Derek, I personally don't think all the macro rice lagers are especially magical either. Just me. It's not a symbol of quality, it's info for the buyer to use or ignore. I see it as analagous to the Fair Trade coffee designation. Fair Trade coffee isn't necessarily better, it's just sold by companies that don't engage in unfair, predatory practices.
I hear you Jon. I'm not sticking up for macro beer here. I'm just saying that they should call it what it is. If you need to engage in psychological warfare to combat the dirty tactics of the big boys then so be it. Call it that though.
All this symbol says is that an independent brewer had the money to buy the rights to the symbol, and that's fine, but it's also a detriment to the truly unique and high quality craft beers out there.
I'm not on a side here. I drink all kinds of beer and homebrew. I'm just playing devils advocate for each point.
You don't have to buy the rights to the logo and you don't have to be a Brewers Association Member to use it. All you have to do is meet the criteria set by the BA.
I misinterpreted the article then. That's my fault for not reading closely enough.
I guess I'm in the camp that says independence isn't a big deal for me. I love that some of my favorites breweries are either family owned or smaller breweries that have National distribution, but if the macros produced excellent beers I would go where the quality was. For it doesn't matter whether a macro or a craft brewer makes my beer. As long as it's good. A lot of macro beer is straight swill and so is a lot of craft beer but whether they are independent or not doesn't "resonate" with me like it does "millennials".
On the other hand, they're are guys here in this forum who own or run breweries and I can appreciate that this stuff hits closer to home than it does for me.
Then you are extremely myopic or you are just playing devil's advocate or you are fooling yourself. There is nothing wrong with a brand designating itself as independent. Just like "InBev" has designated them self as "High End" If the beer is better, then drink it! But the the consumer has the right to know what they are drinking. They have the right to know if the beer is brewed locally and they absolutely have the right to know if fair practices are involved with the distribution of the beer. I mean, come on bro. You seem a lot smarter than this.
I'll go ahead and put it out there that Wicked Weed is a fine beer. But their marketing and hype have always been better than the actual beer.
a.) I'm not "lacking imagination, foresight or intellectual insight" (myopic) (Wheaton's Law?)
b.) I've said about 3 times in this thread that I'm playing devils advocate
c.) I don't think I'm fooling myself.
d.) I never said there is anything wrong with a brewery designating itself prominently as independent, I just stated that it doesn't matter to me and that stuff doesn't "resonate" with me like the BA says it does with 81% of craft beer drinkers. Of course that's only 81% of the people who took the survey...
e.) I'm certainly smarter than you are giving me credit for. I would hope so at least.
f.) As I stated in my last paragraph above, I appreciate this is a much bigger issue for some, especially those with breweries or who work for breweries.