Pittsburgh - New Beers & Local Breweries

Always wondered- is your username a TMWSIY refernce?

 

Nowhere near that interesting unfortunately. Came from my law school buddies back from my years in Buffalo and just stuck with me.

On an unrelated note, made it to Trax today and tried to buy a Evil Twin Double Fudge. They said I had to make a food purchase with it. Is that a thing? Is that only because it was a bomber as opposed to a four pack? I was pleasantly surprised by the selection but Steel City is clearly the star of the show. Hope that they stick with it. Places like that have a way of falling off after a good start.

 

I could be mistaken, but I thought the food-with-purchase was only a requirement for onsite consumption within those "cafe" settings like Trax, Gianteagle, etc. regardless of size of beer. Otherwise it may just be a family policy.

 

We are certainly trying to keep places stocked with good beer. Out of curiosity, is your falling off comment about Steel City? The reason I ask is that there hasn't been another person that tried to start a wholesale business like this. We will keep the good beers and brands coming for sure!

 

Not speaking for him but from my perspective, my fear is that there are only so many new brands you guys can bring in before the plateau. You're obviously a great addition to the local market and I'm excited to see where it progresses but I wonder how many brands you can realistically bring in (Firestone for the love of god) before you hit that ceiling.

 

I read it as he meant Trax, as a bottle shop location.

 

I see Steel City as continuing to progress, but I also hope that their success encourages the other wholesalers to get off of their asses and bring better craft to town too. Then we all benefit.

Of course it doesn't hurt that Steel City has already brought some of my favorites to town in their initial waves.

 

Pretty sure Fuhrer would be the only ones who could bring in FW, since they're under Duvel-Moortgat USA.

 

I completely agree with you here. I think thats what happened with the wholesalers we had here. We are just going to work to get as much new beer within the brands we have and slowly add others. We want to, and have been, be selective with the brands we bring in to make sure they are popular enough to sell. We have been approached by a decent amount of breweries that aren't well known across the country and would take a lot of work to sell it here. Our focus, as beer lovers, is to get the brands people not only know, but want.

 

If there was ever a business model I could get behind...

It seems your common sense approach isn't shared by your competition. Not trashing breweries but I will never quite be able to comprehend why there are so many brands like Arcadia that wholesalers push to market and then do nothing with. They sit on shelves for months on end and can't seriously be generating revenue for the wholesaler or the retailer. Just strikes me as a very shortsighted decision to take on breweries like that. At the GE by my office, they have a solid 6ft of linear shelf space dedicated to Arcadia packed with 4/6pks 3-4 deep that I don't think I've ever seen it not 100% full. I'm just using them as an example but could easily name a dozen other brands with the same issue.

 

So what you're saying is I shouldn't get my hopes up.

 

I was definitely referring to Trax not you guys. Keep up the great work.

 

+1 to Firestone

What would it take to get Shelton Bros. back in Pgh?

 

So, I bugged Vecenie about this on Facebook and this is what they said:

"As we are sure you know , we used to distribute from Shelton years ago. However , we do not have the rights to them anymore . Perhaps reach out to them if you can and tell them you want them back in Pittsburgh . Cheers !"

However, someone else I know (who is highly informed on this kind of stuff) had this to say in response to their post:

"I don't understand that because wholesale contracts in PA are lifetime contracts unless the wholesaler agrees to terminate. Wholesalers can "trade" breweries without much say from the brewery being traded."

So, either this is the truth, Vecenie lied, Shelton doesn't care about Pittsburgh, neither side even knows what the controversy was in the first place anymore, or all three. Seems like we'll just get the run-around until the apocalypse.

 

I've been trying to figure it out for years. Both sides seem to have no clue or at least won't say it publicly. Shelton is known for pulling out of cities. I don't think their stuff sold extremely well when they were here but that was a different climate than it is today. If I'm Steel City I'd be working 24/7 on figuring out if Shelton is Interested and if they can get the rights. They fit right in their wheelhouse and would offer unique beers that aren't just another random IPA on the shelf. They fill a huge hole in the market here and the opportunity for growth with them in the area is huge. Also they are still small/young so they would be able to push Shelton more than Vencenie could.

 

Couldn't agree more. With the breweries steel city is currently bringing in, FW would fit right in and be the best thing to happen to beer in this region in a long time imo.

 

Shelton is notoriously something else. They have aire about them.

 

FW is owned by Duvel, so Fuher would have to bring them in.

 

Drinking a apple whisky Felix at shadyside market district. It's great

 

https://twitter.com/VoodooBrewery/status/771868748009447424