You're going to see breweries figuring out a way to become local, by opening flagship operations in big metropolitan areas. They're going to be very will financed, and they are going to sell fresh beer that's probably going to be pretty good. But I don't know that this is going to be great for people like me - independent, single location bars. It's another way we become dinosaurs. We're already dealing with chain bars not affiliated with breweries, but when they affiliate with breweries, they're chasing after our customers very specifically.
The Hopleaf's Michael Roper reports on the latest developments in craft beer capitalism - from Sapporo's acquisition of Anchor Brewing, and the larger consequences of finance and buyouts in the industry, to the ways the brewery-owned pub boom could kill the traditional beer bar as we know it.