I'm not always a fan of the moves that the Brewer's Association makes. I find some of their policies to be overreaching, such as their Advertising and Marketing Code. That was nothing more than censorship that they are imposing on craft breweries. You can read more about that HERE. They got this one right though. The Brewer's Association has launched an official seal for independent craft brewers. The idea is that truly independent craft breweries can use the official seal on their packaging to help distinguish themselves from the evil empire owned brands. Nowadays it can be tricky to weed out the macro soldiers in the cooler.overreaching and counterproductive. I was most recently bothered by updates to their
The guidelines to qualify for the seal are fairly simple. A brewery must prove that they meet the following criteria:
1: Valid TTB Brewer’s Notice.
2: Meet the BA’s craft brewer definition.
3: Sign a licensing agreement.
The Brewer's Association is not currently restricting approval to its members only. They do cite that there may be an administrative fee for breweries that are not members of the organization. For now, it's free to any qualifying brewery.
How does this affect us, the beer drinkers? If breweries actively participate in the program we will be better educated when making our purchasing decisions. Some of us don't care but some of us really care who we are buying from, or not buying from. I love a few of the beers from Boulevard Brewing, particularly Tank 7 and The Calling. Until last week I didn't know that they were owned by AV-InBev. The lack of the independent craft brewer seal would not have told me about their allegiance to the empire but if the bottle next to it on the shelf did have the approval I would know that it is not affiliated with them. With this seal, we will now have a way to distinguish the truly independent brewed beers from those that are part of a conglomerate without researching or making an attempt to track brewery acquisitions.
You can read more about the seal from the Brewer's Association HERE.