Indie seal garners support

How do you measure success? In less than two months, the Brewers Association’s “independent craft brewer seal” has been embraced by over 1,700 breweries.

Launched at the end of June 2017, the seal is aimed at helping craft brewers distinguish their beers from those owned by multinational corporations.

While this number indicates that only one in three craft breweries has signed up to the seal to date (August 2017), the BA has said that these breweries represent more than 50 percent of the craft beer in production. This means a lot of the bigger players have adopted the seal.

Naturally, the seal has drawn criticism, both for its design as well as for its intent. While objections to the seal on aesthetic grounds can easily be swept aside – it’s a matter of personal taste – the complaints that the BA’s criteria of ownership are too generous will need to be dealt with.

As was pointed out, craft brewers that are minority-owned by a Big Brewer are eligible to use the seal, as are craft breweries that are backed by private equity. What bothers some is that private equity backed firms will use the “independent cred” to build up value before selling the breweries on.

It will be interesting to see how many non-BA members will adopt the seal – should the BA eventually disclose that detail.