This is a story about how Big Beer is killing a former gem of the American craft beer industry. It was December 2015 when Constellation Brands, the largest Big Beer importer in the United States, made its first American craft brewery purchase with Ballast Point Brewing. Things have gone off the rails since then for the former craft brewery.
2019 is looking to be the third year in a row that Ballast Point will experience a decline in sales. Essentially, the brewery always grew when it was a craft brewery, but as soon as Big Beer dropped $1 billion to buy it and started it’s corporatization of the brewery, things have only gone downhill. Constellation Brands has closed Ballast Point brewing facilities, eliminated Ballast Point specific sales and marketing teams, and lessened benefits for the remaining employees. Those types of changes affect the morale of those who are left to keep the ship afloat.