RateBeer Forums: Industry

Anchor and Hope - New San Francisco Destination

Mon, 9 Nov 2009 14:42:18 EST

Posted by JonathanAH

Hi everyone, we are new to the scene. We currently have beers like Rulles (Summer, Triple)on draught, as well as Maharaja from Avery. We also feature a cask beer but are having trouble getting our customers into the concept. What do you all advise and where else can I try a great cask in Northern California?

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OHanlons ceases Thomas Hardy Ale

Mon, 9 Nov 2009 14:42:18 EST

Posted by DerWeg

(from bartowel.com) The O’Hanlon’s brewery, which had "re-created" the Thomas Hardy Ale over the past six ’vintages’ of 2003-2008, is calling it a day brewing the beer. The brewer is citing too-great expense due to the slowness, pain and expense of making this relatively rare beer which many beer lovers have called ’the best in the world’. The O’Hanlon’s operation is small and it is too impractical for them to continue making Thomas Hardy, so they wish to focus on their main business. Looking ahead, O’Hanlon’s are hoping the legacy of Hardys brand and recipe will be bought and continued by another brewing facility. All previous vintages of Thomas Hardys were made by another company, Eldridge Pope & Co which ceased making the ’original’ Hardys beer in 1999. Eldridge Pope had a much longer run with the brand which began in 1968 and you may read about that original beer here.

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Hops shortage information

Mon, 9 Nov 2009 14:42:18 EST

Posted by dogfish120love

I was wondering if anyone had seen good articles on hop shortages recently and over the years. I know there are a million of them if you google it however it’s hard to pick the good from the bad. I’m doing a presentation so articles including solutions, raw data, graphs or charts would be greatly appreciated.

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Social media marketing of beer: whos the best?

Mon, 9 Nov 2009 14:42:18 EST

Posted by wunderbier

To those of you interested in such things I ask, which production breweries, brewpubs, bars, importers, etc. make the best use social media to market their product? There should be no doubt after the recent Hansen vs. Rock Art fiasco that social media (particularly social networking and micro-blogging) provides very powerful tools for small businesses if used correctly. But there are probably just as many abandoned blogs, infrequently (and over-frequently) updated accounts, outdated websites and general poor attempts at communication as there are successes. Who keeps you informed, interested, entertained and connected the best? What electronic services do they use? What’s the worst thing a brewery can do insofar as social marketing is concerned? I’ll start. Stone Brewing Co. They have a slick website with very visible links to their Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, WordPress, YouTube, and Google calendar accounts. They don’t seem to over update on FB or Twitter. If a subscription starts to look like my only subscription from inane chatter, I’ll drop it. They *use* Google calendar. I can import that right into my email reader or use it alongside my own Google calendars to see how our schedules line up. Additionally, they regularly update their blog, which looks clean, is very visually oriented and the text is clear, well formatted and free of egregious errors. The one downside is that they seem to have abandoned video blogging on YT for the time being. But there’s still so much information available in total and that’s really cool. Sure, there’s a lot of overlap between their Twitter and FB accounts and their blog, but that gives the consumer a choice in my opinion. I wish my locals did even half this much! To me Twitter and Google calendar are the two most effective social media services. Facebook a little less so simply because I don’t find myself on it all of the time. There’s not much there that I couldn’t get out of a Twitter subscription. But I can see how others would like it. I do read quite a few blogs, but I’d probably only subscribe to a brewery’s blog feed if it was my local brewery. Otherwise I’m just not that interested in the inner workings of a particular brewery every week. Likewise, it’d have to be my local and I’d really have to know the people to be interested in a brewery’s Flickr account. I’m more neutral on YouTube. If the clips are routinely under two minutes then I could probably incorporate that into my daily beer-centric web-browsing. The worst thing a brewery can do with social marketing? Using it ineffectively. Annoyingly frequent updates, sloppy design, abandoned projects and so on create a sense of disorganization and lack of commitment. I’d rather they not attempt it at all! Looking forward to hearing your opinions! (No affiliation with Stone, of course.

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Wanna Buty a Brewery?

