take craft back.”
Figures released in August revealed that the booming growth of the craft beer industry in the US may be drawing to a close, with volume increasing by 5% during the first half of 2017, compared to 8% in 2016.
The BA has launched a seal to inform consumers which beers are made by independent craft brewers and which come from ‘big beer’. Featuring a beer bottle shape flipped upside down, the seal aims to remove confusion among beer drinkers.
Anheuser-Busch InBev’s £79 billion takeover of rival SAB Miller was completed in October last year.
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