Silver Eagle Boycott

With all due respect, if you don't return that snifter, it's called stealing. If a bar starts losing tons of money because people keep stealing their snifters, maybe soon enough you'll be drinking wild ales out of Dixie Cups. This is in part why so many bars use shaker pints: they are cheap.

 

As always, Scott, you seem to have very rational responses to these issues.

 

Fixed one typo above:

"The truth of the matter is that in almost all cases, the cost of a keg deposit is significantly more than the replacement value of the keg." should read "is SIGNIFICANTLY LESS THAN" not more. (Edit button not working on the post with the copy/paste)

 

Many Austin bars pack away their "fancy" glassware during SXSW for this exact reason. We may do the same next year during SA beer week. We got robbed blind this year.

 

Many props to you Scott for throwing more light on this issue much appreciated

 

I agree, but I also wouldn't be against establishing a separate deposit tier for ABI products (if it's true that they're the sole reason for the increase). Silver Eagle already distinguishes between ABI and non-ABI kegs on their invoices. I don't want to see different deposit amounts for each individual brewery, but I don't think just adding one tier would complicate things too much for beer buyers at establishments that carry both craft and macro. Again though, I don't mind the current system. I just came to this line of thinking after I remembered seeing "Deposit, non-AB" on our Silver Eagle invoices.

Edit: After looking again, I realized that I was wrong. Ben E. Keith has the separate SKU for non-AB deposits, not Silver Eagle.

 

Great post, Scott! Where can I buy your cans in Houston so that I can continue to support you?

 

Cans coming this fall!

 

Fuck ABI!...until November.



Scott, you're awesome as always.

 

Would it make sense for the brewery to charge full amount of the cost of a keg to the distributor, and then the distributor charges a deposit to a bar? I imagine it's difficult for a bar to just lose a keg. Thoughts?

 

Major love to Scott for that post. I hope all involved and consumers have a chance to read. I am trying to keep Good Beer Houston out of the opinion sides of this but had to RT as it is a true perspective of one of Houston's new craft brewery entrants that so many consumers here want to try...as I write this I am sitting at Freetail's pub off 1604

 

What would be really interesting is if consumers took the side of our favorite local brewers and only patronized restaurants and bars that carried them. I wonder how long Petrol and Hay Merchant would hold out then.

 

I don't think anyone here is trying to screw those bars over. We just disagree with their general stance on things, I hope the best for them either way.

 

I guess I'm going to have to be Captain Obvious here. Keg deposits should not be a collective risk pool. However, Silver Eagle is making it just that. It is substantially unreasonable for one brewery, large or small, to force inflation on the free market. If Inbev chooses to demand more for their deposits, it should be for Inbev products alone. It is up to the breweries to pressure Silver Eagle on this. The $70 keg deposit will be statewide by October if the retailers don't stand and fight now.
If Silver Eagle's large venue customers are careless with their empty keg shells, why should the smaller retailers be penalized? This is a problem of accountability on the big monopoly distributor.

 

Might be the Molé Temptress im drinking right now but that has to be the best thought out/composed post I've read on BA. I can see both sides of the issue and hope an amicable agreement can be reached soon for everyone's benefit - short term and long term.

 

I agree with you, I was just attempting to imply that Petrol and Hay Merchant can sometimes make knee jerk reactions that they expect everyone to rally behind. I will continue to enjoy beer from both locations but I would be curious to see how quickly they change their minds once it begins to affect the bottom line.

 

Whatever, Petrol needs to make room for Brash kegs anyway.

 

My opinion, and only my opinion, is that this doesn't really solve the problem, it only shifts the cost of keg loss from the brewer to the distributor. While that fixes MY problem, I actually want my distributor to be successful, very successful, at selling my beer. The more successful they are at selling my beer, the more successful my brewery is and the more of my beer you guys are drinking. I want them spending more money on trucks, refrigerated space and marketing to distribute even MORE of my beer, and forcing the loss upon them works counter to that.

Sure, big distributors make LOTS of money, but does that automatically mean they should eat the cost of keg loss that happens downstream of them? Bars lose kegs. Sometimes it's because they are dirty and selling them on the side for more than they bought them for (this is illegal, and should be reported to the authorities, btw. But it doesn't stop it from happening). Sometimes they get stolen. Sometimes it gets returned to the wrong distributor.

In the end, as a brewer, I like a system that puts responsibility on those who are "renting the keg". My risk would be 100% covered if the deposit was greater than the replacement cost, but I accept a lower deposit amount to "share" the risk with the wholesalers and retailers who buy my beer.

 

Is there such a thing as vaporbeer? I will believe it when I see it!!

 

I think treating each supplier's deposits differently is one solution, but one I find more troublesome than it's worth (as I discussed above). Keg loss isn't an issue that is specific to one supplier or one venue, and it is difficult to pin it on any one actor. Small retailers lose kegs too, but they've never been charged back for the value of that keg. We can go that route, but who do you think is hurt more in that instance? 99% of bar owners want to get those gets back to their owners, but losses can still happen. It's the small guy who wants to do right but loses a few kegs that will be hurt most, not a stadium.

I think there would be a market for "keg insurance" - a policy that wholesalers and retailers carry that breweries can make a claim against when there are losses. That's a free market solution, but effectively does what we already do now (pool the risk).

My $0.02