Craft Beer Fake News – Sept 4, 2016
Fish Hook Point. ME
Today A-B InBev announced that it had plans to make another strategic purchase of a craft brewer. The brewery, Fish Hook Point Brewing Co. is located in northern Maine about 12 miles from the Canadian boarder. The small 8 barrel brewery supplies only the 6 northern counties of Maine, but InBev thought it would fill a niche not occupied by any of it’s other brands. The Belgian beverage giant recently purchased Long Island, NY’s Blue Point Brewing Co. and Ballast Point Brewery from San Diego.
Fish Hook’s flagship beer, Sea Urchin Saison, has become a regional phenomenon with loyal fans driving from as far away as the Midwest for their infrequent can releases. “It was a long drive”, said Bill Finch from Wheel Spoke, Indiana. “But I feel lucky to have seen the brewery even though they sold out before I made it here.”
Even with this popularity in the “beer geek” community, the estimated purchase price of $59 billion seemed a bit exorbitant. InBev’s Chief Financial Officer, Lester Hart, defended the move saying, “We felt that it was more cost effective to make the acquisition than to try to figure out how to make the beer”
Fish Hook’s brewer, Chester Laforge, made big waves last year with the release of his Dill Weed Double IPA. Made with dill grown on the his family farm and locally harvested seaweed, the unique brew was an immediate hit. “I just worked with what was available in my area” said Laforge. “There’s not much that grows this far north except potatoes and dill. So I started with the dill.” The “locavore” movement has made big strides in Maine and there is talk of a tart beer in the works made from Yams called Sweet Potato Sour. “I try to use only ingredients found within one day’s walk from the farm and can be carried on my back ” explained Laforge.
InBev CEO, Richard Winkle, announced the move today saying, “Fish Hook Point Brewing fits into our overall strategy of acquiring beers that we would find too complicated or time-consuming to brew ourselves. Our Board of Directors also thought that Fish Hook Point would complement our other recent purchases of Blue Point and Ballast Point making a lucky threesome of InBev breweries that had the word “Point” in the name.”