Moreover, these mergers set back craft beer’s long-term goals. The day the sale was announced, Devils Backbone lost its status as a voting member of the Brewers Association, the craft-brewing industry’s lobby, and brewery cofounder Steve Crandall was forced to resign from its board. By definition, craft breweries produce fewer than 6 million barrels a year-Anheuser-Busch produced 391 million in 2014. Just one thing: Don’t call Devils Backbone “craft beer” anymore.

Similarly, Devils Backbone Vienna Lager might one day line beer aisles thousands of miles from the company’s Nelson County home. After all, since A-B bought Chicago’s Goose Island Beer Company in 2011, Midwestern favorites such as Goose Island’s IPA and wheat ale have become bar staples around the country-and have retained, perhaps to anti-corporatists’ chagrin, their quality. But Devils Backbone-which opened in 2008 and produced 67,000 barrels last year-is banking on its new owner to scale it up massively. There’s a certain logic to that reaction: Craft brewers are by nature experimental and nimble, while major corporations like A-B can be timid and lumbering. On social media, beer nerds accused Devils Backbone of selling out and cashing in. Washington’s craft-beer scene reacted with the usual dread that happens when a multinational corporation buys a homegrown little guy. Listen in.In April, Devils Backbone Brewing Company in Roseland, Virginia, announced it was being acquired by Anheuser-Busch InBev, the world’s largest beer producer. This is Hayes Humphreys and Jason Oliver of Devils Backbone. These chats offer perspective on Devils Backbone’s continuing evolution, and I hope they’ll give you additional understanding of what life is like for one of AB InBev's core craft brands. That's followed by a conversation with brewmaster Jason Oliver, and we'll get a little in the weeds with him about what his job has been like, and what's changed for someone who’s been with the company since 2008. So what happens to a brewery when this takes place? We're going to find out from two perspectives.įirst, you'll hear from Hayes Humphreys, the COO of Devils Backbone, who brings a point of view that ranges as far and wide as the potential reach of the company. Whereas the business once eyed steady growth to stay competitive in Virginia, its success in the Mid-Atlantic is now a real thing, with shoppers in grocery and convenience stores interacting with the brand across increased shelf space. New beers and expanded packaging to move higher volumes of beers like Vienna Lager and Gold Leaf Lager, now in 15-packs.

Now, there's hard lemonade, and canned cocktails. It's not just the number of barrels or headquarters nestled in the mountains of Virginia. Today, Devils Backbone is expanding in a variety of ways. When it was acquired, Devils Backbone was known for selling the top craft six-pack in its home state: Vienna Lager.

At the time it was producing 65,000 barrels per year, and grew to about 80,000 in 2018. Roseland, Virginia's Devils Backbone Brewing Company was brought into the AB InBev network-now known as the Brewer’s Collective-in 2016. What happens to a brewery when a game-changing opportunity comes along? There have been 11 buyouts of American breweries by Anheuser-Busch InBev since 2011, and in this episode, we're getting some insight from one of them. We balance the culture of craft beer with the businesses it supports, and examine the tenacity of its ideals.

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