The news was released this morning via press release on Untappd’s site:

Next Glass, the company building software tools for beer enthusiasts, breweries, and bars, restaurants, and retailers focused on the craft segment, has announced it has acquired certain assets of BeerAdvocate, including the popular www.beeradvocate.com website, an independent online community of enthusiasts and professionals dedicated to supporting and promoting better beer.

Since its inception in 1996, BeerAdvocate.com has grown into the largest and most diverse beer community online, and is considered one of the go-to websites for beer and the benchmark for beer reviews and ratings. Next Glass understands BeerAdvocate’s place in the craft beer community as the longest standing forum for in-depth beer reviews with a unique and passionate community. While there are plans to invest in new features and team members to benefit the BeerAdvocate community, the content in BeerAdvocate user profiles, forums, and beer pages will remain unaltered. BeerAdvocate will join Untappd under the Next Glass corporate umbrella; however, both will maintain their own distinct and separate platforms and brands for current and future users to enjoy.

With this acquisition, users of BeerAdvocate will be able to look forward to near-term improvements and advancements of the website and more BeerAdvocate festivals where beer enthusiasts can sample, socialize, and learn more about beer while directly supporting the industry.

Follow-up links: Post/letter from Todd Alström on BeerAdvocate (as well as a good follow-up FAQ); Announcement from Greg Avola of Untappd.

What strikes me as interesting is that this transaction seems to have remained relatively independent (i.e., not affiliated with a giant like AB InBev), though to be fair, not much is known (yet) about Next Glass. But I am a member of and use both sites and I see them as largely complementary, so this looks like a nice portfolio build-out for the parent company.

The community response I’m seeing on the BeerAdvocate post is largely positive, with the usual concerns but none of the vitriol (yet?) that was seen when RateBeer sold to AB-backed ZX Ventures.

There’ll be more to come on this, I’m sure. Further reading: Brewbound article, Food & Wine article.