The craft beer world is reeling from the news that beloved Tottenham stalwarts Beavertown are selling a minority (probably 49%) stake to Heineken. It’s produced all of the hot takes you’d usually expect, but has an extra frisson for devoted beer writer wankers like me, because a couple of months back, Boak & Bailey (a very good beer blog) wrote a piece where they pointed out how many of Beavertown’s recent moves (closing their original restaurant, selling in Waitrose, contract brewing abroad) were typical indicators of a brewery preparing to sell out. This prompted a big backlash from Good Beer Hunting (another beer blog, but ALSO a brand consultancy that works with breweries and therefore must be treated with some suspicion), who attacked B&B for being defamatory, malicious, rumour-mongers. Now they’ve been shown to be prescient, GBH has refused to backtrack, and the drama is HIGH.
