Brewery's unethical behavior in Chicago?

http://beerpulse.com/2013/02/deschu...llinois-18000-cses-1800-accounts-550-handles/

Not sayin', just sayin'?

 

I had a feeling it was the Deschutes/Wirtz thing, this gives that some creedence.

 

Deschutes/Wirtz is not what Greg is talking about. I have worked closely with the launch of Deschutes in IL and Wirtz has gone above and beyond to ensure they are not playing these games that Chicago is known for.

 

I think the proliferation of Deschutes is probably due to it being Wirtz's first (and so far only) craft brand, so it's getting massive amounts of push from them. Nearly every bar in the distribution area gets booze from Wirtz, so pretty much every bar is probably going to get a sales pitch on Deschutes. Also, Deschutes makes good beer and is a fairly well known craft brand, and they had their people out here doing a ton of events at a lot of different bars.

 

Serious questions, when did New Belgium enter the Chicago market? How many handles did they open with? And is 550 handles really that much in such a big, beer centered city?

 

Not spinning this as a negative, but since Wirtz has been introduced as a sub-category to this thread...anybody surprised that Greenbush signed up w/ Wirtz?

And, does the Vav subcription blogsphere sign-up include any swag?

 

Not at all, Greenbush had a relationship with Phil before he went to Wirtz. Would have been surprised if they had gone with anybody but Wirtz.

 

funny story about NB entering chicago. back before i was really into craft beer (and i bit after i turned 21), a friend of mine said "hey, there's this restaurant that has this awesome beer that you can't get in chicago called fat tire." so we went, ate really awesome pizza, and drank fat tire. about a year later, i saw it on the shelf, and on the label it said it was the first fat tire served legally in chicago.

 

you are referring to bricks pizza. great pie! great bar.

 

Nope.

 

yep, that's the one. love the sweet heat.

 

Is there a Pizza Advocate web site?

 

Tony Magee's Twitter comments:

"Saw today that a brewer from San Diego 'announced' a some unnamed larger craft brewer was gonna be giving a lot of free beer to retailers."

"This was going to be happening in Chicago. 1st bizarre thing: people thought he knew what he was talking about. 2nd: that anyone cared."

"We're allocating beer everywhere means; none to give away. Ya can usually tell what folks are most guilty of by what they accuse others of."

 

Magee vs Koch in a no rope barbed wire electrified cage of death match. Time to settle the score Japan death match style. Enough of this back and forth Internet shit talking garbage!

 

Saw magees tweet earlier, was kinda bummed he used the same facebook ambiguity as koch. But count me in as patiently awaiting koch's rebuttal

 

To throw some more fuel on the rumor fire, Boulevard just switched to the MillerCoors family of distributors in Chicago apparently.

 

Windy City was sold to Reyes Holdings in December. Reyes also owns Chicago Beverage Systems, part of the MillerCoors distribution network.

 

Wow. Mcgee is not at all shy about throwing down a gauntlet and havin it rattle around on the floor, is he?

 

Yes, but Boulevard was formerly distributed by Fox Deluxe, not Windy City.

As for Lagunitas, I can't even get all of the cases I order. If they can't keep up with demand, why the fuck would they give beer away for free? Sense, this makes none.

Edit: By the above, I mean to say that the allegation against Lagunitas is bogus, just to be clear.

 

I wonder if Greg's ambiguity is biting him in the ass. It's possible he's not referring to Lagunitas right? In which case be probably should have named names or said nothing at all.