Last Friday, news broke that local microbrewery Elysian Brewing was being acquired by global corporation Anheuser-Busch InBev, the world’s largest brewer. The transaction isn’t finalized yet (that will happen in about forty days), but the announcement shocked many Seattleites, some of whom vowed to never drink Elysian beer again.

“The reaction has actually been less than what we were expecting,” Elysian’s CEO Joe Bisacca told me when I spoke to him on the phone yesterday. “It’s been pretty mellow in fact.” Bisacca, who founded Elysian in 1995 along with Dick Cantwell and David Buhler, also has no illusions about customer’s worst fears: “People think Anheuser-Busch is evil, that they’re assholes, and that they make shitty beer.” (Of note: Kendall Jones at Washington Beer Blog reports that "selling to Anheuser-Busch was not a unanimous decision, but it was the majority decision. Dick Cantwell, one of the founders and the head brewer, was in the minority.")

Bisacca says that changes were long coming for Elyisan, and that they knew there was going to be “some movement among shareholders within the company.” He didn’t go into more detail, but did say that for the last year the company has been looking into private investments and private equity firms. Ultimately, they decided against those options because “all of a sudden that person has a meaningful chunk of the company and you don’t know what they’re going to do. That would be stressful and I didn’t want to do that to our staff.” Additionally, says Bisacca, “even at the risk of quality, they’ll tell you that you have to do the beers that sell the most, none of the cool, funky stuff we love.”

In contrast, according to Bisacca, AB InBev approached them “six or seven months ago,” asking for their expertise in branching out into the craft brewing market. He describes AB InBev’s acquisition of Elysian, as well as other microbreweries such as Goose Island, Blue Point, and 10 Barrel, as their building of a national craft brewing “brain trust” with strong regional presences.

“A lot of deference is being given to us. There is no AB person assigned to work with us and I will remain as the CEO for at least two years. We are not going to have to make just the Immortal IPA,” he says, referring to Elysian’s best-selling beer.

“For us,” continues Bisacca, “one of the biggest focal points is developing that craft piece. They say they want us to create more cool shit.” Currently, the Elysian’s more experimental brews are a very small percentage of business, and are mainly poured at their four brewpubs throughout the city. But, says Bisacca, “Jesus, we want to do more. And now we have the raw materials and resources to do it.”

Whether Elysian will actually end up brewing more experimental beers remains to be seen. The company currently produces 54,000 barrels a year, a significantly higher number than the many smaller microbreweries in town making more obscure beers. But what Elysian might be able to do is support these smaller breweries: “I started off as a home brewer,” says Bisacca. “I’d love to give these nanobreweries a forum where they can showcase the eclectic, cool things they are doing. Stewardship is a big piece for us.”

What’s definitely in store for Elysian is better distribution courtesy of AB InBev, which will allow them to expand beyond the eleven states and four countries they are currently in. Bisacca mentions plans to grow into Southern California, as well as expanding their presence on the East Coast.

There are other, more immediate ways Elysian will benefit from their new corporate owners: In March, the company will move their offices from their current Capitol Hill location into a larger space in the original Rainier Brewery in Georgetown. There will also be better employee health benefits, a matching 401K, money to invest in IT and technological infrastructure, and increased opportunity for staff education. (Bisacca admits that telling staff about the deal was the hardest part: “It’s tough, because the way it goes, you have to drop a bomb on them. And it’s a nuclear bomb.”)

Bisacca is enthusiastic, even effusive, as he talks about Elysian’s future, but by his own admission, at this point everything is speculation: “Check back in six months." If things have changed for the worse, he says, "I’m personally to blame."