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[QUOTE="HuskyHawk, post: 2365911, member: 1414"]
This is true.  The vast majority of craft beer drinkers never visit a brewery and have no idea about these more sought after beers.  To them, Sam, Harpoon, Long Trail and Sierra Nevada are craft.   Long Trail acquired Otter Creek now, and both have really improved what the offer in the last few years.  Otter Creek did lose its head brewer Mike to Hill Farmstead.

Still [USER=402]@Letsgohuskies11[/USER] is right, it's over-saturated in stores and in big chain restaurants, where there is a big battle among the mid sized breweries owned by the big conglomerates and the big craft players like Sam, Sierra, Stone etc. 
That's why the hottest breweries are mostly going with a no or low distribution model.  The real craft beer geeks aren't even going into liquor stores anymore.  The breweries I think are going to struggle are those that are neither (a) big nor (b) great.  Lord Hobo, Grey Sail, Baxter, Magic Hat, I could probably name two dozen.  The breweries owned by ABInbev like Goose, Ten Barrel etc. are going to be hard to displace on store shelves, along with Lagunitas and Ballast Point with ties to the big guys.
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