Great Notion

No.

Yes.

 

Sasquatch made a Brut IPA "hey there fancy pants"

Did absolutely nothing for me, especially next to Georgetown Citrus Galaxy.

 

If that's the case, that means someone muled a bunch of cases down from Great Notion & they're reselling them, which I'm fairly certain is not legal.

 

Depends on the label. If a brewery is just gonna sell on-site, they don't full TTB approval. If someone bought brewery-only labeled product, and is retailing them, that's where the problem lies.

 

I'm on my phone, so may not have typed it out clearly. If a brewery is doing a brewery only release, those labels don't have go through the same process as labels that are going through distro.

In HotDs case, I suspect that their labels have full TTB approval, and MoC picking them up is just a form of self-distribution on HotDs part(I don't think it matters whose truck the beer rides in).

Now, if GN (or whatever brewery ) only had labels for on-site sales, and the store came and bought them, at retail, then resold them, that might not be kosher.

I don't know if GN self-distributes or not, so there's details we're missing that effect the situation. That clear things up?

 

I'm sorry John, I meant to clarify that the breweries, if they choose, can be licensed to self-distrubute. Which would allow HotD to sell to whoever. I don't know if retail outlets are allowed to also be distributors.

 

I was wondering about how cans of GN made it to Salem too. I'm certain that Great Notion (as soon as the hype of the new facility dies down) will look into self distribution or signing with a local distributor. But this soon into the game sounds like someone is Muling and Reselling which is definitely not legal from what my understanding of the 3 tier system is.

Of course if it's a new brewery perhaps the brewers are friends with Great Notion and it was a favor for their opening??

 

Just to muddy the waters further, I've seen a few BA HOTD beers for sale in at least one location in LA. The beers were Otto and Putin. I'd already had both of them, so to be honest I didn't pay much attention. But I will admit I was surprised to see them on shelves so far from home.

 

When did Hair of the Dog stop distributing? I know ~10 years ago I used to see their product in the midwest.

Are we sure Great Notion doesn't have TTB label approval? Their labels seem to have all the required stuff if they were to submit them to the TTB.

 

No. There's a lot of moving parts that we here in peanut gallery don't know, and we're guessing, surmising, and talking maybes and what-ifs. You would think that with a production brewery coming on-line that they would be on this aspect, and thus those cans in Salem are legit.

Getting full TTB approval can be a bit trying, but it has improved since Battle retired and was replaced by more people. The lead time is down from around 90 days to around 30 these days, so it's not the headache it was. But, they will still send your design back if they don't like the font, font size, and whatever else is on their minds, and then, when you resubmit, you're at the back of the line again.

 

Great Notion has a distribution deal with someone up in the Seattle area. It's been kegs so far, but wouldn't be surprised to see cans down the road once they've got the big brewery up and running.

 

Contrary to what @Reidrover said, Hopheads/Capital Taproom is not a brewery. It's a taproom that does growler/crowler fills, and (I think) sells a small amount of packaged beer. I haven't been in since the ownership change, so I'm not sure what's going on there or what their relationship is with GN. I did see that Hopheads posted a pic of the GN cans they had for sale on their Instagram, and it was "liked" by Great Notion's IG page, so I don't know what's going on.

 

Well, I need to correct my first sentence (apologies to @Reidrover). Apparently Hopheads is taking over/purchasing Capital Taproom & is (or will be) adding a one barrel brewing system to the space. Seems like a tiny, weird spot for a brewery, but we'll see what happens.

 

Word.

 

John's Market had some BA HOTD stuff (Bourbon Fred I think) within the past couple months. It was hidden in the back as part of their hush-hush deal for regulars. I didn't go back there for it but know someone who did.