No hype, just the "Death of a Brewery Salesman."

"My friend once showed me how he explains the three tier system of alcohol to lay people. He picked up his glass and moved it from in front of his right hand to in front of his left hand and then stuck out his other hand and said 'That'll be 30%, please.' There is often a feeling among brewery people that distributor people would be just as happy delivering turkey basters."

I wasn't ever the primary sales rep at my (former) brewery, but even in an ancillary capacity, I experienced enough of it to feel this guy's pain.

Unfortunately, there probably isn't a solution. Let's hope the colleges and universities continue to produce cannon fodder; meanwhile, I intend to curl up with a growler from the brewery down the way.

Death of a Brewery Salesman, by Matthew J. "Heff" Heffernan (DCBeer)

 ... It's a strange dynamic that leads many people to believe that being a beer rep is quite possibly the best job on the planet. That's what the buying public generally sees us doing: drinking beer on an expense account. They don't see us awake until all hours of the night building presentations to show at wholesaler meetings (which are often at 7am the next day). So they think this job is great. They don't see the truly unfortunate amount of time you have to spend analyzing sales data to make any sort of headway at retail, or with your wholesaler partners (about all of whom, I don't think it's any secret to anyone who knows me, I've openly had some very negative things to say about in the past, but we'll get to that in a minute). The public definitely doesn't see the embarrassing and regrettable conversations that sometimes go on out in the market or during a sales call. The horse trading, the sucking up, the falseness, agreeing when you actually disagree, smiling when you actually want to judo chop the person in the neck. These are some things I'm pretty good at. None of them are sexy, but I guess they do separate me from your average homebrewer. Still though, it's the cool shirt that must make them want me there. Or maybe the hope they will receive a cool shirt of their own simply by hosting?

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AFTER THE FIRE: We are dispirited in the post-factual world.

AFTER THE FIRE: We are dispirited in the post-factual world.

A weekly column by Roger A. Baylor.

If I’m to judge from the electronic bushel baskets filled to overflowing with social media-borne exclamation marks, the biggest news in Indiana “craft” beer last week was the arrival in Hoosierland of brews from Maui Brewing Company, courtesy of Cavalier Distributing, Inc.

Cursory due diligence reveals that Maui still brews in Hawaii and ships to the mainland, damn the expense. Good for them. This authenticity is commendable, given that I can still remember my befuddlement back in 2006 after being served relatively inexpensive Kona at an eatery in Orlando, yielding shortly to raging annoyance when I learned that it was contract-brewed at Widmer, or maybe Redhook – same thing.

Damned insufferable Craft Beer Alliance. How is it Hawaiian if it isn’t even brewed in Hawaii?

(curmudgeonly grumbling sounds and periodic gnashing of teeth)

Of course, conventional beer geek wisdom has long since overruled me. Sierra Nevada can be brewed in North Carolina, and Stone in Berlin, Germany. Appellations of origin mean almost nothing as “craft” beer crawls steadily forward, toward becoming exactly the same problem a revolution previously was required to rectify.

Note that I don’t exclude overruling myself, having purchased Sierra’s Nooner Pilsner on more than one occasion. In a time when beer appreciation is many miles wide and a scant millimeter deep, who am I to rant and rain on these multi-locational parades of profitability?

Besides, most of the beers I typically drink are locally produced in the metro Louisville area at comfortably small breweries.

I’ve got this localism fetish going for me, if little else.

---

Anyway, let’s go back to Maui Brewing’s triumphant arrival into Indiana. It strikes me that I’ve seen dozens, maybe hundreds of similar press releases over the past five years, and on behalf of NABC, I’ve written my fair share of them.

“Finally, your chance to wrap your greedy Rate Advocate-stained fingers around (fill in blank), now coming to (fill in blank) for the very first time.”

I always omitted the exclamation marks, as there are plenty of them floating in the wort-laced ether, sadly homeless. They need loving shelter -- or to be mercilessly slaughtered.

What I’m wondering is how many of these latest, greatest beers remain in circulation two or three years after their arrival. Surely there is an attrition rate, because as endless as those rows of wholesaler SKUs seem already, they’d be even more voluminous if new breweries kept piling on, one atop the other, without a withdrawal now and then.

My suspicion is that when you get past the top tier of biggest sellers at a wholesaler, about as many breweries depart as arrive, which suggests that there’s an informational market niche in need of filling, namely the exit announcement.

“Finally, your chance to say goodbye to (fill in blank), now leaving (fill in second blank) following a period of brave hopefulness and bold optimism, only to be crowded off store shelves by AB-InBev’s pay-to-play mockrobrews – and 145 new “craft” brewery arrivals.”

By the way, any bottles of NABC's Elsa Von Horizon you might happen to see are to be regarded as collector’s items for label art, only.

---

Recently while perusing social media, all the while imagining that it would be a better use of my time to be clubbed senseless with a slab of semi-frozen whale blubber, I noticed a blurb from a local eatery with a better-than-average bar program.

“Cheap” beer coming, it trumpeted.

It made me think of all those times I’ve seen breathless announcements for “cheap wine” -- except there’ve never been any of those. Half-price bottles, perhaps, but never the word “cheap.”

Come to think of it, contemporary cocktail-driven bar programs seldom advertise on the basis of “cheap” whiskey, do they?

Verily, it’s top shelf and upscale with wine and spirits, but when it comes to beer, the dumbing-down always lies waiting, just around the corner.

