It was a day of deals (well, finally formally announced anyway) throughout the beer industry with “minority investment” being the term batted around by both the entities spending and being bought.
Short’s Brewing Company of Michigan kicked things off Wednesday with a video announcing that Lagunitas Brewing Company has purchased 19.9 percent of the company. Brooklyn Brewery followed up several hours later with a blog post announcing a separate deal, saying they’ve made a minority investment in both 21st Amendment Brewery (San Francisco, California) and Funkwerks (Fort Collins, Colorado).
In the video, Short’s Founder Joe Short used the all-too-common phrase these days of “strategic partner” to describe Lagunitas. Then in describing the deal, CEO Scott Newman-Bale said they wanted to be “up front” with customers about the transaction but failed to mention that Lagunitas is now wholly owned by Heineken, a fact fans were quick and angry to point out on social media.