Jester King in California!

I spend a good deal of time in So. Cal. Both food and beer at Urge are very good, even by SD standards. This is a great complement for JK and shows that Texas beers have come a long way in the last five years.

 

Hi folks,

We appreciate the discussion, and just wanted to add a couple of points of clarification to help set the record straight. So far, we've sent two separate "one-off" shipments to California, and though we may send others in the future, if and when circumstances permit, we don't have any immediate plans of opening up more regular distribution there or anywhere else outside of Texas until we're confident in our ability to keep up with local demand.

The first shipment that we sent, in early January, contained original Wytchmaker and Black Metal. The second contained Petit Prince, Noble King, Thrash Metal, and a little more Wytchmaker. In both cases, the decision to ship the beer was prompted largely by a need to make room at the brewery so that we wouldn't have to slow down production. In the case of the second shipment, these were new beers for the TX market as well, but we were still waiting for TABC label approval and couldn't sell them locally until we received it. In order to proceed with our next scheduled bottling, we needed to clear out four pallets worth of space, so, in order to do that, we decided to offer Lime Ventures, the California distributor with whom we'd previously works, what amounted to a fairly small portion of what we had in stock.

Why California? In part because it's a big market, giving us a greater opportunity to get our beers into the hands of more people, in part because it's reasonably easy and inexpensive to do business there (unlike Texas), in part because there are no franchise laws locking us in with whichever distributor we choose to use (also unlike Texas), and perhaps most of all, because we really like and trust the guys at Lime to represent our products the way we'd like to see them represented. In addition to California, we've also sent a couple of small, one-off shipments to Illinois and Europe, and again, may send others in the future.

For the record, I feel compelled to point out once again that the reason that you, or I should say, we can't buy so many of the beers that we might like to buy here in Texas is because of the licensing fees and structure here. Breweries, both U.S. and foreign, wanting to ship 10bbl a year or less in TX, of which there are many in California would end up paying over $300 per standard case equivalent to do so. We feel very strongly that for Texas to be able to compete with the likes of California when it comes to craft beer, this needs to change, and that Texans ought to have the same access to beers from any breweries wishing to do business here as residents in other states. This is why, as part of our lawsuit against the TABC, we insisted on including an action challenging the way that foreign breweries were regulated. Unfortunately, that was one of the actions that we didn't win.

If you want better access to out of state beers, we strongly suggest that you join Open the Taps <openthetaps.org>, and let them know that this is a priority.

Cheers,
Ron Extract
Jester King

 

Hey guys thanks for the response. It makes perfect sense when you put it that way. Wish Jester King the best of success in other markets! I am curious what the timetable for future releases are. I guess Mad Meg is waiting on label approval, but how soon can we expect Bonnie the Rare and Boxer's Revenge in bottles? Also is Sour Black Metal in bottles a possibility?

Thanks for putting all of your great brews in bottles and I wish that other breweries in TX would put the effort that you do into bottling everything!

 

Just wanted to chime in here as a SoCal native who just happened to see this thread. I have seen Black Metal (original), Wytchmaker (original), Thrash Metal, and Noble King all for sale in stores around me. All bottles have been right around $10. I already tried the Black Metal through a trade and I picked up a Wytchmaker. After seeing these shipments are just a one-time deal, I am going to go pick up the Thrash Metal and Noble King. Hopefully I can find the Petit Prince too. Keep up the good work JK and hopefully we can get regular distribution in the future!

 

While we may see occasional stores selling JK for $10 in TX,(a couple whole foods stores do), we see a bit of retailer mark-up. Your average bottle of JK here is $11.99/12.99. That's what I see at all SPECS and HEB locations.

 

It sucks when beer made in your state is cheaper in other states.

 

I don't have exact pricing but I seem to remember Petite Prince being the least expensive(similar to Commercial Suicide) at around $7.50 at Specs/HEB..Das was ~$14/($13.65 or something at HEB), Black Metal and Thrash around $10 and Wytchmaker & Noble King around $8-$9. At least here in Austin.

 

That's similar pricing to what we saw here in Dallas. I believe Das Wunderkind was $13.99 at most locations. Black Metal tends to run $9.99-10.99 in most spots, and I haven't paid as much attention to Wytchmaker/Thrash/Noble King pricing.

 

wytch: 8.99
thrash: 11.99
noble king: 8.99
petite: 7.99
black metal: 11.89

prices where I have seen it.

 

Just goes to show just how very much prices can differentiate everywhere.

 

I just found a lone bottle of thrash metal for $9.36 at specs in round rock. Made the descision for me to finally pick up a bottle to try much easier.