Noting that my observations here are confined primarily to restaurants, and I’m not speaking of specialty beer bars and any other establishment which is eligible for an exception because it evinces signs of willful designer … so, disclaimers aside, why does good beer still get treated like bad beer used to?

A possible answer is the weird recurring cultural habit of otherwise intelligent food and drink people to excitedly exonerate the utilitarian adaptability of rank mass-market swill.

“Well, you know, there’s a time and place for Miller High Life.” No there isn’t – not if you’re actually beer literate.

Ah, yes; literacy. Hence, the other possible answer: There is far less beer knowledge lurking behind the typical metro area bar than one might imagine.

As BJCP judge Gomer Pyle once said, “Surprise, surprise, surprise.”

Too many draft selections and bottle lists are what happens when beer “education” is derived from rote readings of Thrillist at 3 a.m. while drinking purely wretched Pabst Blue Ribbon and pretending it’s for a purpose. The only purpose I can see is not being driven to do better.

Pray tell, where the hell are all the Cicerones? Weren’t they supposed to be the beer sommeliers of the future, and the faces of a fresh, factual approach, brimming with stylistic nuggets, and both ready and able to transform beer programs into principled bastions mirroring the typical edgy eatery’s wine and bourbon lists?

The cicerones may be out there somewhere, but I’m wondering if they have any active input into the beer selections I see in metro Louisville. It makes no sense to me that restaurants eager to differentiate themselves in terms of cuisine during these hyper-competitive times seem utterly unable to sort through the beers available to them and to come up with something more distinctive that six IPAs, two wheats, a sour and Coors Banquet.

Silly me.

I thought the revolution was about enabling bar management to eschew passive interpretation of customer demand, the bias of wholesaler reps and the skewing effect of brain-dead swag.

I thought the revolution was about pro-actively creating and nurturing customer demand by offering well-chosen “craft” beers intended to enhance and showcase the talents of the kitchen.

To my way of thinking, it takes only a few “craft” beer fans to justify the more thoughtful approach, and to return the favor with word-of-mouth – still the most cost-efficient means of advertising, and very nearly better than selfies.

In the end, I suppose none of this is possible without a better knowledge base than currently exists, and the knowledge base isn’t likely to improve unless owner and upper management decide it’s a priority. It’s a shame, because lots of wonderful opportunities are being missed.

Then again, maybe I'm completely full of spent grain, in which case this column space is yours, to make the case in rebuttal.

---

July 4: AFTER THE FIRE: Euro ’85, Part 34 … The final chapter, in which lessons are learned and bridges burned.

June 27: AFTER THE FIRE: Out and about in America, Europe … and my cups.

June 20: AFTER THE FIRE: Less can be more.

June 13: THE POTABLE CURMUDGEON: I know I’m gonna change that tune.

__

Sun King fans in the Hoosier hinterlands, be patient: The beer is slowly returning.

Someone just asked me about this ...

Short version: This article refers to distribution returning to north central Indiana. Floyd, Clark and other Southern Indiana counties still are not on the list, but it is the Brewery's goal to have the entire state in service by the spring of 2016.

So, almost there.

Sun King increases distribution in Indiana, by Amy Haneline (Indy Star)

After an eight-month hiatus, Indiana's second-largest microbrewery, Sun King, will distribute to areas outside the Indianapolis metro area and Bloomington.

Gibson: With House Bill 168, "Kentucky finally rights a wrong."

I'll be the first to admit that last year, when AB-InBev first proposed buying the Owensboro wholesaler, it was a muddled story. Kevin Gibson and I spoke about it, and it was probably the least enlightened I've ever been on a topic this important.

It seemed inordinately complex at first, but in the end, it was very simple. After all, if the three-tier system in America is axiomatic, with exceptions in some states granted only to small producers, then playing fields need to be level. Once the legislature's powers-that-be indicated that small brewery self-distribution was off the table, then this was the next best outcome.

There may yet be lawsuits, and it's a bit ominous to me that Kentucky brewers were compelled to differ with Ohio's Rhinegeist (a fellow traveler by any measure) in order to pursue their own best interests.

So it goes. The legislative process is like that. Meanwhile, Kevin's analysis at Insider Louisville is straight to the point.

Opinion: In approval of ‘Beer Bill,’ Kentucky finally rights a wrong

... All the controversy and scuttlebutt the past few weeks over House Bill 168, aka the “Beer Bill,” bordered on ridiculous. I found myself confused over the entire issue, because, to me, it came down to one simple question: Do we have a three-tier system of alcohol distribution, or don’t we?

If we do, then the obvious action was to block A-B InBev (or any brewery) from being able to distribute its own products in Kentucky. That’s why there is a separation between supplier, distributor and retailer in the first place (thanks, Prohibition). If we don’t have a three-tier system, well, then it’s open season — all Kentucky breweries should be empowered to sell and distribute their products as they see fit. But a long-existing loophole enabled out-of-state brewers to distribute in Kentucky while in-state breweries could not.

Pop open a Trojan Goose and enjoy this explanation of why you shouldn't.

Get ready for an uncommonly good explanation of the American brewing marketplace, a link forwarded me by my friend Jerry Ramsey. Here are a few passages and my thoughts.

For America's craft beer revolution, brewing battle has come to a head: The independent beer movement has exploded, threatening Big Beer and posing new dilemmas for craft brewers, by Michael Pizzi (Al Jazeera America)

... “It’s not just a matter of craft brewers banding together with our fists in the air against Big Beer anymore,” said (Chris) Gallant, Bronx Brewery’s general manager. “The biggest challenge is that there are just so many of us.”

