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Devils Backbone Brewing Company, 2014 Great American Beer Festival Mid-Size Brewery Now Owned by Anheuser-Busch


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Oddly, it appears we never had a thread for Devils Backbone Brewing Company, brewers of the multi-award winning Vienna Lager.

Devils Backbone was won the following awards:  2014 Great American Beer Festival Mid-Size Brewery & Brew Team, 2013 Small Brewing Company & Small Brewing Company Brew Team, 2012 Small Brewpub & Small Brewpub Brewer, 2010 World Beer Cup Champion Brewery, and the Virginia Craft Brewers Fest Best of Show medals in 2015, 2014, 2013 and 2012.

As of 4/12/2016 the brewery has been bought by Anheuser-Busch, joining their High End portfolio, which includes Stella Artois and Shock Top, along with craft breweries Goose Island, Blue Point, 10 Barrel, Elysian, Golden Road, Virtue Cider, Four Peaks and Breckenridge Brewery.  Press release announcing the acquisition.

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Oddly, it appears we never had a thread for Devils Backbone Brewing Company, brewers of the multi-award winning Vienna Lager.

Devils Backbone was won the following awards:  2014 Great American Beer Festival Mid-Size Brewery & Brew Team, 2013 Small Brewing Company & Small Brewing Company Brew Team, 2012 Small Brewpub & Small Brewpub Brewer, 2010 World Beer Cup Champion Brewery, and the Virginia Craft Brewers Fest Best of Show medals in 2015, 2014, 2013 and 2012.

As of 4/12/2016 the brewery has been bought by Anheuser-Busch, joining their High End portfolio, which includes Stella Artois and Shock Top, along with craft breweries Goose Island, Blue Point, 10 Barrel, Elysian, Golden Road, Virtue Cider, Four Peaks and Breckenridge Brewery.  Press release announcing the acquisition.

Ugh, I had a Vienna Lager last weekend at First Down Sports Bar (because they were out of the first three beers I ordered), and it was the worst beer I had all night.

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Yeah, I've never understood the fuss surrounding the Vienna Lager, I find it to be fine.  Not sure why it has won so many awards.  I think their Schwartz Bier (Dark Lager) is pretty solid.    

Makes you wonder if Anheuser-Busch is the sponsor of any of these awards (and coaches of any of these "small breweries"), creating a self-fulfilling prophecy when they "buy the company." Vienna Lager is right up their alley, and I wonder if it was "crafted" to be so from day one.

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While many will deride AB's current trend of buying craft breweries, if you look at Goose Island, the result has not been all bad.  They have shipped off the production of their year round styles to a beer factory where they can dial in the recipe and thus insure consistency, and this has opened up capacity to make more of their rare products in greater capacity and with greater frequency.  It is interesting though, and this may be the taking off of the craft market over the last several years, it has become harder and harder to get your hands on Bourbon County Brand Stout, I don't know what the cause of this is.  Is it that AB has pushed the supply to all 50 states, or is it because more people are interested in craft beer?

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