WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Justice Department is probing allegations that Anheuser-Busch InBev (ABI.BR) is seeking to curb competition in the beer market by buying distributors, making it harder for fast-growing craft brewers to get their products on store shelves, according to three people familiar with the matter.

In the past few months, the world’s largest brewer has rattled the craft beer world by striking deals for five distributors in three states. Many states require brewers to use distributors to sell their product, and once AB InBev buys a distributor, craft companies say they find that they can’t distribute their beer as easily and sales growth stalls.

Antitrust regulators are also reviewing craft brewers’ claims that AB InBev pushes some independent distributors to only carry the company’s products and end their ties with the craft industry, two of the sources said, noting that the investigation was in its early stages. AB InBev’s purchase of several craft beer makers in recent years means that it is in a position to offer a greater variety of products itself.

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Today (Tuesday, September 1^st) cans of Actual Brewing’s Photon Light Lager will start hitting the shelves of beer stores and supermarkets across Central Ohio.  Intrigued by a craft brewery that chooses not only to brew a light lager but put it in the spotlight, I headed out to Actual this past Friday to get the story behind the beer. At the end of what must have been a busy week Fred Lee and Zach Harper were kind enough to answer my questions and send me home with a six pack for further research.

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A popular Delaware beer with a cult following is taking on a private equity investor, the latest sign of craft beer’s growing clout in the industry.

New York private equity firm LNK Partners is taking a minority position in Dogfish Head Brewery, according to the BeerNet blog. The company and the private equity firm did not return calls for comment.

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The alcoholic beverage made by fermenting the juice of crushed and pressed apples has different names depending on where it’s produced, but all you need to know is this apple-based drink is the absolute perfect beverage to transition from late summer into early autumn.

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It matter who owns your beer, says Carol Stoudt, founder of Stoudt’s Brewing, “The passion is lost when the people running a brewery don’t have ownership, and then quality suffers.” A bigger concern, one echoed by brewers like Stoudt and Dogfish Head’s Sam Calagione is that the larger companies also have the power to manipulate markets. The chief example, one cited by Calagione, is that corporate brewers will sell their craft-like ale well below the cost of true craft beer to push them off a bar tap line.

RELATED: The Best 100 Beers in the World

The Brewers Association trade group defines a craft brewer as small (less than six million barrels), traditional, and independent — with less than 25 percent ownership by a non-craft brewer. The quarter ownership figure was set to ensure a larger brewer doesn’t have significant influence, says Paul Gatza, president of the Brewers Association. While most craft brewers are wholly acquired, several do cross the line of partial ownership. Widmer, Kona, and Redhook all share a 32-percent stake by Anheuser-Busch InBev. The three brands are actually one brewing company, the ironically named Craft Brew Alliance. And Lagunitas made headlines when it sold Heineken 50 percent control in the company. This phenomenon also isn’t limited to the U.S., with SABMiller purchasing Meantime Brewing to enter the U.K. craft beer scene. Not to be outdone, AB InBev recently picked up Cervejaria Colorado, a pioneer in Brazil’s craft beer culture.