What does this have to do with our monolithic "friends" at the Big Two?

The “Big Two” conglomerates — Anheuser-Busch Inbev and SABMiller — recognize the small beer movement is growing into a legitimate threat ... (and) pitched battles are brewing between Big Beer and small beer lobbies over distribution and franchising laws that determine access to markets. In Congress, dueling bills have been proposed to reduce the steep excise tax on beer in the United States, one of which offers a graduated tax schedule that would benefit small breweries. With their deep pockets and army of lobbying firms, Big Beer might just have its way.

With friends like them, who needs Islamic terrorism, except that "traditional low-cost American beers like Budweiser, Coors and Miller are simply going out of style." If you're a multinational monopolist, what's the response to an aesthetic precluded you by virtue of DNA?

“At Anheuser-Busch, you see a future where if you don’t act now to restructure the marketplace, your present product selection is going to confine you to a much smaller business down the road,” said Barry Lynn, a senior fellow at the New America Foundation who has done extensive research on the beer market.

So restructuring the marketplace is what Big Beer has begun to do, experts say. Contrary to its recent anti-craft messaging, Anheuser-Busch has actually begun to buy out independent breweries, starting with the 2011 purchase of Goose Island in Chicago. It has since bought out Blue Point, 10 Barrel, and, last year, Elysian in Washington (which, ironically, produces the Pumpkin Peach Ale that Budweiser mocked in its Super Bowl ad). The company has not commented whether the buying spree will continue, including in an email to Al Jazeera, but its strategy so far seems to involve subsidizing and selling its craft offerings cheaper than its competitors, proliferating them across its massive, coordinated distribution networks.

Lynn said he didn't think the plan was to profit off these beers directly. “What they want to be able to do is offer wholesalers or retailers a full array of products, to say ‘you don’t need to go anywhere else, we’ve got your craft covered.’”

Yes, that's right: Colonize taps and shelf space, lock them down by whatever means is workable, and keep small brewers from coming through the door. It's what AB-InBev does with zombie crafts like Trojan Goose Island -- and yet many of you still feed money to the monolith.

Why?

Paul Gatza, director of the Brewers Association, which represents the craft beer industry, said the Big Two can, by way of co-opted distributors, offer preferential treatment — prices and promotional displays, for example — to bars and stores who choose not to carry independent brews. Now that craft is in their repertoire, Gatza said, “you’ll see it more and more at bars, where Anheuser-Busch is dominating the facility and all the beers on tap are produced or owned by them."

And where have we heard this before? Right across the river, in fact, where the money you feed the monolith via Trojan Goose is used against the interests of your local brewer.

In some states, Big Beer has taken the even more aggressive strategy of buying out wholesale distributors. In doing so, Big Beer is challenging the formalized 3-tier system that has regulated the alcohol market in the U.S since the 1930s — whereby the brewer or distiller, wholesale distributor and retailer are all supposed to be separate entities, or tiers. Established in the aftermath of prohibition, the idea was that an intentionally inefficient system would keep the alcohol industry’s once-formidable political power in check. Decades later, those safeguards against vertical integration helped catalyze the craft revolution.

Small brewers argue that the acquisitions should be illegal nationally (in most states, it already is), pointing out there is no incentive for a distributor owned by Anheuser-Busch to carry anyone else’s brew. The controversy has come to a head most recently in Kentucky, where earlier this month the House approved a bill backed by independent brewers that could require Anheuser-Busch to sell its distributors in the state.

And yet, perhaps the most enjoyable aspect of these David vs. Goliath scenarios comes when Goliath starts crying like a hungry and abandoned baby.

Damon Williams, director of sales and marketing for Anheuser-Busch in Louisville, Kentucky, told Al Jazeera in an email that the bill "has nothing to do with craft beers and everything to do with greedy special interests."

Damon, my man ... takes one to know one, doesn't it?

"Battle brews over craft beer production caps" in Indiana.

As it pertains to alcoholic beverage initiatives, the current legislative session in Indiana has become fiendishly difficult to explain, and about as hard to handicap. Beer production caps have less to do with how many barrels a "small" Indiana brewer can brew and still remain small.

In my opinion, it has far more to do with the right of small brewers in Indiana to self-distribute, and more succinctly, how the state's traditional wholesaling tier feels about it ... and the extent to which Indiana's traditional wholesalers want to disrupt something they can't get a piece of.

Cher once sang of gypsies, tramps and thieves. She omitted leeches.

That's also my opinion, of course.

Battle brews over craft beer production caps, by Maureen Hayden (CNHI)

 ... Indiana now has more than 100 microbreweries on tap, with more in development. At Three Floyds, head brewer Chris Boggess said production caps, which he calls "stupid" and "arbitrary," are hindering the brewery's growth.

Three Floyds is poised to expand far beyond the 40,000 barrels it produced last year, with a $4 million investment in a new bottling line that could produce 150,000 barrels within five years.

“People keep saying, ‘Send us more beer,’ and that’s what we want to do,” Boggess said.
Standing in the way are alcohol distribution laws that date to the end of Prohibition. Designed to control an uncorked industry and collect millions in alcohol tax revenues, the 1935 liquor control act created a three-tier system that separated alcohol makers from retailers with a middleman - distributors.

In Kentucky, House Bill 168 should be passed.

