In a nearly 2,500-word missive that opened with quotes from Metallica and Roman poet Heraclitus, Stone Brewing co-founder Greg Koch – one of the craft beer industry’s staunchest advocates for independence – reflected on what the sale of his company to Japanese brewing giant Sapporo means for his future… without ever typing the word “Sapporo.”
In the near term, Koch will step away from Stone, which he said will be “probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done.”
“I have to be self-aware enough to know that just because I co-founded and led the company for many years, I may not be the best person to helm Stone into the future,” Koch wrote. “I’d planned to operate the puppet strings all the way to my last days, but can easily see now how disrespectful that would be to all the people that have shared our vision along the way … especially the folks that are here now and showing up and working hard every day. I’ve run the calculus every which way (over and over in my head for years now), and this is the most pragmatic decision to ensure this beautiful thing I care so much about has a future.”
In his post-Stone years, Koch will “finally fully honor [his] inner introvert” and seems to be prepared to ride into the proverbial sunset.
“This blog may be the last time that you hear from me,” he wrote. “I’ve enjoyed being a passionate – and vocal – advocate for craft beer, but I’m ready for smaller, more intimate conversations now.”
Koch will also retain his partial ownership of Stone Distributing, along with Stone co-founder Steve Wagner, Stone CEO Maria Stipp told Brewbound.
As a craft beer advocate, Koch’s feelings on “selling out” have been long documented. In 2016, Stone marked its 20th anniversary with the production of a video titled “Why we have chosen not to sell out to big beer.” On social media, Koch has averred never to sell, but admitted other avenues to preserve Stone’s future could be explored.
I will never sell out. Set the co up so it will continue? Yes. RT @NJBeerNerd: @CNBCBeerNews @Notteham my bet is @StoneGreg will never sell.
— Greg Koch (@StoneGreg) October 17, 2013
To accompany Koch’s keynote speech at the Brewers Association’s (BA) 2009 Craft Brewers Conference, Stone collaborated with other craft brewers to produce the “I Am A Craft Brewer” video. In it, Koch and fellow brewers extolled the “socially conscious, stylistically adventurous and categorically devoted” corner of the beer industry, and urged their peers to “honor and hold true to our craft,” “hold true to our integrity” and “draw hard lines.”
To say Koch has a lengthy record of decrying big beer’s incursion on craft would be an understatement, but to call Sapporo’s acquisition of his company a shock would be incorrect.
While Stone remained within the BA’s definition of a craft brewer – a brewery making fewer than 6 million barrels annually and not more than 25% owned by a beverage-alcohol producer that is not also a craft brewer – the company took on investment from private equity firm VMG Partners in 2016. Several other craft breweries have done the same, and when the investment timeline nears the end of its course, mergers and acquisitions often enter the picture (see: Dogfish Head, SweetWater, CANarchy, Long Trail).
Interestingly, Koch identified 2016, the year his company brought on VMG investment, as the one in which craft beer was no longer “the perennial underdog of the beer industry.” Perhaps voices as loud as his were no longer needed to defend a scrappy, upstart segment that had come into its own. Still, in his defenses of craft beer, Koch confessed he was “preachy at times,” as well as “a bit overly passionate, overly serious, and I have even come off like an ass at times.”
“However, I’ve softened my rigidity around this in recent years,” he wrote. “I’ll happily buy a beer from Avery, New Belgium, Dogfish Head and Bell’s. And Anchor. I’ll always happily reach for an Anchor.”
Koch called Anchor, which will be Stone’s sibling under the Sapporo umbrella, an “epiphany beer all the way back in 1987.” In the press release announcing the deal, he pointed to Sapporo’s status in the brewing world as a reason to be proud of its interest in Stone.
“This is the right next chapter for Stone Brewing,” Koch said in the release. “For 26 years, our amazing team has worked tirelessly to brew beers that have set trends and redefined expectations. To have the interest of a company like Sapporo in continuing the Stone story is a testament to the great beers we’ve created and will continue to create for our fans across the globe.”
Koch, like many of us, may have found that the things that defined us a quarter of a century ago, may not be the things that define us, or bring us joy, in the next 25. Then again, few would be shocked to see the self-proclaimed introvert back in the spotlight again rather than fading to black.