Where’s the love? The risk of success in the craft beer world.

We recently ran a poll asking how you all felt about the cease and desist letter filed by Sam Adams against SanTan Brewing Company for patent infringement on their glass design. For those not familiar with the case, Sam Adams spent a lot of money designing a glass specifically made for their Boston Lager, which they actually own a patent on the design of. After the release of the glass, SanTan started selling glasses that looked very similar to the Sam Adams’ glass and as a result Sam Adams has asked that SanTan stop using the design. SanTan has refused and neither side is willing to settle. We expected some people to be on SanTan’s side but we were shocked that 60% of you sided with them, and that’s where things got interesting.

We started digging in a little bit more, looking at both the comments you left on Twitter and on our article and there was a very consistent trend. People thought Sam Adams was in the wrong because they were a big business picking on the little guy. That’s when we decided we had to say something about this. For the record, we think Sam Adams is right. In our view the SanTan glass is far too similar to be a coincidence and the idea that Sam Adams doesn’t have rights because they got too successful is indicative of a negative trend we’ve been seeing for a while now.

For some time there’s been a growing resentment of Sam Adams not being craft brewery. Let’s be clear, Sam Adams helped pioneer what is now the craft beer industry and their Boston Lager recipe hasn’t changed. So if it used to be craft beer and the recipe stayed the same then why isn’t it craft beer now? This feels a lot like people who stop liking a band because they get too famous. Are we actually punishing breweries for being successful now? Because if that’s the case we want no part of it. One commenter noted that Sam Adams isn’t craft beer because it’s sold at Applebee’s. We take a different look at that, Sam Adams in Applebee’s means millions of people are being exposed to something outside of the standard light beer and that’s a great thing. The more people that drink better beer the bigger the market gets and that’s good for everyone. One of the main reasons we started DrinkCraftBeer was because we wanted to be able to get a pint of good craft beer at any restaurant or bar we go to, and Sam Adams is one of the few that make that goal attainable.

We’d like to leave you with one last thought for those of you that think Sam Adams is in the wrong. If the tables were turned and SanTan had a patent on the glass that Sam Adams copied, would you defend Sam Adams? If you say no, then you’re punishing the company based on size and success, not what’s right. If the size of the business is clouding your decision at all we’d challenge you to think it over just a bit more. Let’s celebrate the success of those working hard to bring great beer to the masses, not punish it.