The Bluegrass-fueled power of traditional wholesalers, who are afforded monopoly conditions under the three-tier system, is such that Kentucky "craft" brewers know from the start that they'll never be allowed to self-distribute. Consequently, they must choose their poison.

And AB InBev is as poisonous as it comes. Hence, preservation of the three tiers is the priority. It makes sense to me, given the prevailing senselessness.

So, if you live in Kentucky, contact your representative and support House Bill 168. Kindly note that if you're of the solipsistic narcissist persuasion, it might be best to include actual words, and not just a photo of whatever beer you traded so hard to get.

Cheers to clarifying state law on beer sales, an editorial in the Herald-Leader Editorial

It's probably not possible to know now whether Kentucky law governing production and distribution of beer is so confusing by intent or mistake. Regardless, it's time to clear it up.

House Bill 168 promises to do that and protect the interests of beer producers and consumers in Kentucky. It should be passed.

The bill seeks to prevent breweries from owning distributorships in Kentucky. It would enforce a three-tier system of beer production, distribution and sales much like that for wine and spirits. Under this system, adopted in many places after the repeal of Prohibition, the producer of an alcoholic beverage, with few a few exceptions, can only sell it to a wholesaler who sells to retailers.

At Louisville Beer Dot Com: "Three tiers for Anheuser-Busch!"

John King drinks beer, runs, crafts wooden furniture, is one-third of a podcast, serves as Executive Director of the Kentucky Guild of Brewers and might even have time left to work at a day job, although I'm not sure about that one.

And then there is John's column at Louisville Beer Dot Com.

Three tiers for Anheuser-Busch!, by John King (Louisville Beer)

... The Kentucky ABC laws can be described as finicky to those inside and outside of the beer industry. They can possibly be classified as archaic since the first beer was cracked post-Prohibition, but they serve a purpose whether we imbibe by them or not. From a three-tier system requiring breweries to sell their beer to a distributor to not being allowed to give away free samples of beer outside of your taproom, the laws can create some questions amongst beer geeks. Let me explain the latter first.

He does, and then returns to AB InBev's latest bid to thwart the three-tier system.

If Anheuser-Busch starts to acquire self-distribution in Kentucky, expect to see those beers you love replaced with their “crafty” impostors (God, who am I Roger Baylor?)

To the Kentucky Guild of Brewers, it makes no sense why the largest brewery in the world would be able to self distribute and our smaller, in-state operations are not allowed to.

Well, it's about time someone was me. That said, John does a great job explaining the esoteric. If you enjoy better beer and reside in Kentucky, register your view.

Dirty lines, payola and hijinks? Only since the dawn of human history.

As usual, the opposing social media camps quickly coalesced, and we were advised to move quickly to one bloc or the other by shunning the bribe takers or ostracizing the embittered brewery.

Payola? Fact of life and a feature of capitalism. The best antidote has been, and remains, a consistent conceptual program at the point of dispense, augmented by principle and integrity. There'll never be any system of commerce capable of eliminating palm-greasings, so we might as well get over it and do the best we can.

My question: When supply of a product, the success of which is predicated on expanding distribution in a tightly regulated marketplace, explodes at a rate greater than available dispensing outlets ... aren't we designing a situation tailor-made for the abuses of payola?

BEER BRIBERY, by Aaron Goldfarb (Esquire)

One brewer has cried foul on breweries that pay off bars to serve their beers

With around 3000 breweries now in America producing tens of thousands of beers, I bet you wonder how a bar could possibly choose what to put on their few taps. Of course, we all know some bars prefer the kind of corporate swill that their non-demanding customers can drink a lot of on the cheap. While other, more scrutinizing spots surely opt for local offerings and the absolute best craft beer they can possibly land. But what if I told you something more insidious is actually going on?

Last night while you were sleeping—or closing down a bar—Dann Paquette, co-founder and brewer for Pretty Things Beer & Ale Project out of Cambridge, Massachusetts, decided to blow the whistle on an illegal practice going on right before our very beer-soaked eyes. In a series of Tweets under the brewery’s handle, Paquette revealed that Boston is a “pay to play town and we're often shut out for draft lines along with many beers you may love.”

What’s “pay to play”? It’s when breweries bribe bars under the table to stock their beers and freeze out competition and is, according to the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau regulations, an illegal practice.

Diary: “All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream."

It was a very strange dream. I’m beginning to think it’s time for me to take a long vacation, or maybe find another line of work. I'm not ruling out therapy.

In the dream, I was having a meeting with a beer wholesaler. My cooler was filled with bottles of NABC beer. We tasted all of them. I was talking about how we had beers of proven merit, with more than a decade in market. There was existing brand recognition, and a sales history. It’s a no-brainer, I said. You need to take us on.

Came the reply: “No. We have too many brands already, and we cannot give you the attention you deserve.”

It was fairly disappointing, but it wasn’t the first rejection ever, and so I started packing up my kit. Before I was finished, another brewery rep came into the room. He was very young.

Hi, he said. I represent a brewery that has no beer. In fact, as yet, we have no brewery. But once we actually start brewing, you won’t want to be without us, so can we just tie the knot right now?

Of course, replied the wholesaler. Come right in and join us.

Really? As Dino might have crooned, “Ain’t that a kick in the head.”

Given my reputation, which at widely scattered intervals is deserved, you might reasonably assume I’d be annoyed or angered by this turn of events. Perhaps in real life, this would have been the exact reaction. However, this was a dream, and dreams mean absolutely nothing, and so I pulled my cooler into the restroom to splash water onto my face.

