Craft brewers want proof of distinction

As Big Beer has snapped up craft breweries, it's grown harder to tell who the true indies are. But a new industry effort hopes to clear up the confusion by declaring their ownership right on the bottle.

More than 800 breweries - including Sam Adams, Sierra Nevada and New Belgium - will soon begin printing seals on their beers that identify them as "Certified Independent Craft." The initiative, which was spearheaded by the trade group for independent craft brewers, is intended to differentiate "true" craft beers from those made by the likes of MillerCoors, Anheuser-Busch and Heineken.

To qualify to use the seal, breweries can't be more than 25 percent owned or controlled by any alcohol company that's not itself a craft brewer. Its annual production also can't exceed six million barrels.

The growth of the craft beer segment, once in the double digits, has slowed dramatically since those multinationals entered the fray: from 18 percent in 2013 to 8 percent three years later. Some believe they could stem some of that decline if consumers realized some "crafty"-looking beers weren't actually made by independent brewers.

Small breweries have grown increasingly anxious about Big Beer's incursion on their limited turf. Five international conglomerates - Anheuser-Busch InBev, MillerCoors, Constellation/Crown Imports, Heineken and Pabst - already control more than 80 percent of the U.S. beer market.

A large issue lies in distribution. Because the five Big Beer firms represent the majority of business for the middlemen who move beer from breweries to traplines and retail stores, they exercise enormous influence over how their beer is displayed.

Distribution contracts frequently allow major beer brands to dictate where their beer is placed on shelves, for instance. And Big Beer has successfully driven independent beers out of some stadiums, music venues and chain restaurants by asking distributors to stock their crafts brands instead of independents.

Since 2011, Anheuser-Busch has bought Goose Island, Blue Point, Karbach, Golden Road, Devil's Backbone, Elysian, Ten Barrel, Breckenridge, Four Peaks and Wicked Weed. MillerCoors now owns Terrapin and Heineken has Lagunitas.

"If I walk into a farmers market, I assume the produce was grown by an independent, local farmer," said Daniel Kleban, the co-founder and brewer at Portland's Maine Beer Company. "If I found out that stuff actually came from Dole, I'd be upset."

Big brewers have, for their part, downplayed the concerns.