Jester King Brewery Pulls Out of Beer Collaboration With Wicked Weed

Jester King Brewery loves to collaborate on beers, and this previously included mash-up beers with East Coast-based brewery Wicked Weed Brewing. However, that’s no longer the case since the North Carolina brewery was just purchased by AB InBev, the massive conglomerate that owns Anheuser-Busch.

The Hill Country brewery founder Jeffrey Stuffings decided to pull out of current and future projects with Wicked Weed. “We’d never do a collaboration with Anheuser-Busch or any company they own,” he told Eater, “which unfortunately now includes Wicked Weeds. The news this morning came as quite a surprise to us. We will no longer be part of the collaboration we had in the works with Wicked Weed.” That would’ve involved “blending unfruited barrel-aged beers” from both breweries.

Stuffings expanded on his decision on Jester King's website, writing that he and the brewery must adhere to their principles and still view the team at Wicked Weed as friends.

In light of the acquisition news, Austin Beer Guide shared a screencap of an old parody column from 2011, rumormongering a collaboration between Jester King and Anheuser-Busch in jest.

AB InBev has been on a craft brewery shopping binge, buying up places like Devils Backbone Brewing in Roseland, Virginia, and Chicago’s Goose Island.

• Anheuser-Busch to Purchase Wicked Weed Brewing [BrewBound]
• All Coverage of Jester King Brewery [EATX]