Wisconsin Brewing Co.

I will give it a shot, but bottle date of 9/17/13 and they started distro in Nov??? Not a fan of that, probably trying to get way to much to market in the beginning.

Going to be hard to pull the trigger when I can get 10/18 Two Hearted...

 

Ya but Point is not that far away.... And I am sure they do.

 

No, no -- that's Eternal Flamer, an entirely different beer.

 

I'm not a IPA fan, and not a fan of Capital Amber or Supper Club. I went to the brewery Monday night after work and sampled their Amber and Porter...the Amber was a tad better than Wisconsin Amber...I liked Kirby's Porter a lot. That said, I think they are going to find it hard to find a place at the table day in and day out...good beer, but Spotted Cow and Ambergeddon already have loyal customers that are not going to quickly switch.

 

I agree with everything you've said...Capital started in 1985 and--even with Kirby's expertise--was easily surpassed in volume by New Glarus and Ale Asylum. AA and now Capital are both expanding, too. I think they got into the business to make good beer...but their marketing is rather horrible. Good PR, but they need to do more promotions to get a seat at the table. It wouldn't surprise me if they become a contract brewer in 2-3 years.

 

They'll have to compete on price to get the volume they want...and does the market want or need another "Supper Club?"

 

Good luck with that...MillerCoors has been very successful at keeping AB-InBev down in the state, and Point is cranking up production, too. Minhas and City Brewing are also cranking out AAL's. And Pabst is making huge sales with the UW student crowd now.

 

And their strategy seems to identical to Capital's--appeal to the 35-64 year-old yuppie instead of their kids. Geez, they even opened their brewery on the west side...wouldn't this have made a whole lot more sense to open in Sun Prairie by American Family (and a half-hour closer to Milwaukee and the Fox Valley)?

 

Exactly...their Porter is good, but still a step behind GL Edmund Fitzgerald (and their amber is behind Lakefront's Riverwest Stein)...they only two reasons I'd buy their offerings over others are 1) if I was throwing a party and thought that a session beer made more sense, or 2) price.

 

Why would they become a contract brewery when they have investors writing them blank checks for a state of the art brewery?

 

Because they'll have all that invested "state-of-the-art" brewing equipment, and nobody buying their beers?

 

“There is no way we fail,” said McGuire, a Beloit native and UW-Eau Claire graduate.

Comments like that always make me cringe.

Also to add, I'm not so sure that rocking the boat that is Wisconsin beer culture with such a bold move is a very wise decision. I guess it's a decision made easier by playing with someone else's money, but still, they seem to have their sights aimed a bit high on this one...

 

I'm no investment wizard but if the equipment is all paid for, or even worse, not paid off, I can't see them paying even more to use someone else's facility. And there isn't really a Madison area brewery that could feasibly grow into needing such a space and buy it from them. Am I missing something?

 

Barrel aged?

 

Doesn't Capital have all their beer bottled at Point (for now, anyway)?

 

I just saw a label for an upcoming Capital Black IPA. I wonder how many of their older/original products they're going to keep. It seems they're a brewery in transition right now. Their latest moves make it seem like they're going to let New Glarus, Sprecher (and Wisconsin Brewing Co.?) be the main craft lager brewers in the state, but who knows.

 

Ugh. And the bandwagon just gets more crowded.

 

I realize this is a little - totally - off topic, but Lazy Monk makes the best lager in Wisconsin. They are small now but Leos makes an exceptional Bohemian Lager.

 

Oh maybe I misinterpreted the original quote, I thought he was talking about WBC using THEIR equipment to contract brew for other breweries. Not having WBC beers contract brewed elsewhere.