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(Courtesy Wynwood Brewing / Miami Heat)
(Updated: 12/5/2019 6pm EST)
“It was recently announced that Anheuser-Busch extended an offer to purchase the remaining shares of Craft Brew Alliance; but the reality is that the transaction is not final. While Wynwood Brewing Co. is owned by Craft Brew Alliance, we remain an independent company at this time. The partnership with the HEAT was curated solely by the team at Wynwood Brewing Co. We’re hoping that you can make a correction to your story.”
American Craft Beer thanks the CBA for this clarification to a story which we clearly got wrong..
Just weeks after the Craft Brew Alliance (CBA) became a 100% AB InBev-owned property Miami’s ‘original craft brewery has been named the “Official Craft Beer of the Miami HEAT.”
It’s amazing what kind of product placement selling out to Anheuser-Busch will get you.
As a result of the just announced deal, Wynwood’s most popular beers are now available in the AmericanAirlines Arena, Miami HEAT’s home stadium located on the Downtown Miami Biscayne Bay waterfront.
And thanks to Anheuser-Busch money, Miami HEAT fans can find Wynwood’s flagship La Rubia Blonde Ale, Laces IPA, and rotating seasonal beers on tap at four co-branded Wynwood Brewing and Miami HEAT beer carts throughout the arena.
According to a press release the connection to basketball runs deep at Wynwood Brewing.
For starters, the grandfather of Wynwood Brewing’s co-founder Luis Brignoni was a professional basketball player, coach and captain in Puerto Rico and was inducted into the Puerto Rican Sports Hall of Fame in 1968.
That legacy, combined with the clout of the world’s biggest brewing conglomerate, means that Wynwood is getting NBA product placement starting now…
“Not only do we get to support our local team, but we get to do it with beers that were created in Miami, less than two-and-a-half miles from the stadium,” said Brignoni.
It’s been a multi-year journey from craft to “crafty” for Wynwood Brewing.
In December 2016, Wynwood’s Luis Brignoni Jr. announced that Portland-based Craft Brew Alliance (which was already partially owned by Anheuser-Busch) would take a minority, 24.5 percent share of the brewery, allowing the Miami to expand its local production brewery and taproom.
Then in October 2018 the Portland-based brewery collective, already home to Kona, Widmer Brothers and Redhook, acquired the remaining stake in the South Florida brewery.
Flash forward to November 2019, and Anheuser-Busch decides to purchase the rest of Craft Brew Alliance…Wynwood becomes part of A-B’s crafty portfolio and ends up being named the “Official Craft Beer of the Miami HEAT” seemingly overnight..
That’s how Anheuser-Busch rolls.
And unfortunately how true independent craft breweries get rolled…
