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Funkwerks is venturing to SoCal. Adding distribution to Southern California to it reach with draft and limited six-packs.
Stone Distributing has been tapped to handle the influx of Funkwerks Saison, Tropic King and Raspberry Provincial beers, to name a few from the Fort Collins, Colorado brewery.
Hopefully a solid supply has been stashed for this large market.
Activity comes in bunches it seems. After a few quiet weeks, acquisitions came roaring back into the beer world.
Those who don’t believe in coincidence might think that the news was timed to hide under all the Make America Sick Again healthcare debate.
Lets recap:
1. Brooklyn Brewery enters into a sales “platform” with Funkwerks and 21st Amendment
2. Shorts Brewing sells 19.99% to Lagunitas
3. Coronado acquires fellow San Diegan, Monkey Paw Brewing.
4. An un-named SoCal brewery put itself up for sale
Call this a response to having the highest number of breweries in operation ever. For events 1 & 2, it also shows the creative ways that people are staying Brewers Association street legal while growing bigger.
Thanks to a soft Twitter ban and some judicious unfollowing of the Debbie Downers that seem to populate the Tweet-isphere, I haven’t seen much vitriol towards the these moves. Mostly because they avoid the Scarlet A of Anheuser-Busch. Which shows me that some people see what a stain that is on a company and are opting to avoid it.
But if I can get a supply, even limited of Short’s beers in L.A., it is a development that I welcome.
I was quite happy that I was able to get a taster of beer from Fort Collin’s Funkwerks. They along with Crooked Stave (which brews at their facility) have been getting a bit of beer praise and I wanted to see what the fuss was about. And I was impressed.
They focus on the saison style and have a primer on this now thoroughly Americanized style on their website HERE.
I had the Tropic King but their list of beers include ingredients like grapefruit, fennel, and green tea too. So after hitting New Belgium and Odell’s, head over and try a Belgian Oatmeal stout or a citrus saison.