AC Golden is a brewery in Colorado with two primary offerings in the market now: Herman Joseph’s Private Reserve and Colorado Native – their newest offering made from ingredients sourced locally in Colorado. But who is behind the AC Golden brewery? A closer look reveals that they share an address with the Coors Brewing Company and that the ‘AC’ in AC Golden likely stands for Adolph Coors, the founder of the original brewery. They market these beers like craft beer (much in the same way their ‘Blue Moon Brewing Company’ markets Blue Moon) but they aren’t. They’re made on the same premises as Coors Light, Keystone, and other MillerCoors beers. Serious craft beer consumers won’t be duped by their efforts. First of all, no brewery makes their name so insignificant in their advertising. Looking at this sixpack, can you tell which brewery makes this?
Second, no craft brewery could ‘sneak’ onto the scene have their banner advertisements in bars across the metro area and their product in 600 area liquor stores. Within a month of its release, Colorado Native was ubiquitous on the Colorado beer scene. Real craft breweries have to grow slowly through a grass roots movement.
Being a craft brewery doesn’t just mean making flavorful beer. For all I know, this beer could be fantastic. But the ideal behind it means I won’t likely purchase it. Instead, I have a suggestion for the big boys who keep insisting on trying to get into the craft beer game: start a true craft brewery. Don’t create a craft beer look-a-like in megalithic proportions. It will not have the soul of a craft beer. Find your young, entrepreneurial employees who are willing to work hard enough. Give them a shoestring budget yet unconditional support for new ideas and pushing the envelope. Let them experiment. Have them serve in multiple roles across the new company. Let them negotiate for shelf space and tap handles at area bars. Have them learn how to run their new small scale bottling line. Allow them to hire employees and purchase more equipment when they’ve earned market share and developed a demand for their beer that they can no longer supply. Let them go through the trials and tribulations of starting a brewery, providing minimal guidance when necessary. Also, don’t try to hide the fact that a big brewery is behind it. AC Golden, The Blue Moon Brewing Company, and others make no mention of their true parent companies on their labels. It is dishonest and can breed contempt when people feel like they’ve been duped.
InBev (Anheuser Busch) and SAB (MillerCoors) are extremely innovative companies with many talented employees, and I’m sure this would be a dream job for many of them. From this pool of employees, I’m sure they could find a few who would thrive and succeed at running their own small scale breweries. Even though the final product will still be from one of the big breweries, it will have the soul akin to craft beer. If one of the big breweries took this approach, would you drink the beer?
