[reverseapachemaster]

The MO for those big brewery takeovers seem to be about focusing on a single beer as the flagship "brand" for the brewery. See the proliferation of everything "Ranger" from New Belgium. Pre-Kirin NB sold a ton of interesting beer that was pretty readily available in Colorado. Not the case anymore.

I would expect Bell's two hearted and maybe Oberon to be available but I wouldn't expect anything else to have wide release in the near future.

New Belgium can't seem to figure out what Voodoo Ranger is exactly. I just saw VR LightLager. Looking at the website it's an IPA, Imperial IPA, Hazy IPA, Future Hop IPA, V2K Juicy IPA, and Pumpkin Ale. It's everything but a sour at this point. At one time you could walk into a bar and order a VR and know what you might receive. Now it's a crapshoot.

I forget where I heard it but the one big thing Lion did with NB was help them figure out a strategy moving forward with the two large breweries. Pre-acquisition they brewed a lot more experimental beer but their sales were slumping because people weren't buying their staple beers (Fat Tire, Abbey, etc.) and they couldn't get Voodoo Ranger to land in the market outside of a replacement for all the Fat Tire taps they were losing. Lion advised them to focus on Voodoo Ranger as a flagship and produce all the variants you see. This isn't Lion's idea. Deschutes has done the same thing with Fresh Squeezed to great success. This is a market where people want to buy a new IPA every time they buy a can and want to go into a taproom and see ten IPAs--even if the "new" or "different" IPA really isn't much different from the last one. Left Hand is doing the same thing with Milk Stout--this is just how the older breweries with established brands have to stay relevant without risking a complete rebrand.

For NB this was inevitable and Lion seemed less pushing NB to make the change as much as helping making the logistics work. NB was late to expanding their sour program at a time when sour beer was really big and just as they were set to flow out great variants on their two foeder aged beers the market flipped, Bouckaert left and they were a bit adrift until Lion encouraged them to focus on what works.

I'm friends with somebody who works for Bell's distributor here in Colorado and it seems Bell's has already started moving towards the same platform but with Oberon. They make a few Oberon variants that don't make it to Colorado much but I expect Lion will encourage them to do the same at least where those beers sell. For now I believe the fruited Oberon variants are mostly sold in Florida. There is a barrel aged Oberon which I've tried and it's actually not bad. I expect we'll see more Oberon variants as Bell's answer to kettle sours/seltzers/slushy IPAs.

[nateo]

I agree it's probably the right call from a business perspective. I'm probably not their target demo anymore as someone who enjoys beer generally, including weird and boring styles. I have zero interest in seltzers or trying a million different IPAs. I thought hazies were interesting the first time I had one but they're all so samey I don't buy them anymore.

Personally, it's just disappointing when craft beer fulfilled the promise of "real" choice a decade ago and now, for a variety of reasons, craft beer has been coopted by big beer and provides only the illusion of choice.

[narvin]

I don't feel like I'm lacking choice.  Sure, not as many craft breweries do lagers or English ales, but I can find them if I want them.

If anything, it's the explosion in number of craft breweries that exist today that forced large national ones like Bell's, New Belgium, etc to rethink their model.  I see about 50-75% of shelf space at a good beer store taken by local or regional craft breweries.  Add in dozens of brewpubs, taprooms, and farm breweries within driving distance, and the model of selling Two Hearted or Fat Tire on both cost in mass quantities doesn't hold up anymore.  Especially after a lot of the big craft breweries expanded (often too quickly) with second locations.  So, they might be chasing trends and mas market appeal, but that doesn't mean it's as bad as seeing BMC as the only options.

[denny]

I don't feel like I'm lacking choice.  Sure, not as many craft breweries do lagers or English ales, but I can find them if I want them.

If anything, it's the explosion in number of craft breweries that exist today that forced large national ones like Bell's, New Belgium, etc to rethink their model.  I see about 50-75% of shelf space at a good beer store taken by local or regional craft breweries.  Add in dozens of brewpubs, taprooms, and farm breweries within driving distance, and the model of selling Two Hearted or Fat Tire on both cost in mass quantities doesn't hold up anymore.  Especially after a lot of the big craft breweries expanded (often too quickly) with second locations.  So, they might be chasing trends and mas market appeal, but that doesn't mean it's as bad as seeing BMC as the only options.

Well said. I agree with all of your points.