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Anheuser-Busch To Acquire Popular Los Angeles Craft Brewery

GLENDALE (CBSLA.com/AP) — Anheuser-Busch has announced that it's acquiring a popular Los Angeles craft brewery.

St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch, best known for making Budweiser, said Wednesday that it will acquire Golden Road Brewing, founded in 2011. Financial details of the deal were not released.

Anheuser-Busch spokesman Adam Warrington says the deal is expected to be finished by the end of the year and declined to disclose the terms.

A news release announcing the deal says Golden Road is the largest craft brewery in Los Angeles County. It's projected to sell about 45,000 barrels of beer this year.

But fans of brewery say they hope the merger doesn't mean a diluted brand or beer.

"I hope it stays that local vibe, local people, local business," Blake Gaytan, a Chatsworth resident, said.

"I think as long as it stays the same, kinda stays true to the name and brand, it's OK," Lacey Elder, a Van Nuys resident, said.

"Nothing is going to change. We're keeping our management, our operations, all of our new projects, all of our new beers coming out, everything in place," says Meg Gill, the co-founder and president of Golden Road Brewing Co.

Gill says she approached the company after having a Chicago-based craft beer on a fight, a company she knew Anheuser-Busch had purchased.

"And the ability for us to flex our muscles and theirs to help us flex that, that really brought the partnership together," she said.

Gill, a Yale graduate, will stay at the helm of the company she started just four years ago.

The brewing facility and popular pub is nestled in an industrial park near Glendale. Their beers are on tap at local restaurants and sold in grocery stores.

Golden Road's beers are currently distributed in California, Arizona, and Nevada but the merger may mean distribution to a national or even international market.

"If there is demand in markets outside of Los Angeles, they can immediately kinda turn us on and light us up to those markets," Gill said.

The deal comes on the heels of several other big beer companies gobbling up craft productions, but Gills says they're already expanding the facility locally and are building a brewery in Anaheim.

The deal, Gill says, is simply a way to share their beer with more people.

"Anheuser-Busch really can help us with the distribution side and doing what we're best at which is brewing great beers," she said.

(TM and © Copyright 2015 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2015 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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