Pete Coors Snipes at the Brewers Association, Gets Roasted by Ninkasi in Exchange
Photos via Ninkasi Brewing Co., Facebook
Writers in the sphere of the beer Twitterverse have likely been keeping an eye on the following story since it broke yesterday, as Pete Coors, Big Beer industry figurehead and chairman of Molson Coors’ board of directors, laid into the Brewers Association via an open letter. In his letter, Coors excoriates the organization for a lack of friendliness and civility toward the 1-percenters of the beer world, bringing out the typical rhetoric that the craft beer industry and the makers of Bud, Miller and Coors brands should all be working together to take on a series of common threats—presented by Coors as the growing wine, spirits and cannabis industries, among others.
He wasn’t wrong about the threats to the industry as a whole, as the statistics back him up, but it was still some classic Big Beer messaging: Insult opponent, accuse (tiny, independent) opponent of unfairness and bullying toward a global megacorp, and simultaneously tell opponent they should be supporting and working with you—for their own good—despite the fact that the craft segment of the market is still growing rather than shrinking, albeit not as fast as it once was. Coors even manages to imply that the craft beer industry’s mean attitude, rather than their superior beers, are somehow involved in his company’s difficulty selling more light lager than the previous year.
Well, Nikos Ridge wasn’t about to take that message laying down. The President and co-founder of Eugene, OR’s Ninkasi Brewing Co., who recently made the rankings of our blind-tasting of 151 pale ales, went through Pete Coors’ letter line by line, serving up some comic rebuttals along the way. Presented below are some of our favorite exchanges, but you can read both letters right here.
Pete Coors: The brewing industry is not exclusively made up of “large, multinational brewers” or “big brewers” or “faux craft brewers.” It is not exclusively made up of “mass produced” beer, craft brewers or home brewers. Rather, the beer industry is a combination of large and small brewers, retailers, distributors and suppliers who are passionate about their craft and committed to their businesses. And, they are passionate about competing for the millions of American consumers who love beer.
Nikos Ridge: Correct. The problem arises when certain tiers within the industry (large multinational brewers), work to obscure the origins and manipulate the market to their advantage. By disguising beer brands as “craft” and using the market power and tactics available to huge organizations, you deliberately mislead customers and damage the industry.