I was at the main Specs in midtown Houston today trying to land some Speedway Stout, which according to their crack website was 'available' at the Smith location. Nope. Beer person there said AleSmith had pulled out of Houston. Anyone else catch wind of this?
Unaware, but the market is quite crowded at the moment so can't say I'm surprised. I feel this will be more prevalent in the next few years to see some of these guys retrench into the brewpub model and stay closer to home with all the new local options available.
I heard it was also the case with epic and great divide.....i was told that' why we weren't getting triple barrel Baptist this year.....buddies in Austin got it so it' just Houston for some reason
NOOOOOO! I love Yeti and Big Bad Baptist! This, if true, is terrible news. As far as Ale Smith goes, they couldn't have done fantastically here with their $12+ 6 packs.
Alesmith's current TABC license expires in August of 2019. Meaning they got another one approved in August of 2017. I would find it hard to believe they are pulling out less than 4 months after they spend money on another license. I would just assume the Spec's guy is either misinformed or it is a Houston only thing.
To be fair, speedway seems to be a shelf turd in Houston for some reason. It's very recent that the speedway i see sitting on shelves isn't the original batch that showed up in the market.
I sorta think it is that way across the US. It is a great beer, but it doesn't exactly fly off the shelves anywhere anymore.
Alesmith just dropped Ben-E-Keith as there distributor for Austin and they're now distributed by Capitol Wright and I do not see them going away as we now started getting fresh batches of there 6pk cans and hopefully more in future -
That’s good to hear. I was wondering what happened. I noticed bottles not being restocked at my HEB.
Flood brought Fifty/fifty eclipse to Texas, and keeping Speedway available in Texas just makes life better.
Just picked up some cans of Speedway Stout at Craft Beer Cellar and they mentioned having a new distributor. Hopefully, Alesmith freshens up their lineup with some new offerings for our area, instead of resting on the laurels of their regulars. Competition is tough out there now and savvy brewers are aware of the fickleness of craft brew drinkers who always seem to be craving the newest variant brews out there.
I just got back from San Diego and it was great being able to get pours of their new seasonals and barrel aged beers, including Speedway variants. They're a truly amazing and classy brewery. It would be incredible if their Order of the Anvil membership shipped to TX. They're close with shipping to CA, AZ, NV, OR, WA, ID, NM available... but TX is always more difficult I'm assuming.
