AB InBev acquires Platform Beer Co
Platform Beer Co was founded in 2014 by Paul Benner and Justin Carson as a ‘homebrew-inspired educational brewery devoted to community outreach and education’. In 2017 it was the fastest growing regional brewery in the US.
It now has four facilities in Ohio: the flagship Cleveland tasting room, a 60 barrel (BBL) Cleveland-based brewhouse, a tasting room in Columbus (which also acts as a distribution center and warehouse), and the Cincinnati Tasting Room and coffee shop concept “LOCOBA”. It is also planning a dedicated sour beer brewing facility and on-site tasting room in Cleveland and a 10 BBL brewery and tasting room in Pittsburgh.
Platform creates 200 unique beers a year and its work has resulted in more than 600 recipes that include a variety of seasonals, sours, ciders, fruit ales, barrel-aged beers and a hard seltzer line.
Through its Brewers Collective business unit, Anheuser-Busch’s craft brands also include 10 Barrel Brewing Co., Blue Point Brewing Company, Breckenridge Brewery, Devils Backbone Brewing Company, Elysian Brewing Company, Four Peaks Brewing Co., Golden Road Brewing, Goose Island Beer Company, Karbach Brewing Co., Veza Sur Brewing Co., Virtue Cider, and Wicked Weed Brewing.
Anheuser-Busch has invested more than $130m in its craft partners over the last three years: which has gone towards hiring new employees, opening new facilities and increasing production. It says that nearly 1,000 new jobs have been created as a result.
