When the story broke in January 2015 that Anheuser-Busch had acquired the Elysian Brewing Company, one of Seattle's oldest and best-loved craft breweries, beer lovers reacted like it was a death in the family. The sense of shock was even more pronounced among Elysian Brewing's employees, who were unaware that getting gobbled up by the beer behemoth, often viewed as the arch enemy of small and independent breweries, was even a possibility.