Making Sense of Boston Beer and Beam’s Partnership

Dear Client: There's still much to answer about yesterday's story that craft/FMB/RTD juggernaut Boston Beer and liquor giant Beam Suntory would swap capabilities and distributor networks, to produce and distribute a malt-based Sauza RTD (that would go through Boston's supply and distro chain) and a spirits-based Truly offering (that would go through Beam's).  In the aftermath of the announcement -- which Boston told us is much more than just a licensing deal -- we had so many questions.  Like, if