Anyway, your point is a good one, and I wonder if the crafters have mostly been content to keep it fairly regional; I can find familiar craft beer pretty much anywhere along the West Coast, but I know if I went to Chicago or Philadelphia, I wouldn't recognize anything. The local wine industry has the same issue.
To this point I think there is a variety, and it's one of the nice things about the boom. You have someone like Russian River on the one hand, who's basically all "make more? nah, we're good", and someone like Lagunitas on the other hand, who's all "BUILD ALL THE BREWERIES SELL ALL THE BEER". I appreciate what Magee is doing because he's keeping the quality and kind of "spreading the love" without really selling out or sacrificing the product and that's awesome, but at the same time, much as I kind of think Vinnie is full of himself (:::cough, overrated, cough:, I respect that he likes what he does and he isn't chasing more.
And because we have so many more craft breweries, we have enough that there are plenty of either philosophy, and everyone's happy.
Well, I think the big players have known for a while that if they want to keep their customers, they need to rely heavily on craft or craft-like beer, because of its surging popularity and the fact that traditional american-style lager really has nowhere to go but down.
BUT I think this article is missing the benefit of partnerships between companies like InBev and smaller craft breweries. Which is distribution. So many people bitched about Goose Island selling out to Budweiser (and they acquired another craft brewery on Long Island this year. Blue Point? I can't remember the name). But the reality is that Goose Island couldn't really keep up with the distribution laws and practices of all 50 states. Hell, a few years ago DOGFISH HEAD announced that they were suspending distribution in a few states, including Texas. The laws and taxes for distribution is just so wonky and different all over the country that it seems like the only brewers who can actually have a true national distribution are InBev and SABMiller. Which is great for them, in a way, because if you get used to drinking Shocktop and Blue Moon when you live in Arizona, you can still find that beer when you move to North Carolina and remain a loyal customer, you know? At the same time, brands like Goose Island get new customers when their beer is able to reach people in Louisiana. I think this is good because not everyone lives in a craft beer mecca, like I do. Seeing more than just Coors, Miller, Bud, Stella, Heineken and maybe Sam Adams at a local bar is a total win for beer in general.
Of course, consolidation means bad things much of the time. I think Goose Island's head brewer left after the merger. Then InBev moved their brewing operations from IL to NY. And of course, consolidating the brewing and management process means less jobs at less breweries, which is what happened with the big market players in the first place. And there's a question of quality of the product, and how much R&D will be spent on new and exciting things. Like wild fermentation, for example. Is InBev, with their careful business model, going to allow a brand they own to take a risk with wild yeast or a really unknown style of beer like grodziskie?
I will admit that I still drink Goose Island when I feel like it and it's the better option available to me. I'm not sure I've seen anything new and interesting from them for a while, though.
I think I take a lot for granted because, I, too, live in a craft beer mecca; it's pretty typical to walk into any local MegaMarket and find maybe an 8-ft section for the Big Beers and the rest of the aisle completely devoted to craft beer.
Anyway, your point is a good one, and I wonder if the crafters have mostly been content to keep it fairly regional; I can find familiar craft beer pretty much anywhere along the West Coast, but I know if I went to Chicago or Philadelphia, I wouldn't recognize anything. The local wine industry has the same issue.
If you want to expand outside your region, then you need a distributor. And there's two problems with that -- one is that they take a huge cut, so your profits drop significantly. And second, quality suffers because you risk your beer turning nasty while in the back of a truck for 6 days, you're up against unknown retailers storage facilities, exposure to light could degrade further, etc. Alcohol is a particularly unstable ingredient in food and beverage, and is extremely susceptible to degradation due to heat and light changes - more so than a lot of products, and the fact that it's often in clear bottles makes it worse. So you are dealing with these two very significant challenges, while also dealing with the challenges and capital outlay of expanding operations to sell on a wider scale - it just results in it being an entirely different business. The difference between opening a brewery and opening a brewery to distribute nationally is like the difference between opening a brewery and being a lawyer. They are just apples and oranges in terms of what your business is.
By way of contrast, local breweries often don't need distributors, they can just talk to a few restaurants and sell the rest in house or to a few local stores. To the extent they want to go a little bigger, like all the independent liquor stores in the state, they can get a small niche distributor and still have some control over the distribution and display, since they are close to the retail outlets. But a lot of them wind up in liquor stores through word of mouth, and stores approach them because their patrons request they carry it.
The desire to avoid dealing with distributors is also why so many wineries only sell their wines at their tasting room, and maybe in a couple restaurants or local wine shops.
I live in philly and have been on the craft beer train for about 10 years. We're pretty spoiled here.
Dark beer lovers unite! I went to a beer tasting last week and so many IPAs. No bueno.
