How does beer distribution in the US Work Exactly?

It depends on State laws. IIRC, Indiana and Michigan are a couple where it's hard for a brewery move. Out here, once a contract is up, brewers are free to shop around.

 

Beer finder is pretty easy to use, the other I'm not framiliar with. There's another I've used but the name slipped my mind but it's great if you trade it gives you distro in every state and you can do side by side comparisons. I'll pm you if I remember it.

 

It's either seekabrew or Seekbrew. That's useful . Tap finder is to if your traveling.

 

It's Seekabrew. It comes up with a map on the US , them you have a drop down box on breweries, then yiu tap on the state yiur want to check and it's color coded to distribution levels.

 

The 6 Point in Indiana would be brewed in Memphis TN.

 

In NC there are multiple (a buddy who owns his own store says >15 and likely many more) distributor options, many of which are small so a hot brewery is a nice ticket to have. However most smaller breweries are choosing to purely sell on premise OR self distribute to keep that margin.

And they are making a killing with those $20+ four packs.

 

Are those 15 over 6,000,000 Barrel breweries all AB-InBev and Miller/Coors breweries?

 

Ya know, I wondered the same thing but never checked it. Gotta be, tho'. Of course, not every AB brewery is over 6m bbl capacity (NH and Fairfield CA are under it, and I gotta wonder if Newark is running that close to their 7.5M cap...).

But it would seem to be MC's 6 or all 7 breweries (assuming that it didn't include #8 Eden NC which was closed by the end of the year) and 8 or 9 (of 12) AB breweries?

City's La Crosse and Memphis breweries have both in the past been rated at nearly that capacity, but it's unlikely either is running close to it.

Ha. Well, they are the "Alcohol and Tobacco TAX and Trade Bureau", so gettin' paid (even on 1 barrel) is kinda there thing...

 

Their packaged beers (as well as a lot of the kegs of the draught versions of their canned beers) have always been primarily contract-brewed, via "alternating proprietorship" arrangements.

Originally at The Lion (Wilkes-Barre, PA) then moving to City's "Blues City" Memphis after City took over the old Schlitz/Stroh/Coors facility (around 2012 or so by the looks of it).
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You do not sound like an expert, but how in the world would buying beer in IN, with sales tax, and then transporting it to IL, possibly save them any money or "avoid taxes"? That makes no sense whatsoever, and it's illegal in almost every state to do something like that, not to mention crossing state lines. ::facepalm::

 

Yeah, that'd work for liquor where IL's excise tax is $8.55/gallon vs IN's $2.68 (thus the article's example of vodka).

But the difference on the states' excise tax on beer wouldn't make it profitable:

IL - 23¢/gallon
IN- 12¢/gallon

So, the difference in taxes adds up to about a quarter (25¢) less in Indiana on a case.
https://taxfoundation.org/state-tax/alcohol-taxes/

 

What is the point of this thread again?

 

I'm a buyer for a store in my area and one of the things that also goes into why you see certain beers in certain places or stores is something called the "allocations game." This is how the breweries or distributors decide who gets what when it comes to small batch, or otherwise special release products that go through general distribution. The decision isn't random, and usually the stores who buy the most of that breweries product get dibs. This happens on a national level and most if not all breweries do this with special releases and hype beers.

 

Beer distribution is wacked. I can get beer from Missouri thrown on a truck but not from New jersey. I also got beer from Vietnam and Iceland.

 

A lot (not all) of beer consumers are equally wacked. So many people want immediate access to about everything, everyday. They want it all less than a month old and to find no 3 month old beer languishing on the shelf.

I have found the amount of really good stuff we can get--both local and via distributor--to be the best it has EVER been. I amazed that I can get Revision (from 3000mi away) regularly and fresh.

 

I’ve seen Sixpoint in northwestern Indiana and central Indiana, in a smallish town, no less. Granted, it was a bit old, but apparently the state gets (or used to get) distro. Must just not be terribly popular, as I have never seen it “everywhere” when I visit.