It’s when I noticed my beard was white, and that’s really bizarre – because I no longer have a beard. I shaved it off, and everyone says I look younger.

I wonder what it all means?

The Diary of Our Own Jimmy Bracken: Celibacy is starting to seem like a viable alternative.

My diary entries are for unexpurgated utterances. I may flesh them out later, or not.

I tell you, I don’t get no respect.

When you’ve been knocked around as often as me, it’s really hard to muster the enthusiasm for getting back into the dating game, but fetishes are fetishes. It’s just my luck to be fatally attracted to Kentuckians. I like them. They sure don’t seem to like me.

Still, my first relationship was quite good for a while. It was me and the black mamba. Then tragedy struck. There was a diagnosis of terminal illness, and a slow wasting away. It was painful to watch.

Right after the funeral, I got fixed up with a transplant from Ohio. Boy, did that one turn out to be a bad match. There are three-toed sloths on Prozac with more get up and go, so I got up and went. I’ve never witnessed such flatulence roaring through ANYTHING.

It seemed like the next one was a perfect fit: Smart, focused and totally on the ball. A genuine dreamboat. However, it ended before it even started, and all because of me: Turns out I’m just not sexy enough. That one hurt. I’m the first to admit I’m no runway model, but I can whistle Beethoven’s Ninth in any key while having my brain washed at Rate Advocate.

You’d think that would count for something.

Undaunted, I kept looking. More recently, there was another pretty good prospect. We actually have mutual connections in other states. I was honest and up front: “You know, I’m not asking for much.”

“That’s good,” came the cavalier reply, “Because you can’t have anything at all.”

Ouch. I’m telling you, these Kentucky wholesalers are a tough crowd. You try to get in bed with one of them, and BOOM. I’m into fireworks, though not necessarily when they start exploding after you’ve been cracked on the noggin with a two-by-four.

Well, wish me luck. There’s another blind date next week. Maybe this one will lead to lasting pleasure. If not, I’m starting to run out of choices.

The Diary of Our Own Jimmy Bracken: No beer houses in sight, but we remain dauntless.

New Albany probably wouldn't considered the ideal "craft" beer market, although proximity to Louisville certainly figures into any such reckoning.

On Sunday, May 25, we sold 17 kegs of NABC beer at Boomtown, and probably 4 or 5 more at Bank Street Brewhouse. The Grand went through 9 during the Houndmouth show. That's somewhere around 30 kegs in a day, albeit a quite special day.

The thing that struck me about Boomtown is this: In the main, it was not a "beer geek" kind of crowd. They were there for the music, and maybe for the Flea Off market stalls. They had a choice; our compatriots at Irish Exit were selling Lite and Pabst. And yet we did very well indeed.

Midweek, with Boomtown in the rear view mirror until next year, I learned that a second Greater Kentucky wholesale beer distributor was not interested in our products. I don't contest the reasoning, i.e., they have a full and cluttered "book" comprised of numerous beers from numerous breweries, many of them located hundreds of miles away. Left unspoken (though patently obvious) is the point that after all, this is what the consumer base wants.

One of the consumer bases, at least.

In short, it's the consumer base NOT represented at Boomtown, where there were few self-identified beer geeks to be found, and yet the better beer flowed freely.

To reiterate, I don't contest the wholesaler's reasoning. I merely point to a disconnect, one that I've no clue how to remedy. In Indiana, we can self-distribute. In Kentucky, we are obliged to use an intermediary, of which there are relatively few, numerically, and this is is frustrating but fine -- for so long as one of them agrees to partner with us.

When they don't, it's just plain frustrating.

The most bizarre part of all this is geographical. We cannot get beer to Lexington, Kentucky, because we can't find a wholesaler. But wholesalers in Texas, Missouri and Massachusetts have expressed interest. When you'd like to be local/regional but cannot, owing to the leaden weight of the three-tier distribution system, then do you shrug and join the parade by shipping far, far away?

I posted the following on Facebook, and for the record, repeat it here. I can't say there are answers these days, only questions. The bizarre part of all this is that

Several of you have asked; here's the answer: NABC would love to be selling beer in Kentucky outside Jefferson County, but we can't seem to find a wholesaler. The first one died. We divorced the second one. Recent matchmaking has been rebuffed. I'm considering a Kickstarter bid to relocate NABC a couple thousand miles away, thus making us sexy and fashionable for local markets here; but of course that's impractical. In the end, all we have is great beer. I'm quite happy with that. Thanks to those of you who both get it, and GET it.

The Diary of Our Own Jimmy Bracken: I am a man who looks after the pigs.

Since no one is likely to guess the source, I'll confide the origin of the proper name herein: The Diary of Our Own Jimmy Bracken ... or how I've titled my last three diary ruminations.

It refers to a 1930s-era column in a magazine called Metronome, which chronicled the big band years, and as written pseudonymously by the late George T. Simon. As Benny Goodman or Glenn Miller was to big band music, Simon was to big band writing. Think of Metronome as the Rolling Stone of its time.

And so on.

My week in beer begins with a minor disappointment, perhaps best explained by reading a Sunday op/ed piece in the New York Times, written by Steve Hindy of Brooklyn Brewery: "Craft breweries may be a big story in the media these days, but they face much tougher challenges than most other small businesses."

If you're engaged in most legitimate business pursuits and develop a wonderful product, you can take it to market in a variety of ways, limited only by imagination and financing. In the booze biz, producers generally must adhere to the three-tier distribution system. Granted, in Indiana we have the right to distribute ourselves, and that's helpful.