Ugh, yes! H is an IPA fanboy; I can't stand the stuff. So we often have His and Hers beer stock in the fridge. He keeps trying to get me taste more IPAs, always insisting that he has trained himself to like all kinds of things that he used to hate, so I need to do the same. Why? Porter is awesome and I don't have to force myself to like it. So weird.
We have the same husband.
The nice thing is he doesn't drink my beers and I don't drink his.
"Hello babies. Welcome to Earth. It's hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It's round and wet and crowded. On the outside, babies, you've got a hundred years here. There's only one rule that I know of, babies-"God damn it, you've got to be kind.”
If you have access to Sierra Nevada, they have a 12 pack out right now that has 12 different beers that they brewed in collaboration with different micro brewers around the country. It's called "Beer Camp". DH and I enjoyed it so much that I went back to Bev Mo and bought 2 more 12 packs. Highly recommend......
DH has been in search of this- it sold out super fast everywhere around here. Costco apparently has 60 coming, but they're held up by some kind of legal thing, so he's been calling daily. It's become a quest for DH, so I'm glad to hear it will hopefully be worth it.
If you have access to Sierra Nevada, they have a 12 pack out right now that has 12 different beers that they brewed in collaboration with different micro brewers around the country. It's called "Beer Camp". DH and I enjoyed it so much that I went back to Bev Mo and bought 2 more 12 packs. Highly recommend......
I walked in the door of my house today and this was sitting on the coffee table!
ETA: My husband said he got the last box and it was behind the counter at the package store.
If you have access to Sierra Nevada, they have a 12 pack out right now that has 12 different beers that they brewed in collaboration with different micro brewers around the country. It's called "Beer Camp". DH and I enjoyed it so much that I went back to Bev Mo and bought 2 more 12 packs. Highly recommend......
DH has been in search of this- it sold out super fast everywhere around here. Costco apparently has 60 coming, but they're held up by some kind of legal thing, so he's been calling daily. It's become a quest for DH, so I'm glad to hear it will hopefully be worth it.
DH came home with it the other night. The Latte Coffee Stout one is to die for.
"Hello babies. Welcome to Earth. It's hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It's round and wet and crowded. On the outside, babies, you've got a hundred years here. There's only one rule that I know of, babies-"God damn it, you've got to be kind.”
DH has been in search of this- it sold out super fast everywhere around here. Costco apparently has 60 coming, but they're held up by some kind of legal thing, so he's been calling daily. It's become a quest for DH, so I'm glad to hear it will hopefully be worth it.
DH came home with it the other night. The Latte Coffee Stout one is to die for.
I'm looking forward to this Asheville Brewers Alliance Scottish Ale.
Anyway, your point is a good one, and I wonder if the crafters have mostly been content to keep it fairly regional; I can find familiar craft beer pretty much anywhere along the West Coast, but I know if I went to Chicago or Philadelphia, I wouldn't recognize anything. The local wine industry has the same issue.
To this point I think there is a variety, and it's one of the nice things about the boom. You have someone like Russian River on the one hand, who's basically all "make more? nah, we're good", and someone like Lagunitas on the other hand, who's all "BUILD ALL THE BREWERIES SELL ALL THE BEER". I appreciate what Magee is doing because he's keeping the quality and kind of "spreading the love" without really selling out or sacrificing the product and that's awesome, but at the same time, much as I kind of think Vinnie is full of himself (:::cough, overrated, cough:, I respect that he likes what he does and he isn't chasing more.
And because we have so many more craft breweries, we have enough that there are plenty of either philosophy, and everyone's happy.
That list is really interesting. I would love to see what that distribution is in terms of barrels or however they measure it. Because to see that Harpoon is only 11 spots down from Sam Adams is crazy - but there must be a big difference in terms of their volume.
Harpoon built this gorgeous new tasting beer hall pretty recently. It is always super packed and there will be a line out the door to get in.
I just did this 5K two weeks ago and it was fun and full of beer people. www.craftbrewraces.com/
My H has been into craft beer for over ten years. When we first went to California about 8 years ago, it was probably the first time he tried stuff like Laguintas and Bear Republic. Now, we can find that stuff out here along with Rogue and some of those other big names.
My husband is currently obsessed with finding anything Mikeller.
Post by downtoearth on Jul 30, 2014 22:50:15 GMT -5
We moved to this state BC it had the most craft breweries per capita of anywhere else.
OK, not really, but my DH works in the craft brewer industry somewhat, so I'm very familiar with the micro vs. mega craft breweries. We even boycott one in our state that was getting to big and started lobbying with the tavern association for more restrictions for brewery tap rooms.
And IPA is fantastic - and we have the best I've ever tasted in our hometown.
