Episode #17: Mergers & Acquisitions with Sam Corbeil (Sawdust City) + Aaron Spinney (MERIT Brewing) | The Business of Beer

This is an episode we'd been trying to make happen for well over a year, but the timing ended up being perfect. Anyone paying attention to the global craft beer industry over the past few years will have noticed breweries either closing or merging/being bought up. Long-time friends of the show Sam Corbeil of Sawdust City and Aaron Spinney of MERIT joined Cee to talk about the recent merger of both of their breweries with Lake of Bays, how it all came about and how they felt about such a large change, the challenges they're both experiencing with regards to integrating all of the companies, how it works, what changes and what stays the same, how the beer will be treated, and their optimism for the future of their breweries. Their honesty and openness in this conversation were extremely appreciated, and shed a lot of light on the reality of being at the forefront of a brewery merger. They got into a bunch of killer Sawdust and MERIT beers: Sawdust City Fire Glow Czech-Style Dark Lager, MERIT Strange Animal Juicy IPA, Sawdust City Rudeneja Autumn IPA, MERIT 107 Dortmunder Export Lager, Sawdust City The Blood of Cthulhu Imperial Pastry Stout (2025), and MERIT Lost Time Märzen Lager. This was incredibly educational - cheers!    BAOS Podcast   Subscribe to the podcast on YouTube | Website | Theme tune: Cee - BrewHeads