Meantime's sale to SABMiller won't stifle the craft beer renaissance

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/may/15/meantimes-sale-to-sabmiller-wont-stifle-the-craft-beer-renaissance

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The beer industry has been speculating for years that this would happen: that the world’s biggest brewing conglomerates would eventually begin to muscle in on Britain’s burgeoning craft beer market. So the takeover of London-based Meantime by SABMiller, the world’s second largest brewer, will undoubtedly be greeted with fervent cynicism from Britain’s legion of craft beer fans.

Though it has no official definition in the UK, the hotly contended term “craft beer” has come to symbolise proudly independent breweries making quality, uncompromising beers. And of all the British brewers claiming to be craft, few are as revered as Meantime – a company founded in a Greenwich tram shed by brewer Alastair Hook in 1999.

Meantime isn’t the only craft beer brewery enjoying success. The sector as a whole has seen a staggering 79% increase in sales in recent years. The reason? Brewers are increasingly shunning generic, mass-produced lagers in favour of more flavoursome, complex and experimental beers, particularly those made with aromatic American hops and unusual strains of yeast. One brewer, Rogue, recently released an ale made with yeast cultivated on the head brewer’s beard. Like sourdough bread, gourmet coffee and micro-distilled spirits, these beers have struck a chord with Britain’s ever increasing legion of social-media-savvy foodies.

While Meantime is one of the first to lose its independence, it almost certainly won’t be the last. In the US, home of the craft beer boom, several respected microbreweries have been bought-out in recent years. In 2011 Chicago’s beloved brewery Goose Island was bought by Anheuser-Busch for $38.8m (£24.6m) and in 2013 Boulevard Brewing was sold to Belgium-based brewery Duvel Moorgat, prompting fans of the Kansas-based brewery to launch a passionate (but ultimately fruitless) social media campaign.

But is it all doom and gloom? Perhaps not. Despite being the fastest growing sector of the UK beer market, craft beer still only accounts for an estimated 1.9% of total beer volume. A few, sympathetic and well-targeted buyouts could increase that share. Thanks to added investment, Meantime now plans to increase sales of its beer in Britain and beyond, with both SABMiller and Meantime stressing the brewery would retain its autonomy and distinctive- tasting beers. Whether or not this proves to be true, remains to be seen.