Heady distro to Boston -- not looking good

When w

When did this all happen?

 

Estimating the retail price of HT in Boston is cute to talk about, but it is not going to happen.

They have no incentive to bother with distribution. They can sell everything they brew, as quick as their point of sale system can ring up cases. Then they can close for the day, and enjoy Vermont. Why bother with the three tier system, if you don't have to.

 

April of last year to stores. Bars got a shipment before that as well from a different distributor.

 

What stores reps are being hurt now for currently overpricing beers?

Sure there are stores you can name that are notorious for pricing beers outside the average range, but I doubt its hurting sales one bit. Plenty of people in the Boston area willing to pay a premium to try new beers all the time - and the more hype there is, the more they will pay.

 

If stores don't break the 4pks and sell it for the same price as Lunch, they're crazy. Plus, that way the tickers don't have to worry about get "stuck" with a beer they don't like.

 

What they should do is open up a Boston brewery too, Harpoon did it, why don't they.. why haven't they thought of that!

 

I doubt this will ever happen. Boston (Philly and NYC for that matter) seems to be more attractive than sending anything to Brattleboro or Bennington.

 

What would happen to the Alchemist's availability/reach/distro if they simply cut their purchase limit in half from 6 cases to 3 cases? Because god forbid someone only gets to buy 3 cases.

 

I think that's irrelevant. They'd like to distribute to Boston, but they'd rather just sell it all at the cannery. That much is clear from their actions, if it hasn't been explicitly made clear. And it makes sense for that attitude, since they can control freshness, save costs, etc.

 

Sure, but I'm not necessarily referencing their inability to get to Boston. John seems bummed that they constantly run out at the brewery and can't even meet local demand. I just wonder if cutting the purchase limit in half would allow people to go to Waterbury and buy HT whenever they want. He's mentioned elsewhere in the media that turning people away at the brewery saddens him and he doesn't know how much longer he can take it. Cutting the purchase limit could get HT to more people without having to increase production. I may be over simplifying it, but I'm honestly just curious what kind of effect it would have.

 

I have no problem making the infrequent trip up to Waterbury to buy my fill of HT, my only problem is that it more or less needs to be done midweek. It's a shame you can't stop in on a Saturday afternoon. Hard to imagine letting people walk out with 6 cases doesn't have something to do with that. Can't fault them for wanting to sell all their beer as fast as possible

 

If you cut the purchase limit people will probably bring friends to mule it. They're already making a long trip to get their hands on it so they might as well maximize the purchase per trip. How many people at limited bottle releases are actually going to drink that beer they bought?

It sucks you can't buy it on the shelf pretty much anywhere but I don't see why this is bad problem for The Alchemist, who wouldn't want to be able to sell their entire stock out the front door in one day. It's just a sign of how popular the beer is and the fact that its been popular for a while now shows its not just a fad. Why would they try to screw over customers driving 3+ hours to get their beer from the source just to say they have their beer in circulation in Boston, and how would they ever figure out which distributor gets the lion's share of the limited supply?

 

Mac

Let me wipe away your tears with my invisble hand.....

 

I'd normally agree with this, but it seems that the Alchemist doesn't like selling out in a day, per John's comments in an interview (http://m.stowetoday.com/waterbury_r...14c-600e-11e2-ba52-001a4bcf887a.html?mode=jqm) where he says things like this:

“We’ve just been running out all the time,” Kimmich said. “People say it’s a good problem to have but it’s not really. It’s a bummer to see people walk away upset.”

“I think we’re just at the point where, if it goes any longer with us running out, it will turn people away,”

If he wants to avoid people walking away empty handed, I have to wonder if cutting the purchase limit in half would help a lot. I know they've cut it to 1 case on occasion, so I'd think they're open to it.

 

Gotcha. In that case, yes, putting limits would help, and they do (or used to) put limits on especially busy week(end)s.

 

Well I do agree with that, knowing that people are driving so far to get some and end up with nothing to show for it. Or how many people would have driven up on a Saturday but can't be sure it won't run out so don't bother to make the trip.

 

FWIW, the one time I bought it retail in MA HT was $16 a 4 pack at Whole Foods Hadley.

I don't have any dog in this hunt, myself - I liked HT when I tasted it, would buy again but am not despairing of not having any since. I don't know anything about brewery sizes or production. John says above he's grown to the point where he's now selling 150 barrels a week (150*52 = 7800 bbl/yr) out of his shop. It was reported in the news that Jack's Abby brewed 2500 barrels in 2012, and I could buy JA off the shelf regularly lots of places last year, and with their new expansion which supposedly brings them into the 5000 bbl a year zone I see deep stock of multiple JA varieties in every store that sells craft here on the far side of the state from the brewery. And it's at a good price in bottles which I'm sure cost more to buy and ship than cans. JA sells only in Mass, but MA is a far more populated state than VT. Alchemist used to distribute throughout VT, and when they pulled back to the North Country alone they said they would expand and try to serve all of VT again before thinking about moving on. They don't need my advice on anything but I have to wonder if they couldn't learn something from JA here. Confine it to VT, but spread more of it around so there's maybe a 50/50 or so chance it might be available at the nearest point in VT to you if you don't live there (or that you'll be able to walk in and buy it off the shelf at your local store if you do). It will reduce the butthurt of driving 4+ hours each way to come up dry if you maybe only have to drive an hour or two or can call around to a few likely places in the same driving range before you head out. Individual store owners who want people to come back for more than HT will gently impose limits if needed to serve their local populations. They'd still be able to name their price and sell everything they make and maybe eventually the pressure will come off and they can inhabit a zone more like JA's. I dunno, just saying.

 

I'd rather see them cut back retail sales to only Friday and Saturday or something, so that they sell out at the end of the day on Saturday.

Actually, what I'd really like to see them do is put a call in to Mercury or FX Matt...

 

I bought heady in Boston last year, 2 different stores... weird.

 

BOOOO! Someone suggested pulling a Harpoon and building a new cannery in Boston. THAT idea I can get behind.