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Craft beer is enticing, and not just to hopheads who stick their nose up at anything that isn’t brewed in small batches.
Bart Watson, staff economist at the Brewers Association, said the “dramatic rise” of interest in craft beer is something the big brewing companies can’t ignore anymore. He joined the VOSD Podcast this week to give us some context and numbers behind the big news that CoorsMiller acquired local craft beer company Saint Archer Brewery.
Watson told us “we’re in a moment” and more and more buyout offers will be put on the tables of craft breweries across the country, but the vast majority of them haven’t sold out yet and probably won’t.
“There are still 3,800 independent craft brewers out there,” he said, talking us off the craft-beer-is-dead ledge.
Also on this week’s show: ruminations on Union-Tribune parent company Tribune Publishing Co.’s booting of Austin Beutner (if you know Beutner, give him a nudge so we can get him on a future podcast), a segment on local campaign finance scandals and the towing-industry takeaways, a foray into police body camera footage, a bit on JMI Realty’s big announcement and how it puts a damper on the mayor’s Convention Center plan and more.
We also couldn’t resist bringing up the Chargers and sliding all the way down the slippery slope imagined in a recent Union-Tribune editorial blaming the New England Patriots for cheating San Diego’s team out of a new stadium.
Listen to the podcast here, on Stitcher or on iTunes.
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