Former-Stone Berlin

Perhaps Greg Koch (@StoneGreg) can answer your question.

Cheers!

 

basically greg did his conkers on his berlin vanity project and has scuttled off back to escondido

 

There was a post from Stone Europe on Facebook a couple of days ago where they made a point of saying than none of their beer was contract brewed any more and it was all coming from Escondido.

Presumably the contract with BroDog (spit) to brew the Stone Berlin beers has now expired. Perhaps there were existing contracts with wholesalers to be fulfilled.

 

The Stone beers will still see distro in Europe as far as I know, and here in Czech Republic we are getting the regulars, plus now my local bottle shop posted they have just got Scorpion Bowl, Xocoveza, tangerine express, etc.

 

I remember visiting Stone Berlin and have good memories about the venue: bursting of enthusiasm, high quality beers, terrific venue, great potential. Yet, history has proven otherwise. Too bad!
How come Stone withdrew itself from Berlin after so much thinking over where to build their beer hub in Europe?
Maybe the should have come to Belgium instead. It would have been good to rock the cradle.

 

Mistaken thinking?

 

It was a business (financial) decision; Stone Berlin was not economically viable.

Do you think that there would have been enough Belgian customers willing to drink Stone beers in volume at the brewery? Would all of those customers have been willing to pay the high prices that Stone charged? Is the price of doing business (e.g., taxes, other expenses) economical?

Cheers!

 

Yup perfectly stated, and after reading this I had to watch the Beer Jesus on Amazon and Greg hit the nail on the head of why they failed, they did no market research, except he joked about it for some reason. In international business, there's too many case studies of US companies making this exact mistake, take what made them successful in the US and think other countries will react the same way. The Germans do not like their beer in cans, and they definitely don't like to pay high prices for any beer. When doing my weekly shopping trips at Kaufland, Stone was in small .33l cans and just shy of 2 euro, although the beer was good it seemed to usually be covered in dust and not moving.

 

I feel I must apoligize for my ignorant questions here.
I did not just have the correct knowledge the responders had about Stone Berlin.
So, my sincere apoligies if I was overstepping the line.
Moreover, to
JackHorzempa
How very true what you wrote! I agree with you that we Belgians (not even crazy beergeeks) would not be willing to pay high prices.

 

Does anybody know what BrewDog is charging for their beers produced at their Berlin location? How do these prices compare to what Stone charged in the recent past?

Cheers!

 

Not to sound like the Monday Morning Quarterback, but having lived in Germany for almost 20 years and working in the beverage industry in Germany and thereafter here in the US, I knew his model wouldn't work, and we spoke about it extensively here on BA. It wasn't hard to foresee actually, Stone made every possible mistake they could have made.

 

The stuff I've seen in Czech Republic ranges from around 2 - 3 euro for the IPAs, packaged in the small .33l size cans, with the stouts being around 6 euros also in .33l cans.

 

So, BrewDogs is now operating the Berlin Brewery - Taproom. Will they also fail?

Cheers!

 

Walmart in Germany comes to mind.

 

Hard to say, I don't have insight in the financials and I'm not keen to how their distribution network is set up in Europe. I'm guessing Stone took a huge haircut when trying to find a buyer, now I'm reading that all beer is being brewed in San Diego and not at the Berlin Brewdog location, which should also make things harder for them.

 

Do you have a reference or link you can provide here? It would seem to make more sense for beers brewed at the Stone brewery in Virginia to be exported to Europe.

Cheers!

 

@JackHorzempa look up about 12 posts on this thread.

 

No inside information at all, but BrewDog has a growing list of pubs in the EU and so they have a ready made market for beers which could be important if there are issues post Brexit. Also they have knowledge of the European market so are (marginally ) less likely to do something stupid. Obviously a lot depends on their overhead.

I haven't heard what they have done with the taproom. It was hoping to visit it this month but...

I think Stone wasted a lot of money trying to make it a "Beer Destination"

If all the Stone beer is coming from the US I wonder want effect that will have on the Stone Taproom in Prenzlauer Berg -- if it does re-open. Hard to be competitive if your beer travels that far.