I was at the AVBC a couple of years ago .. got the GRAND tour of the brewery including the production facility. since it was a Sunday it wasn't in operation and they let an almost 3yo dd run around like a mad woman there ! I'm very glad to see that my philly friends can indulge in one of my favorite craft beers !
My husband and I stayed in Napa on our honeymoon and we actually drove to AV, Bear Republic and Russian River on that trip. Missed out on Lagunitas, but we have to save some for another occasion I guess.
ETA: We met the northeast distributor for Anderson Valley at a Philly beer week event this year!
My favorite part of paternity leave was our beer tour through "wine" country.
DH came home with it the other night. The Latte Coffee Stout one is to die for.
I'm looking forward to this Asheville Brewers Alliance Scottish Ale.
We had this last night. It was okay. I was not overly impressed and I'm pretty easy to impress right now coming off of 9 months with only small tastes of beer. I wanted to like it much more than I actually did.
Post by mrsukyankee on Jul 31, 2014 4:48:23 GMT -5
London has a big resurgence of craft beers and England is huge. I'm sad as we're going to miss the Real Beer Festival in London while in the States - best place to try new regional beers and talk to brewers. If anyone ever comes to London and wants to know about where to get fabulous craft beer, let me know.
To this point I think there is a variety, and it's one of the nice things about the boom. You have someone like Russian River on the one hand, who's basically all "make more? nah, we're good", and someone like Lagunitas on the other hand, who's all "BUILD ALL THE BREWERIES SELL ALL THE BEER". I appreciate what Magee is doing because he's keeping the quality and kind of "spreading the love" without really selling out or sacrificing the product and that's awesome, but at the same time, much as I kind of think Vinnie is full of himself (:::cough, overrated, cough:, I respect that he likes what he does and he isn't chasing more.
And because we have so many more craft breweries, we have enough that there are plenty of either philosophy, and everyone's happy.
That list is really interesting. I would love to see what that distribution is in terms of barrels or however they measure it. Because to see that Harpoon is only 11 spots down from Sam Adams is crazy - but there must be a big difference in terms of their volume.
Harpoon built this gorgeous new tasting beer hall pretty recently. It is always super packed and there will be a line out the door to get in.
I just did this 5K two weeks ago and it was fun and full of beer people. www.craftbrewraces.com/
My H has been into craft beer for over ten years. When we first went to California about 8 years ago, it was probably the first time he tried stuff like Laguintas and Bear Republic. Now, we can find that stuff out here along with Rogue and some of those other big names.
My husband is currently obsessed with finding anything Mikeller.
There's a wine store in Hollywood with a great craft beer selection, and the guy who buys their beer is OBSESSED with Mikeller. We used to go to beer tastings there about once a month and he was always pulling out a new Mikeller beer.
We did the North Bay as our first trip away when A was about 6 mos old. The brewery tour company up there had a Groupon while I was pg. We went to Lagunitas, Hopmunk (small place started by one of the Gordon Biersch founders) and Third St Aleworks. We meant to get to Russian River on that trip but it didn't happen. We did hit Moylan's and Drake's on the way home.
Lagunitas has a really fun place, great to spend the afternoon in the sun.
I was at the AVBC a couple of years ago .. got the GRAND tour of the brewery including the production facility. since it was a Sunday it wasn't in operation and they let an almost 3yo dd run around like a mad woman there ! I'm very glad to see that my philly friends can indulge in one of my favorite craft beers !
My husband and I stayed in Napa on our honeymoon and we actually drove to AV, Bear Republic and Russian River on that trip. Missed out on Lagunitas, but we have to save some for another occasion I guess.
ETA: We met the northeast distributor for Anderson Valley at a Philly beer week event this year!
My sister lives in Sonoma County and these breweries remain some of my favorites.
I am SUPER excited that Lagunitas is now brewing in Chicago. This Iowa girl will be drinking Lil Sumpin Sumpin in her own home before she knows it. :-)
I'm surprised New Glarus is so high on that list when they keep their distribution only in WI. I'd love to stop planning my packing around how much beer I can fit in the back of the car when we come home from WI.
We did the North Bay as our first trip away when A was about 6 mos old. The brewery tour company up there had a Groupon while I was pg. We went to Lagunitas, Hopmunk (small place started by one of the Gordon Biersch founders) and Third St Aleworks. We meant to get to Russian River on that trip but it didn't happen. We did hit Moylan's and Drake's on the way home.
Lagunitas has a really fun place, great to spend the afternoon in the sun.
We did the same when my older DD turned one- Lagunitas, Russian River, Mendecino Brewing Co, North Coast. Drove by Anderson Valley but it was getting too late. Note- not all in one day!