Mon, 9 Nov 2009 14:42:18 EST

Posted by beachbum25

Got an extra $300 million laying around?

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Question about retailer prices.

Mon, 9 Nov 2009 14:42:19 EST

Posted by Bigmmartin

Are retailers free to set whatever price they want on their beer? Or is it regulated by the brewery or something? For example, I’ve seen stores in Ohio sell Three Floyds beers at much higher than regular retail prices. And I recently saw a New Glarus Red on the shelf for $22. I assume the retailer bought them at retail prices and threw some on his shelves, with an increase in the cost. I wasn’t sure what the rule/etiquette was on that, if any.

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tried to get Utopia but....

Mon, 9 Nov 2009 14:42:19 EST

Posted by kcdoom

i went to a liquor store in shawnee,ks and tried to by his only bottle of Utopia, but he wouldnt sell it, even though it was on the shelf behind the counter and had a price tag on it! what a tool bag. how does any retailer turn down a $200 sale? i was even reccomended from my regular store to go to this new store. needless to say, i am never going back. BEWARE OF K-7 LIQUORS IN SHAWNEE KS

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Are $30-40 bottles hurting the industry?

Mon, 9 Nov 2009 14:42:19 EST

Posted by Cletus

Let me start by saying that this is not another "beer X is too expensive" thread. What "I’m more curious about is how the recent flood of $30-40 bottles of beer are effecting the craft beer industry. Thanks to the three tiered system, there are in some instances importers, as well as brewers, distributors, and retailers all trying to make money off of beer. In my neck of the woods, the 2 distributors are overall pretty bad ( I can’t stand the distro in CT and if I ever open a brewery, it will not be in CT) and routinely drop labels. For those labels, they can never again be distributed here unless the distributor who has a lifetime contract with the brewer decides to give them a second chance. That’s where the question about price potentially hurting the industry comes into play. I was at a few beer stores today and all of them have Bogedal bottles retailing for between $30 and $40 per bottle. These are beers that do not keep well. Many also had a 12oz bottle of IPA for $30, lots of basic Italian beers in the $25-40 range as well as the usual lambics that fell into that price range. The thing is, I never see any of them selling with the exception of the lambics on occasion. I’m friends with a few managers and they all tell me that they wish they never bothered to stock any of them because they are just not selling. Do you all think that the fact that these aren’t selling and that the retailers and distributors lare osing interest in carrying these more pricey beers will lead to them not willing to take a chance on ANY new beers regardless of what they are?

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Price Check: Hanssens Experimentals

Mon, 9 Nov 2009 14:42:19 EST

Posted by SoLan

Cassis pricing seems out of whack here. How much are these going for around the country?

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Price Check: Bon Chien 08

Mon, 9 Nov 2009 14:42:19 EST

Posted by tytoanderso

Just got some in stock... $28.99 retail. IIRC, substantially more expensive than prior vintages.

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Rock Art Brewery vs. Monster Energy Drink

Mon, 9 Nov 2009 14:42:19 EST

Posted by radagast83

I didn’t see this topic, on here. This is awful: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbG_woqXTeg http://www.rockartbrewery.com/ I’m not really getting this. The beer is called "Vermonster" the advertising doesn’t appear to resemble the Monster Energy drink bottles. So how could a lawsuit be legitimate? There’s Monster.com, there’s the expensive cable company "Monster," there’s a movie called Monster. Disgusting. If there was ever a time to make it easier to counter-sue or force the losing party to pay for absolutely ridiculous court cases this would be it.

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Distributor holding on to Torpedo

Mon, 9 Nov 2009 14:42:19 EST

Posted by tdaglow

I recently found out that the Mark VII distribution company in The Twin Cities of MN is holding 700 cases of Torpedo until they can get more. Their logic, from what I’ve heard, is so they can fill one weeks worth of orders for every store and bar that wants it. IMO i thinks this is ridiculous. Why should a store that didn’t even want to carry the product until it started selling well get a crack at something that people specifically come looking for at my store? I could care less how much of it we sell or what profits are made I just want to have it for the people to enjoy. So if you want Torpedo call Mark VII distribution 651-646-6063 and give them a WTF!

