Let's talk about distribution

You're not going to get very many concrete answers on a forum that's largely consumer-oriented. If you really want info, I'd suggest hitting one of the industry-oriented forums out there and bringing it up.

 

I'm gonna offer a not concrete offer for you. Breweries might value getting small allocations further afield with the idea that committed LA/OC consumers will already know them while they might be able to capture some valuable beer geek attention in NorCal.
Beyond that my limited interaction with beer distribution has taught me that it's quite the labyrinthine endeavor and not for the faint of heart

 

A reason to skip out on distro in Southern California is force consumers into taprooms. However Stone will be distributing MIkkeller brewery release beers towards the end of the year.

There are more reasons. But that's a main one.

 

maybe they have seen stronger sales in the SF area compared to LA....

 

Breaking into a market requires lots of time, money and patience. And after all the effort there is no guarantee that the beer will sell well or sell well enough at least. So it is not a casual decision. Once a beer is placed everyone involved needs to be assured that the pipeline is reliable. Given that the craft market seems to change weekly that is a big question mark.

But forget all that.

Dealing with distributors is notoriously difficult and I believe the typical brewer/owner looks forward to that exercise as much as the typical person tolerates buying a car from the dealership.
I think for a lot of successful craft breweries they consider themselves fortunate if they have a reliable marketplace to sell their beer. It's not like the macros where they must always sell sell sell at every last account every day. So as with so many other things in the beer world, blame the macros.

Cheers

 

I agree with Stevepat, I think its just so the brewery can capture the consumers who are further away, while the consumers who live closer can drive to the brewery for these special releases.
I'm also sure each brewery has their own reasons.
Distributors are like gangs, they have a ton of different licenses and own "turf" of where they can sell. That may be some sort of factor too. Possibly their contract with Stone is just for staple beers. Just some thoughts I'm throwing out.

 

I kinda like the limited, maybe once distribution from breweries that give me a taste of their beers. For instance, Liquor Shed got a small drop of beers from Walnut River in El Dorado in Kansas. Fresh and most likely to sell out before the beer goes beyond its best by date, whatever that is as I see no dating on their cans

 

Apologies if this duplicates someone else.

I'd suggest that it might involve either or both of two factors. One is a capacity limitation. RR gets all the way to Philly and we seem to be the only distro site east of Denver. Why? Because of a friendship between the brewer and a local Bar owner and trust in a distributor who is in fact fairly responsible in treating those beers as the brewer requests. RR is in a position to "request" of their distributor that their beers not go anlonger to a particular retailer not be supplied in the future who fails to handle their beers.

So to enter a new distro area a responsible brewer will have enough capacity to keep suppling existing customers while they expand distro. Also to go into a new area they need to be willing to sign a contract with a distributor. If there is no distributor in you area the trust to handle their beers, why go there.

Don't know if this applies to your particular case, but it has been the case before so....

 

I don't know the logistics of CA beer, but could the two regions have different distributors? As someone else previously mentioned, I think most small/mid sized breweries enjoy dealing with distributors about as much as they enjoy going to the dentist. Some distributors can be notoriously difficult to deal with, and I think we'd all be shocked at the lack of detailed knowledge some of them display in their portfolios. It's been a few years, but I remember speaking to one bottle shop near me that was tempted to refuse any products from a particular distributor because they were an older company that really didn't understand the nuances of storage/shipping conditions of various styles, so quality and freshness was a constant argument (this IPA is 6 months old and warm, I'm not wasting shelf space on it). I imagine a brewery might have the same concerns if they couldn't trust a distributor to handle their products in a reliable manner.

 

Having been a distributor I can tell you that is likely due to limited supply to begin with. I used to sell some very sought after beers and serviced all of North Carolina. I had to allocate products all of the time and I did take care of my best customers. There were always pissed off customers thinking that they deserved the lion's share. I was as fair as I could be. I even sold Cantillon by the bottle to spread it around as much as possible. That's one possibility..

 

I can answer this- Why would anyone in the LA/OC area want to drink anything other than Bottle Logic, Monkish and Modern Times? If I'm a SD area brewer I know I'm just going to be the Jan Brady of that market.

 

I've always gotten the impression that LA is a much more immature market than San Diego or the Bay Area. LA consumers seem to ape the trends of the northeastern United States rather than follow California's own much longer and deeper-established beer culture and traditions (hence the outsized popularity of the likes of Monkish, Three Chiefs, and Bottle Logic). If the San Diego breweries skipping distribution in the LA area tend to be making more sophisticated fare, I could easily see them not going to the trouble of trying to establish themselves in a market that they have reason to believe won't appreciate them.