It isn't any help if we wish to distribute in neighboring states, or, as in the case of Kentucky, re-establish distribution. NABC once teamed with Bryant, and when Bryant was bought by Heidelberg, we signed on with them. Thus ensued a bad experience, to put it mildly; the most frustrating thing about it now, post-divorce, is knowing that owing to this wholesaler's large size relative to our smallness, the pain and agony of abject neglect could be felt only by us, and never by them. It's the sort of thing to make a man (and his beer) bitter, although not me. Well, not much.

It's springtime, replete with new beginnings.

We'd dearly love to be back in Greater Kentucky (outside Jefferson County and environs, where we work with River City) sooner rather than later, and so I've been examining options, and thinking about the meaning of life and product lines. It's been a while, perhaps high school, since I've had to look into a mirror and question whether I'm cool enough to fit in with the crowd, and maybe that's why I listened to Quadrophenia yesterday.

NABC started brewing in 2002, and over the ensuing 12 years, norms, tastes and the marketplace have continued spinning like a kaleidoscope with blinders on acid. I've persisted in thinking that our best bet is to make quality beer, and to do so consistently; this we do, and after all, it draws customers to our own two buildings, and does all right regionally when available. For it to be available regionally, we need a wholesaler.

It sounds simple enough, but then there's that mirror again.

Where do you get
Those blue blue jeans?
Faded patched secret so tight.
Where do you get
That walk oh so lean?
Your shoes and your shirts
All just right.

But I'm one. You'll all see.

Indiana Statecraft, concluded.

No one asked me what I thought, but that's never been an impediment.

Indiana Statecraft (Part Two)

Written by Roger Baylor

(Full disclosure: I am a director on the board of the Brewers of Indiana Guild. However, my thoughts are strictly my own, and do not reflect official guild policy. Part One of this column is here)

“I promote local pride, not jingoism.”
– Greg Koch (Stone Brewing, San Diego CA)

The Brewers of Indiana Guild stages three yearly beer festivals, with these events providing the bulk of the non-profit organization’s annual operating revenue. The festivals are Winterfest (held in February in Indianapolis), Bloomington Craft Beer Festival (April; Bloomington) and BIG Microbrewers Festival (July; Indianapolis).

NABC will ship 22-oz “bomber” bottles into Ohio via Cavalier Distributing Ohio.

The New Albanian Brewing Company is pleased to announce that once the paperwork’s all completed and filed, we’ll be shipping 22-oz “bomber” bottles into the state of Ohio via Cavalier Distributing Ohio.

We’ve known Cavalier as a whole for a very long time, and already do business with Cavalier Distributing Indiana.

It would be an understatement to say that we’re looking forward to it, but then again, perhaps craft beer press releases could use a bit more understatement these days.

Inquiries about NABC: Direct them to me ... roger(at)newalbanian(dot)com
Inquiries about Ohio: See http://cavbeer.com/ for contact information

Core NABC lineup in Ohio
Black & Blue Grass
Elector
Hoptimus

2013 NABC Seasonals in Ohio
Naughty Girl (2nd quarter)
Tunnel Vision (3rd quarter)
Naughty Claus (4th quarter)

2014 NABC Seasonals in Ohio
Solidarity (1st quarter)
Bonfire of the Valkyries (1st quarter bonus release)

Bryant Distributing enters into agreement to sell assets to Heidelberg Distributing.

In beer wholesaler news, Bryant has been sold to Heidelberg. Both are family-owned companies, and I favor such things. All the best to the Carpenters during the transition. The following has been edited only to remove phone numbers.

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March 13, 2012

To Our Valued Supplier Partners:

Bryant Distributing is pleased to announce today that we have entered into an agreement to sell our assets to Heidelberg Distributing Company of Ohio and Kentucky.

A family-owned business founded in 1934, Bryant currently has third and fourth-generation family members actively involved in the day-to-day operations of our distributorship. This depth of experience in the Kentucky market will continue in our new management and sales roles with Heidelberg.

We are proud of Bryant’s Kentucky heritage and the fact we represent the finest wines, spirits, beers and non-alcohol beverages from around the world. Our footprint has grown over the last seven decades to include strong retail customer relationships across the entire State of Kentucky.

These relationships and solid representation of your brands will continue and expand under Heidelberg’s ownership. Like Bryant, Heidelberg is family-owned and operated and will celebrate its 75th anniversary next year. Heidelberg is one of the largest privately-held family distributors in the country, with facilities in seven Ohio markets as well as Covington, Kentucky. Its resources include senior level support teams for sales, inventory management, delivery, routing, pricing, IT, point-of-sale production, and administration.

This business progression will utilize the best of both Bryant and Heidelberg to sell, promote and service your brands. There will be no interruption of purchasing or retailer customer service during the transition.

This e-mail serves as our official notification of the pending ownership change.

We will be contacting you personally during the coming days and weeks to discuss this in further detail ...

We are very excited to join the Heidelberg Family of Companies and feel that this change will benefit our great suppliers and customers and the products we represent in the marketplace. Thank you for your continued support of the Kentucky alcohol beverage industry!

Sincerely,

The Carpenters
John Jr, Jeff, Jim, Jeff II, Jimmy, and Clay

Long-distance localism: Talk about a talking point!

Courtesy of the ever-informative www.beernews.org, comes this observation, as though timed to coincide with the kick-off of Louisville Craft Beer Week and the discussion that preceded it.