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Looking for copies of great beer store advertising

Mon, 9 Nov 2009 14:42:19 EST

Posted by BeerChampanes

Have you seen a great beer store advertisement? Have you seen an ad that makes you want to travel to that store to check it out? I am looking for some great store advertisingments and am asking if possible that your forward a copy in an email to beeratchampanes@wowway.com Looking for store emails, great websites, newsletters, print, radio, outdoor and televison ads. Thanks, Michael

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Graphic Designer that knows Beer

Mon, 9 Nov 2009 14:42:19 EST

Posted by green

I’m working on opening a brewery and having a very difficult time finding a graphic designer with both experiance in package design and that understands craft brewing (e.g dosen’t give us a bunch of icons/images that have alrady been used). We have a friend who is an outstanding artist doing artwork for us, but he is just doing it at night for fun and isn’t a professional designer so he can’t really put everything together. Any help, advice or leads would be enormously helpful. Cheers!

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The vanishing brew

Mon, 9 Nov 2009 14:42:19 EST

Posted by jdbjicase

Hi. I’m new to this site, but I think I might find what I’m looking for here. I live just down the road from the Warsaw Brewery in Warsaw, IL. Nowadays it’s a bar/restaurant, but back in the day it was the home of Burgemeister and Old Tavern beers. These labels moved out when the brewery closed its doors in the 1970’s, and I’m trying to find out where they went. My dad told me they were shipped out to California, and he saw Burgie out there once upon a time. Google doesn’t know anything about the Burgemeister label, and after hours of searching, I’m asking the beer experts out there in cyberspace. Does anybody know about the Burgemeister or Burgie brand? Is it still made anywhere, and if so, where? I’d love to at least know where the beer went to die. It’s almost like tracking down a piece of local history.

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Outsourcing?

Mon, 9 Nov 2009 14:42:19 EST

Posted by Fishman1287

Hi I am looking into starting a beer company and wanted to know if it was possible to outsource the brewing of my beer to an established brewery?

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How to get brewer information from retailers

Mon, 9 Nov 2009 14:42:19 EST

Posted by Bullit

I’m sometimes having trouble finding the original breweries of own brand beers sold by big retailers (Sainsbury’s and Marks&Spencer) for example. Please provide me with some general tips... Customer service can be reluctant to provide brewer information. Any way to work around that? So far google has been a good friend. Thanks!

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and#40PRand#41 Saint Arnold Brewing Company to Release Saint Arnold Divine Reserve No. 8

Mon, 9 Nov 2009 14:42:19 EST

Posted by dpkpr

Small batch series of craft beer styles continues to generate excitement among craft beer enthusiasts HOUSTON, September 8, 2009 � Saint Arnold Brewing Company (www.saintarnold.com), the oldest craft brewery in Texas, is preparing to ship its latest creation, Saint Arnold Divine Reserve No. 8. A very limited supply will arrive in stores, restaurants and bars in Austin, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio starting on Thursday, September 10th. Introduced in late 2005, Saint Arnold Divine Reserve features small batches of high-quality, full-flavored beer. Each new batch, with the batch number appearing on the neck label, features a different recipe. Divine Reserve No. 8 is a Scotch Ale, which is also known as Wee Heavy. It has a toffee nose, tastes of sweet malt and spice, and a balanced smokey flavor from start to finish without being dominant. Because supplies are limited, many stores enforce a two six pack limit per purchase while others have waiting lists. �Demand for Divine Reserves has always far exceeded supply, which is exacerbated by the low yield that we get from each batch of these high gravity beers,� said Brock Wagner, Founder/Brewer of Saint Arnold Brewing. �This time we mashed in 10 times to fill the fermenter versus the four times required for our regular beers. The result is an increase in production of this edition 1,504 cases and 29 kegs, which is about five times the amount we brewed of Saint Arnold Divine Reserve No. 1. Brewing these beers is great fun for us, plus we like the anticipation that it creates within the community of beer enthusiasts.� The last time Saint Arnold dabbled in a similar beer style was for Divine Reserve No. 4 in 2007. That beer won the Gold Medal at the 2008 World Beer Cup in the Strong Scotch Ale category. Divine Reserve No. 8 is a completely different recipe inspired by the winning entry of the 2009 Big Batch Brew Bash homebrew competition. Houston homebrewer Phillip Kaufman, a member of the Kuykendahl Gran Brewers homebrew club, came to Saint Arnold earlier in the summer to help brew the beer. It has been entered in the Pro/Am category of the 2009 Great American Beer Festival. Many beer lovers have been carefully aging past editions of the Divine Reserve series. Divine Reserve No. 1 is approaching four years old, while Divine Reserve No. 2 and No. 3 are three years old. Wagner has a personal cache of all the early releases. �They are all aging beautifully. I�m not sure if they have peaked yet, but I don�t want to wait too long to enjoy them either.� With a high alcohol by volume content of 9.3 percent, Saint Arnold Divine Reserve No. 8 is best enjoyed in small quantities at 45�F or warmer. It has an original gravity of 1.091 and final gravity of 1.024. Each six pack is priced at approximately $16. More information on Divine Reserve No. 8 is available athttp://saintarnold.com/beers/divine.html. About Saint Arnold Brewing Company Saint Arnold Br

