Why are brewers taking months between IPA bottling and availability?

Most likely has to do with your location and local distro. This is pretty typical sadly, I see both of these products within 2-4 weeks of bottling.

 

As suggested by @AZBeerDude72 the basic problem seems to start with the distribution network after the beer leaves the brewery. The beer is purchased first by a distributor who then re-sells it to the retailers. (Sometimes State Law says that's the only way to do it.) Sometimes distributors take a while to get the beer onto the shelves, especailly if they have a lot of inventory built up since most operate on FIFO (First in First Out) when doing distribution. In addition the retailer has to order the beer from the distributor and may choose not to do so until they've mostly sold other IPAs so they have the space on their shelves to stock the new beer. Finally there are a number of consumers who basically one-and-done purchasers. If there are a lot of those it takes a while to sell the full case of beer bottle by bottle, each to a different customer.

 

its the distributor , i bet. friends of mine would drop off their beer, and another pal who works at the distro kept track. took 3 weeks before the first case went out and the local mom and pop stores were wanting it,

they self distribut now so no more b shit

 

I noticed that with the Oskar Blues/Cigar City Bamburana beer. It was hitting shelves every where but here in East Tennessee. I was man we’re only 2 hrs from NC. What the heck. It finally showed up though.

 

Sad that its 6-7 weeks old “fresh”. These big beers don't age well imo, so it’s grievous imo that this happens. Surely it’s not a brewery problem, they certainly aren’t stacking it up on their docks, so I’d assume it’s a distributor problem like most problems tend to be.

 

Shiner released one of their Brewers Pride series, a Double IPA. It took it almost 3 months before it showed up in Houston, distributors were sitting on it. Now on the other hand, when I was at Hop Jam(beer festival) in Tulsa back in May, Shiner had a booth and were serving a keg of their Fresh Hop IPA that they had saved off. I didn't have the heart to tell them they shouldn't have done that, they brewed that beer back in October.

 

And this sort of behavior is motivating folks to purchase beer directly from their small, local breweries instead.

Cheers!

 

Well said!!

 

Some of SN's beers are bottle conditioned. I have heard SNPA and Celebration are among them, maybe that is also the case with Hoptimum.

 

Distributors. I have seen beers languish in the warehouse for weeks before the distributor gives the green light for release. Sometimes they sit on a product and wait until another release is over to start selling the beer. For instance, there aren't many IPAs released from distributors during the week or two around the time Hopslam is released. Holidays will also delay beers hitting the shelves. Not many new beers hit the shelves during the summer holidays, everybody is more concerned with stocking stores with core brands so if a new beer comes in the week before July 4th, its gonna sit for a minute.

 

What always amazes me to this day is that you would think a brewery would make an effort to thwart this issue or least try to. I know if I owned a brewery and my product was time sensitive I would want it out for consumption ASAP due to its flavors fading over time and making the product less than what it was. Now this does not have to be every beer put out since a lot of them do hold up well I am talking about the ones with 90 day life spans or NEIPA with even less like 6 weeks, distro should fast track these items for the brewery.
Not sure why there is this riff, I would think both parties would work in harmony since they all work in the industry with each other but I guess that is asking too much lol.
Cheers to fresh beer.

 

One would think the inability for some distributors to get fresh product into the market would give brewers more ammo to overturn the 3 tier system.

 

Agree, I am blown away we even have to have this conversation. In today's competitive world I would think if folks cannot perform they would either be replaced or made to conform. Shocking to see that distro can basically hold hostage breweries. So is this a union thing? I am no longer in a union state so to say so are the distro guys all union and do they use this power to hold breweries hostage? Sounds like this is the old play by our rules or you won't play at all game I was so familiar with back in Chicago when I was involved in the unions.
Cheers

 

Well there is some hope, NC is going to increase the barrelage of craft brewers to about 2x the amount before you must use a distributor. For what ever reason that exists to any degree eludes me, but it’s a step in the right direction. So another step to self distribution and free from assholes ruining your beer.

 

One of the 'challenges' here is the sale of alcoholic beverages is a highly regulated industry (read: state by state legislation). Many states require that distributed beer be sold by a 'middle man' (i.e., Wholesale Distributors). Some states will permit a brewery to self-distribute but that is likely only for the case of an instate brewery distributing within that state.

For the sake of discussion let's discuss a larger, distributing brewery like Sierra Nevada. Sierra Nevada has something like 200+ 'partner' Wholesale Distributors that they have various business agreements (contracts) with. Each of those Wholesale Distributors have a monopoly to sell Sierra Nevada products in their established region. Those Wholesale Distributors can decide to 'hold back' sales of a Sierra Nevada seasonal or one-off beer until they sell out the last season's beer - retailers will not be provided with the fall seasonal beers until the Wholesale Distributor sells out all of the summer product that is 'clogging' up their warehouse floor. Maybe those Wholesale Distributors should not have ordered so much of the summer seasonal (or Sierra Nevada should not have sent them so much)? Regards of the reason(s) here those Wholesale Distributors are going to refuse to send out the 'new' beers until they completely get rid of the 'old' product.

As consumers we have choices here. If we desire to drink fresh beer just go to the plethora (and ever growing number) of small, local breweries near us. Let the beer stores remain a denizen of old beers which unsuspecting (or ignorant or uncaring) beer consumers can buy.

Cheers!

 

The distributors are some of the biggest donors to PACs and political campaigns in the country. A rep once told me a percentage of his pay is deducted and put towards basically keeping 3 tiers in place.

 

Exactly, this is all a power game and the distro made the laws to favor them. They own the political people who make the laws which give them complete control.

 

Those limits were (and will be) in place because of the lobbying efforts of the North Carolina Beer & Wine Association (see link below).

An optimist might say that expanding the limit two-fold is ‘progress’. A beer consumer that prefers a free market would say that there should be absolutely no limit (25,000 or 50,000 or 100,000 barrels of production) – any North Carolina brewery should be permitted to self-distribute regardless of size.

Cheers!

https://ncbeerwine.com/