Silver Eagle Boycott

I'm not falling for this. We all know that SE and AB are in this together to crush craft beer. All that investment SE has been making the last several years growing their portfolio is all just a clever disguise to help AB. They want to lure producers in a growing market just to ultimately stomp them out with AB keg price increases. I bet they hired you at a craft bar and got you to join this site just so you could fool us. But you can't fool this group. We may not know anything about the business (or apparently business in general), but thankfully we have Petrol and Hay Merchant to tell us the truth. I bet Scott is even in on this. And to think I trusted the well thought out and substantiated opinion of a brewery who just signed with SE in Houston.

 

Uhhhh... if bars don't destroy, illegally sell, lose, whatever they do to make kegs disappear, SE makes nothing. And let's not forget, ABI is the brewery large enough to be able to charge a larger deposit. Smaller breweries that hurt more from keg loss don't have the market power to be able to charge the higher deposit they'd benefit from. The ABI deposit hike allows smaller breweries to increase their price and remain competitive. And even if they don't, they still indirectly benefit from fewer lost kegs. (Law of Demand, price goes up, quantity demanded goes down. The price for being careless with ALL kegs has gone up, so carelessness with ALL kegs will go down.) Seriously. Why is the conversation, "In the unlikely event small breweries don't start charging the higher deposit, SE will pocket $10 everytime a bar destroys a local breweries keg, rar!" and not, "Why are bars so incapable of disrespecting the property of breweries that the price hike is necessary?"

 

I feel like bars and other venues that lose kegs should be charged full cost for them, and bars that don't lose kegs should be charged a modest deposit. I don't understand why someone who loses the keg is solely out the deposit.

And no offense to craft beer bars, but bars that sit on kegs for more than a certain amount of time to "age" them should also be charged some sort of modest fee for that (I'm thinking $5-10 every six months or something). Those bars do that to make the beer more valuable. Since the brewer needs to eat the keg cost (financing cost) while the bar sits on the keg, the brewer should probably share in that benefit at least a little.

Also, ABI shouldn't be able to dictate a higher deposit for ALL kegs at SE. They don't seem to be able to do that at other less beholden distributors. And I can't believe that keg loss is unique or especially prevalent in Houston relative to other big cities. So yeah, it's BS that SE and ABI did this. I don't hear Karbach and St. Arnold applauding this decision and raising their keg deposits (though they probably should if SE is going to be charging that anyway).

 

I don't think anyone disagrees.

The brewer can also just set the price of those beers to include whatever costs they'll incur due to bars sitting on the kegs. Weird surcharges and different deposit amounts are unnecessary, but not objectionable.

ABI isn't dictating anything but the price of their deposits. SE sets their deposit price. Keg loss isn't unique to Houston. Based on "for sale" ads on CL, bars all over the nation steal and resale kegs. I assume they sit on aging kegs and destroy them as well. Not sure I see your point. Low deposits in other cities don't mean the deposits here are "wrong"... or "BS". And let's be real, if any of the local breweries said, "We support SE!" or "We support ABI!" that would be political suicide. They are doing exactly what they should... keeping their pretty little mouths shut. LOL, but the one brewery who did speak out was exceptionally quick to point out that the deposit hike isn't actually "BS". So there's that. Seriously, this benefits small breweries, they just can't come out and say it. If they're smart, they'll quietly hike deposits.

 

Nevermind the fact that 3 of the distributors who stood with the WBDT against Silver Eagle and craft brewers are also ABI distributors (Brown, L&F, and L&F-owned Desert Eagle). ABI doesn't do craft favors, period. They do what's in their best interests, and sometimes those interests just happen to overlap with the interests of craft brewers. And in this case, as hihocherio pointed out, there is no apparent downside for craft breweries as a result of this deposit increase. So if anything, ABI was doing the breweries a favor when they increased their deposits, albeit coincidentally.

 

I should also point out that a lot of keg loss probably comes from retailers, ie liquor stores who sell them directly to consumers. How many college parties have kegs and how many of them lose their receipts or damage the kegs?

 

That depends on whether or not throwing empty kegs like Donkey Kong damages them