Pacific Brewing and Malting Will Acquire American Brewing Company

Remember that time Anheuser-Busch bought Elysian Brewing? Well, now we have news of another brewery acquisition, but of a much different sort.

Edmonds' American Brewing is being bought by Pacific Brewing of Tacoma, reports the Seattle PI via the Washington Beer Blog. Both companies will continue to operate under their separate labels in their separate cities, and personnel will remain the same at both breweries.

Here's the expert analysis from the Washington Beer Blog's Kendall Jones:

Earlier this year American Brewing acquired Búcha, a brand of organic sparkling kombucha drinks. The acquisition by Pacific Brewing does not involve American Brewing’s non-alcoholic beverages, which will now operate as a separate company.

According to Neil Fallon, the CEO of American Brewing, it had become increasingly difficult for the brewing company and the functional beverage company to operate under the same ownership. A functional beverage defined as a drink product that is non-alcoholic and includes in its formulation ingredients such as herbs, vitamins, minerals, amino acids or additional raw fruit or vegetables.

Understandably, there are difficulties with a non-alcoholic beverage company operating within, or as part of, an alcoholic beverage company. The deal with Pacific Brewing frees the functional beverages company to focus entirely on the non-alcoholic business, something about which Fallon says he is excited.

"We’re thrilled," said Brent Hall, co-owner of Pacific Malting and Brewing. "I’ve known Neil for a long time, and I am familiar with American’s strong brands and history. This will accelerate our business plan by three or four years. It will allow us to move into a production facility immediately and increase capacity."

For Pacific Brewing, the deal comes with many advantages, including existing distributor relationships and product positioning in the retail market, not to mention a larger brewery. The brewery in Edmonds will function as the production facility and the brewery in Tacoma will function as the pilot, small-batch brewery. American Brewing’s beers will still be branded as such. Likewise, Pacific Brewing’s beer will still be branded as such.