Toppling Goliath expansion through Brew Hub (FL)

http://brewhub.com/whats-on-tap/

Brew Hub brews and cans Jai Alai for Cigar City. Looks like they are going to be doing the same for Toppling Goliath now.

 

I'm aware of that, but seems like an odd play. Very well could be why Mike left.

 

I'm bet with about 99.9% certainty that if this has been "in the works" for months, then it was the final straw and the reason Mike left and I don't blame him one bit. If they are indeed going to have "most" of their beer produced, packaged and shipped back to the Midwest for sale, that's a major loss in Quality Control over your product and is a lot of things out of TGs control. Seems like a very odd move and one that shows they are only trying to get as big as possible, as quickly as possible. Just keep growth slow and steady. Keep it in house and don't be controlled by hype and demand. Keep accounts happy and you will grow just fine in due time.

 

So TG built a new brewery a short while ago and are now contract brewing in FL? Weird.

 

So this is where Pseudo will most likely be canned?

 

Remember the tweet about cans? One way to not buy a canning machine is to contract brew.

 

I guess I'm talking about freshness in product, not really actual QC (lab testing, etc). Right now, almost anyone in the current TG distribution footprint can get PseudoSue that is 1-2 days old after bottling. If they are going to produce, bottle, and ship it back to the Midwest, that's a loss in freshness (just due to shipping time alone) and who knows how the beer will be handled during shipment?

 

[Lando]This deal keeps getting worse all the time.[/Lando]

 

515 Brewing, please take a step forward!

 

It will be stored cold according to their website....

Pseudo is a fragile beer IMHO and needs to be consumed as fresh as possible. It seems to fall off from my experience. This whole thing should be interesting. Might explain why TG is bottling several of their other beers now?

 

They've slowly been creeping closer and closer to taking over TG as my favorite Iowa brewery. Once growler fills are flowing and I can drink it at home....done deal!

 

I would prefer to see them doing this out of Decorah but if its true to word that its cold stored in cans and kegs I'm a bit less wary of it. Most of my concern is how long the turn around time is from getting it from Florida to Iowa. When and if production moves to St.louis that concern really isn't there for me, you can still get your <10 day old beer pretty quick would be my guess. My question is will they be self distributing still or is it going to go through a distributor now? Combination of a distributor plus getting product from Florida could add some time to it. But in the end I'm not going to cast judgement till the product is in my hand and I can taste it, if it tastes the same...awesome. If it doesn't then go get your pitchforks and torches out, but hold out till you taste it.

 

I could also see this move to get around hop contracts. These have to be planned out sometimes years in advanced. Off load this to a contract brewer that has the goods already and most likely has more buying power. I will use Indeed as an example. They can't brew let it Ride year round since they can get the hops.

Added bonus is, by moving your staple out, it allows TG to brew more experimental/special beers at the brewery.

 

Wow some people are sensitive. How is this anything other than good news for TG's distro footprint?

It means more Sue for everyone (and most likely at a lower price point in cans) while opening up the brewery in Decorah to make more cool stuff that we bitch about them not making enough of. If you move the Sue production out suddenly you have open tanks to brew King Sue, Sosus, etc.

Big win for the consumer.

 

If you check an earlier thread on this site, it doesn't even taste the same batch to batch coming out of TG!

 

If cold storage during shipment and during delivery are part of the process, then I'm more on board. If this is where TG cans are coming from, I'm even more on board. Still don't see the need to grow so quickly, but it's not my business, so whatevs!