AB-InBev Continues to Throw Its Weight Around
I swear, I don't want to be this guy forever. But the wave's still going, so I'm riding it.
It's fair to say AB-InBev has had a mixed bag of press this past week or so. While the entire craft beer world is fairly pissed at them, the stock price seems to have spiked in reaction to the Wicked Weed acquisition. After all this, they decided their next step was to continue their bullying ways.
Paste Magazine has picked up on public comments from several independent craft brewers that among the assets ABI picked up in 2015's SAB-Miller acquisition were SAB-controlled hop farms in South Africa. South Africa is a unique and growing region for hops, and many of these hops were set to be sold to independent craft brewers, but ABI recently decided to pull them from the market and use them exclusively in their own High End brands to give them a distinct advantage.
Paste has all the breweries' comments and more, including a response from ABI, where they blame the pullback on low crop yields.
In non-ABI news, stay tuned tonight for a brand-new Beers in Review AND a new video review tomorrow!