Category: Beer Industry

my occasional rants and raves about what is going on in the industry.

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Traveling to Oregon

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What happens when a Portland native works the beer industry in SoCal and then moves back to Portland?

Well, in the case of Robby Roda, who spent time at both Monkish Brewing and Beachwood BBQ and Brewing, you open up a distribution company in Portland to bring select beers from L.A. to the NW.
And to make the L.A. connection tighter, name it after the El Segundo Brewing special Day One IPA releases. Day One Distribution has scheduled to get El Segundo Brewing onto Portland taps already with Monkish Brewing, Smog City Brewing and Phantom Carriage planned to roll out too.

Day One will begin weighted to California but will add other breweries in a slow and small fashion. In a move that seems counterintuitive to traditional distribution the amount of beer will be kept purposefully small and will make the effort to sell out within thirty days of delivery.

That is a market that could work if kept small and tightly controlled. Might even be a template for what future distribution can be.

You can read more about the new distributor at The New School. I hope to hear how our beers are received up north.

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California Craft Beer Summit – Seminars

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Less than a month from now I will find myself in Sacramento for the California Craft Beer Summit and though the staggering amount of breweries in attendance might be the main draw for most. I will be going primarily for the seminars and to report back on Sacramento breweries.

The Art of the Pitch is oft discussed in our entertainment driven world of Los Angeles but not so much in the world of craft beer. But beer needs to be sold which is why one of the most interesting sections of the California Craft Beer Summit is the “Meet the Distributor” sessions.

Here is what a fly on the wall can expect from this “Select distributors will host a table during a three hour “Meet a Distributor” educational session, allowing brewery owners and decision makers to collect information, pitch their brand or gain information about the distributor’s sales process. After the session time ends, distributors will still be able to access the private room to host one-on-one meetings with sales staff or suppliers as needed, providing a quiet, separate space for new business conversations and relationship building.”

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Thorns

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Continuing with the L.A. needs this theme, 2 Towns Ciderhouse in Portland has teamed with the Portland Thorns FC for a special Thorns collaboration cider.

The National Women’s Soccer League team’s cider is a portmanteau of sorts, “Two Thorns”, which the cidery explains is “a specialty cider made with whole Northwest raspberries and rose petals.”

Two Thorns will be on tap at the home pitch, Providence Park, “will also be available in the 2 Towns Tap Room, which is an official pub partner, and will be showing all Thorns matches.”

Now the City of Angels does not yet have a NWSL team but there is a brewery in Carson which is the same city where the Galaxy play. Hint. Hint.

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Want this? Stop That.

For the mega-brew merger to go forward, along with divesting certain properties, it looks like the Federal Government also added some much needed assistance for smaller brewers. Whether it will be enough is another question.

1. The “Voluntary” AB Incentive for Performance plan is now shelved. This plan incentivized distributors who shut out brands that ABInBev did not want competing. The Department of Justice, in the settlement, wrote that it “prohibits ABI from instituting or continuing practices and programs that disincentivize distributors from selling and promoting the beers of ABI’s high-end and other rivals.”

2. Buying distributors is now capped as well. With ABInBev owning somewhere in the neighborhood of 7%, they will be barred from going over 10%. Which they more than likely will do.
Rest assured that the Brewers Association will be closely monitoring the situation. The group has been opposed to the merger of ABInBev with SABMiller from the get-go but, at least, there was some help given by the DOJ.

I have been of the opinion that if any of the industrial foreign owned breweries wanted to buy up little craft ones that it was sad to me personally but also part of the evolution into a new world of craft beer business. They could buy a brewery a month for years and not dent the overall numbers.

What I was worried about was that the beer that I wanted could be blocked from shelves or poorly handled by a distributor who was beholden to ABInBev or SABMiller. That blockage could seriously hamper the growth of a brewery.

Now we will see how well the rules are followed.

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4,656


Here are the latest stats from the Brewer’s Association : “As of June 30, a record high of 4,656 breweries were operating in the U.S, an increase of 917 breweries over the same time period of the previous year. Additionally, there were approximately 2,200 breweries in planning.”