Dornbusch: The Case for Low Mileage Beer

Cerevisia Communications Founder, Horst Dornbusch, raises questions about the practice of breweries expanding distribution over thousands of miles versus doing it locally.

"It is obviously a positive sign that craft breweries are gaining strength through higher volumes, but such expansion, when associated with greater distribution areas and longer shipping distances by land and even by sea, may not be the most environmentally responsible way to grow. Considering that foreign breweries of all sizes have been exporting beer to the New World for decades, it seems a natural impulse for the burgeoning American craft brew industry to turn the tables and try to enter the export game as well. But is long-distance beer transport regardless of direction really a good thing?"

Full article via Brewers Association | The Case for Low Mileage Beer

Old news item: Avery joins flight from Indiana; Publican yawns.

Beers and breweries have always come and gone in terms of availability. Wholesalers make agreements, and then the agreements change. The merry-go-round spins, well, merrily. In the past, perhaps it mattered. Does it really matter now, I an age where the rotation comprises hundreds of excellent craft beers, rather than a dozen?

First, the Shelton Brothers portfolio of outstanding imports, formerly with Cavalier, departed Indiana. As an insider, I knew about it a long time ago, and already had grown so weary of banging my head against the wall after failing at receiving what I wanted, that any sort of comment seemed superfluous.

In fact, having once considered making Shelton’s brands the basis for the Public House beer list, I channeled my abject feelings of deprivation into a positive “buy local” epiphany, which has re-energized me, and generally has done the job when it comes to my personal beer drinking needs -- except for when a strong yearning for Lambic overwhelms my senses. Then, I miss them quite dearly.

Next, Dogfish Head vacated our Hoosier premises. Avery followed them. As the Eagles once observed, Allagash was already gone. You could hear the sounds of furtive sourcing as shelves emptied of valuable brands. The wails of lamentation kept me awake at night as craft beer fans weaned on the tender mercies of Beer Advocate and Rate Beer vented their despair.

They should have been asking: Should one’s go-to beer come from another time zone?

And: Your forefathers had it far tougher, whiner.

Me? I shrugged, yawned and filled a growler of fresh local beer.

It’s now 2011, there are now 1,700 breweries (you’re within ten minutes of one), and hundreds of available beers still flow into the state. Indiana itself soon will have 40 brewers, and who couldn’t subsist on Three Floyds, Sun King, People’s, Flat12 and the like? Here in New Albany, there’s BBC and Cumberland (maybe still Browning’s?) right across the Ohio River.

In fact, there is precious little in any of this that’s grim, and there’s nothing but sweetness and light in my world. For instance, I’m told that New Holland bottles are trickling down to the Sunnyside through North Vernon Beverage. This is good. We still have Great Divide, which withdrew from other states. And Southern Tier. And Schlafly. And (fill in the blank).

The ones that went away will return. Somehow, we’ll survive until then. Maybe it’s all about the grass being greener elsewhere, and humans wanting what they cannot have. I suppose this is understandable. Just remember: I used to walk ten miles in waist-deep snow just to score a six-pack of Sierra. Your troubles are miniscule by comparison.

Wednesday Weekly: "Going native at Gravity Head 2011."

A funny thing happened on the way to Gravity Head 2011, which begins at 7:00 a.m. on February 25, and which will be our 13th such celebration of creative brewing’s outermost extremities.

Appropriately, although with little conscious forethought, we’ve managed to pre-order very few imported beers for Gravity Head. Actually, so few imports have been pre-ordered that only three are in stock at present, with no plans to up the number.

Perhaps we’ll serve these three (see below) at Gravity Head, and perhaps we will not, as 50 is the overall keg limit we’ve agreed to enforce, and if procurements run past that number, there’ll be bumpings and reassignments.

In fact, there may well be an All-American Lucky 13 Gravity Head in 2011. Upon closer examination, this suits me just fine.

Lest casual readers conclude that I’ve viciously turned against those same world classic beers which first made the Public House’s fame 20 years ago, be emphatically reassured that this is not the case. It’s just that the terms of engagement are being rewritten on a daily basis.

If you are just now tuning in to my ongoing mash-up, “What I Finally Learned in 2010,” the biggest lesson is a recent convergence of numerous threads of thoughts and experiences, into an overarching epiphany, one having artistic, conceptual, educational and fiscal antecedents and consequences.

In short: NABC’s investment in its own brewing operation obviously must be seen as an investment in American-made craft beer as a whole, not further delving into world-sourced beers, even if the latter remains a personal olfactory joy, and a fetish that I’ve no intention of abandoning. A choice is being made, and I feel good about it.

In 2011, come what may, I’m putting my mouth where my money is, and we’re transitioning the beer program at the Pizzeria & Public House to reduce our carbon footprint, lessen our reliance on imported beers, upgrade style education via a pared-down bottled beer list, and increase availability of good draft beer brewed close to us, whether our own building, Louisville metro or Indiana at large. Preferably, all three -- and more.

Now back to Gravity Head 2011, and an unprecedented absence of imports.

In previous years, I always made the effort to score appropriate imported brands, a task particularly well suited to my procurement skills, and one typically not outsourced to my hardworking assistants. However, in 2010, at roughly the same time of year normally devoted to intensive foraging, I began to feel a sense of terminal disillusionment with the prospect of not being able to successfully get the imports I wanted, when I wanted them, owing to (shall we say with utmost diplomacy) a certain disconnect in the line of Indiana-centric supply between importer, wholesaler and retailer.

