Tag: Lion Group

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A Bell Ringing in Belgium

I haven’t had to weigh in with comment on the business side of brewing for quite a bit but yesterday breaking news arrived that Bell’s Beer was joining New Belgium which itself is part of Lion (aka Kirin).

I know that is a bit of a complicated flow chart but it boils down to the two iconic breweries becoming siblings of a sort.

And it doesn’t strike me as a bad thing. Then again, I am non-plussed when it comes to good breweries banding together. Sometimes it won’t work but it can produce a bigger company that can then do more.

My usual advice stands. Monitor both breweries beers and if the nothing changes, don’t worry, be happy.

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New Kirin Belgium

Well this was some news to find in the local paper. I was in a Wi-Fi “un”-enabled spot and did not see this come across the ticker. The employee owners of New Belgium followed a path that Full Sail broke ground on in selling to Kirin – Lion – Little World. I have the feeling that more of this will happen in the future as older and bigger and not hip breweries look for a parachute out. Whether this works will be seen. Full Sail has not regained momentum but Anchor sold not once but twice and seems to be stable but then on the third hand, Lagunitas has been slimming down even with Heineken behind them. Or maybe this will mean a foedre sake blend in the future.