917 breweries in a year! That is a big number for a maturing marketplace. If my scratchpad math is right, that is right around 20% more.

The other positive number is that there are still way more openings than closings. Even with a decrease in growth to 8%, there hasn’t been any major bloodletting.

Next, onto the “in planning” number. I would like to know specifically the criteria for this one. Are there tiers to it? Long-term in planners who have been on the list for years or are these all new since the last number? I would like to see a breakout of this category because closing numbers are one negative indicator but the first one will be the drying up of the pipeline. But if the pipeline numbers are wonky, well then we may not know till later that the tide has turned.

Anyhoo, check out the video. If nothing else, with Bart Watson on board, we are getting a steady stream of data to parse.

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Resignation

When breweries get sold, it raises red flags. But in the short term, those changes (though galvanic) don’t really affect day-to-day operations. You will still be getting Sculpin and it’s various variants even though Constellation bought them.

What does impact craft beer levels is on a more micro-level. Much like the Mayor of your city being more impactful than the President on your daily life.

In Los Angeles there have been a pair of resignations/moves that are important to understand. Brewer/Cellarman Tim McDonnel from Highland Park will be departing as will Noble Ale Works CEO Brian Rauso. Two totally different positions that are sometimes lost in the adoration (well-deserved) of brewmasters Bob Kunz and Evan Price.

Beer, unless it is some garage project of limited resources and supply, is a group project. That’s why brewers seem to move in entourages. Those are the people cleaning the kettles and slapping labels on cans and manning(wo-manning) the bar.

This post is partially to say thanks to those like Brian and Time but also to let you fans know that it takes a village to brew a beer. Thank all the villagers.

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Advance Warning – GABF16

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Set your alarms for 10am on August 3rd, that is when tickets for the 35th Great American Beer Festival become available for purchase.

Just a little gathering in Denver and their Convention Center for more than 800 breweries and somewhere close to 3,800 beers. This year the fest runs from Thursday, October 6th to Saturday, October 8th.

This year the general session tickets are $80. They will go quickly.

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Pour PDX

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How many times have you been at a wedding and needed a good beer to drink while the weird DJ spins Brickhouse so that Grandma can dance. Usually the choices are slim. Same for backyard BBQ’s, you just have to accept mediocre beer or look like that beer snob of the party.

What if you could get beer, cider and wine on tap though. Options that fits budgets while also being, well, good.

When you hire the newly formed, Pour PDX they will roll in self-contained with (5) craft (or domestic) beer options, plus either one wine or one cider draft option and non-alcoholic selections too.

I don’t know which Portland breweries they pull from but having that taken care of and not having to hump a keg from the brewery to car to party and back again might mitigate a smaller portfolio of beers.

Let’s end with my usual plea for someone in LA with the money, bartending skills and tap knowledge to bring this concept to Los Angeles.

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A Central Addition to LA

The name and logo seem just like any other….
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…but underneath the hood, it is not one brewery but a contract brewery for start-ups. Instead of sneaking in a batch inbetween others. This Chicago facility brews exclusively for others. And the key component is that it will also feature a tap room for those beers to be sold at.

It would be great if each major beer city had an establishment like this. Not only would it prospectively weed out the brewers who are not up to snuff but it would also alleviate the out-of-town drive to the Bay Area or parts way east of the city for LA brewers who want to brew beer before they have a facility.

Just re-name it Grand Central.

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BrewDad’s got a Beer Store!

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I met the illustrious and boisterous BrewDad at the first Beer Bloggers Conference and I have met up with him every twice in a while through the years since and now he has parlayed a job at Top Rung Brewing into owning his own beer bar & bottle shop.

In early July, he will take over NW Caps & Taps of Bonney Lake and it will become the shorter and sweeter named, BrewDad’s of Bonney Lake.

Next time you are in the upper part of Washington set Siri, Waze, Google Maps to Bonney Lake and WA-410 to get some BrewDad hospitality and a beer of course.