No Overnight Success

The $1 billion price tag for Ballast Point is still rattling through people's minds.  I'm sure every craft brewery is doing the math trying to figure a value for its business.  One thing everyone needs to remember is that Ballast Point is no overnight success.  It has been slugging it out, day after day, week after week, month after month, and year after year for nearly twenty years.  Newcomer breweries Saint Archer Brewery and Golden Road Brewing, which were recently acquired by MillerCoors and Anheuser-Busch InBev, respectively, owe their new fortunes to the hard work of breweries like Ballast Point, Stone Brewing, Karl Strauss, AleSmith, Port Brewing, and other craft beer pioneers.

The craft beer revolution did not find these brewers.  Their relentless efforts, innovation, and ultimately, great tasting, quality beers created today's craft beer revolution.  Formed in the wake of the 1980's craft brewpub collapse, they struggled through mid-1990s and early 2000s.   They did not compromise or pander to trends.  They proved to consumers that there is much more to beer than a thin, mass produced pilsners like Budweiser or a fancy European Heineken.  The shift in beer drinking didn't happen all at once,  Fifteen years ago most people had no idea what an IPA was, and if they tried one would have been shocked at its bitterness.  Today, IPA is the most popular craft beer style, and everybody wants a Sculpin.

The cartoon above from yesterday's (November 18, 2015) San Diego Union-Tribune makes fun of the idea that Ballast Point's path to a billion dollar valuation was easy.