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Novelty Bottles of Beer

Mon, 9 Nov 2009 14:42:19 EST

Posted by antichrysler

I was just thinking of a business where I would created novel bootles of beer. The beer isn’t so much the product as the bottles are. Would be difficult to find a small brewery that would be willing to fill the bottles with a basic beer? What kind of liquor license would I need to start a businees like this?

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Do you have a Passion for Pale Ales?

Mon, 9 Nov 2009 14:42:19 EST

Posted by personaljesus

If So, we would like to talk to you. Firestone Walker Brewing Company is expanding their sales team, Our current Sacramento Manager is being promoted to be our Washington State Sales Manager and we are looking for someone who is passionate about our Pale Ales in the Sacramento to Tahoe areas. We are excited to offer a Regional Sales Manager Position to start October 1, 2009. This territory will handle the areas of: Sacramento/Redding/Chico/Placerville/Rocklin/Tahoe/ and Reno. Please submit all Resumes ATTN: Steve@Firestonebeer.com

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Best software for Beer retailer website

Mon, 9 Nov 2009 14:42:19 EST

Posted by BeerChampanes

Old website developer has not worked out, looking to bring the web site in-house so we are looking to set up a better and easier website for our store, any recommendations on website page making software? We have windows based pcs and might have access to microsoft frontpage 2003.

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Small brewery production schedules

Mon, 9 Nov 2009 14:42:19 EST

Posted by ketchepillar

I’m interested in the production schedule of your average pretty successful microbrewery (15-30bbl system). How often are these guys brewing? When breweries have say, a 15bbl brewhouse, but 30 bbl ferm or brite tanks, are they just brewing 2 batches back to back to fill them? Reasoning behind this? Can you direct me to a good resource w/ this kind of information?

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berliner weisse

Mon, 9 Nov 2009 14:42:19 EST

Posted by Lupulin

I am interested in trying a berliner weisse beer, but I don’t know where I can get the ’red’ or ’green’ syrups. Also, which beer style goes with this? Any ideas?

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Sweetwater taproom?

Mon, 9 Nov 2009 14:42:19 EST

Posted by BrianDorry55

Just wondering does Sweetwater brewery have any sort of a tap room at the brewery or in Atlanta? Thanks!

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Best Beer Steals

Mon, 9 Nov 2009 14:42:19 EST

Posted by trayns

I got Bell’s HopSlam for $8.99 ! I walked into a market, noticed Bell’s Hopslam nestled nicely on the shelf with no price tag and I asked for a price check - $8.99! . Bell’s Stout was something like $9.50. I left with the remaining inventory of Bell’s HopSlam. I almost felt guilty leaving the place with such a steal. What has been your best Beer-Steal to date ?

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