Toppling Goliath expansion through Brew Hub (FL)

After giving it more thought over the weekend, I'm much more psyched about this now. At first, I was bummed to hear the news thinking it was about money and growing their brewery faster than they really needed to. But now, I am just stoked about the idea of hopefully being able to walk into most any store I want locally and grabbing a 4pk of Sue cans whenever I want (like I can a 4pk of Furious now). Just think if they start using Brew Hub to also brew and can GNug, Light Speed or Zeelander. They could essentially brew and package enough of those beers there, ship them back to the local markets and fill shelves, while leaving the TG facility now to focus on brewing and packaging more of their Hop Patrol beers: Sosus, King Sue, Pompeii, Intergalactic Warrior, etc. etc. and get those beers to market more than once or twice a year. That has me really pumped!

 

I've heard from a few very reliable sources that TG will NOT have to go through a distributor to sell the Brew Hub brewed/packaged beer back in Iowa. That is very, very good news, as my #1 concern as well was the freshness concerns during shipment and storage. It sounds like they'll be able to self-distribute these as normal and in that regard, should have much more control over the handling of the beer that I initially thought. Good news for all!

 

No kidding. The complete trifecta of any TG thread.

 

I can't wait to shotgun the first can of Sue I get my paws on.

 

I'm planning a trip up to the taproom. Any insider information on a good date (any releases, specials, etc) I'm trying to make the most out of it since i'm coming from Des Moines and would be devastated if I missed something by a couple days just because i cannot decode twitter messages correctly

And back to the topic at hand. If I can drink Sue in cans regularly and have it taste similar to the kegged original i would be so on board.

 

In my industry we are all about measuring "change risk" and I gotta say looking at it from that aspect I am a bit nervous about this. Here's my issue, you just lost your head brewer and you got a new guy trying to learn things, now you are going to try to expand and move production to a different format, different water source and different equipment. That's a recipe for disaster IMO. Maybe it will all turn out ok, but from a change management perspective and protecting your brand this is a terrible idea. my .02.

 

For special releases not even Mug Club members get a heads up so wait until it's released and if you get there within a day or two you should get your allotment. Even SR71 stuck around for nearly two full days.

 

Lucky Floridians!

"Brew Hub will keg, bottle, label and ship Toppling Goliath through Florida."

http://floridabeernews.com/2015/03/20/iowas-toppling-goliath-coming-to-florida/

 

Brew Hub should check their spelling

 

This is all I really care about. If they aren't able to ramp up supply so that I don't have to scour the damn city looking for sue or Nug, then I am going to be pissed. I'd love for it to be available any time but I doubt that will happen right away, if ever.

 

I really don't think the few extra days will make any difference -- I've never actually taken that Pepsi challenge with Jai Alai, but I doubt I could tell the difference of a few days (now the stuff that sits at the Trop for months and you get a can with an April date on it after the All-Star break... well, now you're getting somewhere).

The speculation on the water differences I would totally buy into.

But beyond that, I'm just excited to be able to have access to these great beers. This hobby of ours is by its very nature fairly promiscuous. I'd be curious to see if the same thread cropped up with the reverse of beers/locations (CCB brewed in Iowa).

 

Don't buy into the BS water difference argument, it's the stuff of old beer commercials. Treating water isn't very difficult, all it takes is a bit of science, and I'm sure Brew Hub and TG employ people who know how to do science.

 

If it was only water difference ok, if it was only new brewer ok, if it was only new equipment ok... all three together, makes it seem unlikely they won't at least have some issues to work out, and also makes finding the issues tougher (multiple variables). Who knows though, could be they nail it just fine. We will see.

 

Yep, building a water profile is easy peasy

 

That's very interesting, thanks for the reply!!

 

True. It doesn't seem to make economic sense to ship barley from the Dakotas down to Florida, to brew beer to ship back north to Iowa. But I guess the margins on beer, especially sought after craft beer, are such that shipping costs are a negligible portion of the retail price. Add to that whatever margin BrewHub is getting & TG is probably happy to cede that portion of their margin in order to expand quickly "while the iron is hot" and settle for less profit than Surly gets on a 4 pack of Furious or Abrasive sold in Iowa (even apportioning Surly's sunk cost of servicing their $30 million debt load). Every day that goes by without being able to meet current demand is money left on the table, so getting more product out sooner is a net positive for TG - as long as they don't sacrifice future demand by supplying an inferior product. But with the low cost of borrowing right now, it also seems like a good time to expand - unless the "beer bubble" bursts sometime soon.

The $6/pint for Pseudo at the BrewHub taproom seems reasonable (if I'm reading the grainy graphic in the linked Florida Beer blurb correctly). Is that in line with price at the Decorah taproom? Any idea what the 4 pack bottles from BrewHub will cost?

 

$4.25 for a pint, I believe. I always use my card, and am mug club, so I don't pay that close of attention, honestly.

Seems to be "in line" when you figure in the reality that pretty much everything in Florida will be more expensive than it's Decorah counter part.

 

I think Steel Toe does the same thing. St. Louis Park's water is equally horrible for brewing.

 

I think you may be underestimating the costs Surly took on with their expansion. In addition to the interest on the loan, they have increased taxes on their new property (unless they got some kind of favorable tax treatment... ), increased operating expenses associated with the new, larger brewery (utilities and the like), and increased labor costs for staffing the new operations.

Comparing CGS leaves out much of the picture of the true cost comparison between what Surly did v what TG did.