(Patchogue, NY) – As Patch astutely pointed out on Wednesday, Blue Point Brewing created an April Fool’s Day 2011 joke in which it said it was “in final negotiations of a MillerCoors buyout.” The original page has since been deleted though the accompanying Facebook post remains live, at least for now. Fortunately, Patch captured the gist of the jab, one that took place less than one month after the announcement that Anheuser-Busch InBev would buy Goose Island.
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Not vague however is Blue Point Brewery’s April Fool’s joke, in which the company set up a press release on its website claiming that the Patchogue-based business would be bought out by the MillerCoors company.
“We feel that crafters are missing the mark to the mass market and with this alliance Blue Point can now focus on transitioning the craft brew drinker into the main stream,” allegedly said Peter Cotter, president of the Blue Point Brewing Company, in the release.
After claiming in the release that some of their niche beers such as Hoptical Illusion and RastafaRye would also need to be discontinued, the company acknowledges that the entire announcement is false, and that the company is not in buyout talks after all.
“Blue Point Brewing Company would like you to have a happy April Fools’ Day! Blue Point Brewing Company – independently owned with no corporate ties. Ever,” finished the release.
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The joke also included an announcement that Blue Point would begin producing “BP Lite Lime IPA.”
While Wednesday’s news brought the usual outcry that small brewery acquisitions do, Blue Point’s April Fools gag and turnaround less than three years later shows that those who lament the news today may be singing a different tune tomorrow.