Ballast Point in Wisconsin

News is percolating that Ballast Point plans on expanding their distribution to Wisconsin later this year. While this is substantially more than a rumor, the plans do hinge on BP getting their new brewery up and running without a hitch.

I personally think this will be the biggest distribution acquisition Wisconsin has seen- their flagships can't be beat, their seasonals are great, and their beer is awesome on tap (especially if we land some specialty kegs/casks).

In the course of a year we'll have gained back Dogfish Head, and acquired Alesmith, Deschutes, and Green Flash. Still waiting on Stone, but they won't be far behind Ballast Point. Maybe Kuhnhenn, Cigar City, and Great Divide will take note- Wisconsin loves to buy great craft beer.

Still waiting on some Deschutes bombers...

 

Yeah- it didn't surprise me when I heard about that. Seems like it was equal parts Wisconsinite brand loyalty, Stone not fully committing to marketing/sampling/distributing to all of the state, and Wisco being not quite ready for those big, hoppy West Coast beers. The scene here sure has changed since then. I think they'd be welcomed back with open arms.

 

It seems crowded, but it's about 1/2 the distribution that I was experiencing to in San Diego. I don't think we've reached our saturation point yet. Shops might have to add an extra aisle for craft beer, but that's a good problem to have. Of course, the breweries that don't sell should lose shelf space (does anyone actually buy Big Bay, Horny Goat or Flying Dog?). Some local breweries will be forced to up their game when Deschutes & Ballast Point roll in, I think that's another great side effect of expanded distribution. I say breweries like Wisconsin Brewing Co, Capitol, and Lakefront should risk losing shelf space to Ballast Point, Alesmith (although we rarely see a fresh batch) and Deschutes if they can't keep up, beer-wise. I'm playing a bit of devil's advocate here- I love Lakefront and thought that Johnson was a great stab at a IIPA, damn good while it was fresh.

We've already seen Wisco brewers get markedly better at working with hops over just the past year. I never would have imagined Lake Louie Bunny Green Toe being as good as it is, or even NG Scream IIPA being literally World-Class. But with Toppling Goliath on one side, Surly on another, and Half Acre/Revolution/FFF on another, and expanded distribution coming in from CA and CO, our local brewery scene will only keep getting better, even if it means that some breweries will fail.

 

As much as I love trading for regional beers, there are some brands that are so established that I want them here in Wisco. Stone & Ballast Point are two of them. I love that you can only get Heady Topper, Lawson's, and HF in VT, Alpine in CA, Rare Barrel in SF, etc. I don't want every beer to be available (I do think breweries lose quality control when they expand Nationally) but I do want the classics here so that our brewers can drink them, examine them, and try to best them.

 

There is vicious brand loyalty in Wisconsin, and I agree that Lakefront and Capitol will be just fine. But you do see them fighting to diversify their selection as waves of bigger, better beers sweep into the state. For Lakefront, it meant launching the My Turn series (a brilliant move, if sometimes misguided from a business perspective) and focusing on bigger seasonals. For Capitol it means pushing out more IPA's than ever before. For New Glarus it means a marked increase in Thumbprint beers. It's not that they're going to lose sales on their mainline, traditional beers- people who buy Riverwest Stein, Supper Club, and Spotted Cow will continue to buy those beers. They're doing it because of the sales they are losing out on by not having those bigger, "popular" styles on the shelves. (It doesn't hurt that Spotted Cow is still one of the best-made "cream" ales in the country, and rather unique as a "farmhouse-ish" cream ale).

Wisco Brewing is a whole different beast. I've brought this up a few times on BA. They have a brilliant business plan designed around the increasing % of craft beer demand in Wisconsin, both now and over the next ten years. They figured out that demand will eventually overtake supply, and they plan on brewing as much of that "beer gap" as possible. They're also banking on the fact that people from Wisconsin love to drink beer made in Wisconsin. They're the "new" Ford of the American beer industry- We know people will want a solid, no frills experience drinking beer made here. So we'll put together a factory that puts out beers they are comfortable with and maybe add a nice extra every now and then to keep them drinking our beer. You can tell by the careful marketing and distribution plan the put into place as soon as they opened. No hand-drawn logos, no interesting beer names, nothing that could "scare" away a potential new customer. But I'll bet they have a few styles of IPA & IIPA in their future line-up, because somewhere in their business plan I'm sure they address the rise of "big beers" in Wisconsin.

I also wonder how Pearl Street, Horny Goat, Big Bay, Berghoff, and even 3 Sheeps can make a living selling their beers. Used to be you had to prove yourself in the brewery tasting room and on tap at local bars before you could bottle your beer and get it distributed by a big company into hundreds of shops & stores. As Wisconsin's average beer drinker becomes more educated about craft beer (or just beer in general) I expect many of those breweries to either start making better beer or to fold completely. Horny Goat probably won't, because their brewpub is insanely successful. Apparently "young people" like playing beach volleyball indoors while drinking borderline craft beer.

Distribution from out of state is important because it gives local brewers an idea of what their customers want to buy that they aren't already making. It's no coincidence that the recent increase in quality IPA's and IIPA's from Wisconsin is happening when National distribution of beers like Enjoy By, Sculpin, Alesmith IPA, Green Flash Palate Wrecker, Sierra Nevada's hop series, and Jai Alai are at an all-time high. And we're about to get hit with Surly. Our brewers are preparing to compete with those types of beers, because eventually (I would guess within 5 years) Wisconsin's palate will have swung heavily in favor of hops. I say that because I've seen it happen everywhere that craft beer has taken hold- CA, CO, Chicago, Asheville, Seattle...

I think Big Bay may have folded already- they closed their Shorewood tasting room and I haven't noticed them on the shelf in a while.

 

For some reason I thought they distributed out East?

 

I had a bottle of the Oaked IPA when it was really fresh and enjoyed. I bought two more and within a few weeks a ton of off-flavors had developed. I think they truly care about making good beer and will only get better over time. I'm admittedly not a fan of black IPA's (with the exceptions of Black Top and Deschutes Hop in the Dark), but I might have to try to track down a bottle of the sour.

 

I might have just caught an off bottle, top or bottom of a batch, who knows- I still have one in the cellar, so now I'm looking forward to opening it and seeing how it tastes.

 

Alesmith surprised me- they're much smaller capacity-wise than Ballast Point. BP is better, IMO, than Alesmith, Coronado, and even Stone. Although it would be great to get Stone's "nationally distributed" collabs and one-offs and seasonals without going through Chicago.

 

The only BP that will be expensive is Sculpin. It will run you over $13 for a 6-pack, but it is phenomenal.

The other 6-packs will run $8-10, and I would suspect that bombers will run $7-9 depending on the beer. BP distributes a ton to Costco in California, so maybe we could get lucky and see some bombers and 6-packs for even less.

Overall, it's an affordable beer, other than Sculpin. Even V@S bombers shouldn't be more than $8.