GOOD Magazine has a great legend of organic brands and the big-time food processors that own them.
Beer isn’t included on the list, but it raises a similar point we’ve been talking about a lot lately, which is that organic products made by big companies (for example, Anheuiser-Busch’s — or, excuse us, Green Valley Brewing Co.’s — Stone Mill Organic Pale Ale organic brew) won’t often be labeled as being owned by the actual parent corporation, because the buyers in the niche market like buying from what they think is a smaller organic company.
Kenan got what I think is my favorite quote for this whole project so far from Pisgah Brewing Co.’s David Quinn, which you can find in our story on the hops shortage. Here it is, as a teaser:
“They should just stay out of the craft beer industry,” Quinn said. “They would sell more if they would just put it in a green can and call it ‘OG Bud’.”
In fact, the first thing that came up for me this morning in a misguided Google search for “Stone Mill IPA” — I searched it before I remembered that the brew isn’t an IPA, rather a pale ale — was this blog post — and the only comment on the post goes thusly:
on 07 Nov 2007 at 10:46 pm don
I meant to try this one at some point but now I’m glad I didn’t.
I don’t think the packaging even states that it’s an A-B product. Kind of deceiving.
Anyway. Neat article by GOOD. Do you feel deceived drinking beers that you think are micro- or craft brews that end up being macro? My favorite rug to pull out from under people’s feet is that Blue Moon is a Coors product.