I’m not being catty, even as I confess to some lingering bitterness. My epiphany simply cannot be explained without referencing the annoying realization that constantly banging my head against the wall would do nothing to remedy the disconnected situation beyond inflicting a concussion on myself – and who wants that? It’s all over now, it helped me to see, and it doesn’t matter who or what is to blame.

The only important consideration to me during the last quarter of 2010 was this: My initial preference to go full-tilt for a carefully selected, just-in-time lineup of the best imports, thus retaining the traditional balance between imported and domestic beer goodness at the Public House, increasingly was proving to be impossible to achieve. I could not expect to buy what I wanted, when I wanted it.

When it belatedly occurred to me that (a) this sort of disconnect was becoming steadily less of an impediment as it pertains to American-made craft beers, and (b) American-made craft beer was the reason we spent all that money in the first place, all the other pieces of the reform package puzzle quickly dropped into place.

Hence, imports dropped off my radar screen; I eagerly turned to formulating the parameters of the new beer program, and nothing was purchased for Gravity Head except American-made craft beers, which my assistants have proven quite capable of doing without prompting fro me.

And so, here we are with the first Gravity Head lineup preview of the year. There’ll be more to come on specific happenings scheduled for the fest’s run.

IN-STOCK/COMMITTED FOR GRAVITY HEAD 2011

We are committed to beginning Gravity Head 2011 with 50 listed beers. If we acquire more than that, some of these may be held until next year.

Vintage Dates: Only if we can verify that the beer in question is older than one year on February 25, 2011.

Key:
+ Brewers of Indiana Guild members
* Brewed in Kentuckiana
√ Imported

Provisional list:
√ Alvinne Podge Imperial Stout (firkin) 10.5%
*BBC (Main & Clay) Bearded Pat’s Barley Wine 2009 11%
*BBC (Shelbyville Road) Bourbon Barrel Wee Heavy 9.8%
*BBC (Shelbyville Road) Sam’s 'n' Adam's Bustin’ Lager
Bell’s Batch 9000 12.5%

Bell’s HopSlam 10%
Boulder Killer Penguin Barleywine 10%
Brooklyn Black Chocolate 10.6%
+Brugge Brasserie Quadripple 12%
Brooklyn Cuvee Noire 8.7%

Brooklyn Monster Ale 10.8%
Clipper City Heavy Seas Prosit! (Imperial Oktoberfest) 9%
+Crown Brewing (TBD)
Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA 2010 18%
Dogfish Head Burton Baton 2010 10%

Dogfish Head Worldwide Stout 2010 18%
Founders Backwoods Bastard 10.2%
Founders Black Biscuit 2010 10.5%
Founders Breakfast Stout 2009 8.3%
Founders Double Trouble 9.4%

Founders Devil Dancer 12%
Founders Imperial Stout 2009 10%
Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout 2010 11.2%
Founders Nemesis 12%
+Great Crescent Bourbon’s Barrel Stout 8%

+Great Crescent Diabolicale 8%
Great Divide Espresso Oak-Aged Yeti 9.5%
Great Divide Oak-Aged Yeti 9.5%
Great Divide Old Ruffian Barley Wine 10.2%
√ Kulmbacher Eisbock 2010 9.2%

Left Hand Imperial Stout 10.4%
Left Hand Oaked Widdershins Barley Wine 2009 8.8%
*NABC/O’Fallon/Schlafly C2 Collaboration Ale 10.5%
+*NABC Jaxon (Barleywine) Circa 10%
*NABC Le Diable Blonde 2010 10.7%

+*NABC Thunderfoot 2010 11%
Rogue XS Russian Imperial Stout
Rogue XS Old Crustacean 2009 11.3%
√ Schneider Aventinus Eisbock 2010? 12%
Shmaltz He’Brew Jewbelation 13 2010 13%

Sierra Nevada Bigfoot 2001 9.6%
Sierra Nevada 30th Anniversary “Our Brewers Reserve” 9.2%
Stone Double Bastard 2009 10.5%
Stone Old Guardian 2010 11.3%
Stone Russian Imperial Stout 2009 10.8%

Stone Vertical Epic 10/10/10 9.5%
+Sun King Dominator Doppelbock 8.1%
+Sun King Russian Imperial Stout (oak-aged, coffee-infused)
+Three Floyds (TBA … expect more than one)
Two Brothers 2009 Bare Tree 11%

+Upland Teddy Bear Kisses Imperial Stout 10.2%
+Upland The Ard Ri 9.25%
+Wilbur Brewing Country Mellow (Scotch Ale) 8%

Survey link: What do you do when a bar is out of your favorite microbrew?

Readers, I received the following link from Stephen Jannise, with a request to read his essay and take the survey. My answer is to order something comparable, as I'm seldom willing to acknowledge a favorite. Another brief thought: Better contemporary technology and a less restrictive distribution regime certainly would help, but in the end, better education for bar personnel strikes me as an excellent short-term solution.

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I thought you would be interested in a survey I'm hosting on my blog. I'm asking beer enthusiasts what they normally do when a bar is out of their favorite microbrew. You can find the survey here.

The survey coincides with an article I've written about the ways in which traditional methods of beer distribution continue to favor the major beer producers while putting the microbreweries at a disadvantage. Many bars can't afford to keep large quantities of craft beers rolling in on a regular basis. A few changes to the distribution model might help more bars afford more microbrews.

Stephen Jannise
ERP Market Analyst
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