RIP Summerfest

I'm happy Anchor continues to make its Porter. For me it's Anchor > Deschutes > SN for affordable, lower ABV and easily available porters.

 

Fine, twist my arm! I guess I'll go for all three! I hope you're happy! (Cause I will be)

hmm ya I do wonder how different the recipe. I can see some of the citrus aspect in the stout (its part.of what I consider their core hop profile for sure) but have definitely never gotten any of it in the porter. I'm gonna swing by the best bet for me to get all 3 or 4 of these porters at once on the way home.from work today so I'll see what I can get together later this week and report back

 

Founders Porter and GL Edmund Fitzgerald are what I consider to be prototypical American Porters. I won’t drink Founders but I can’t deny the quality of their beers. Compared to SN, I’d guess that it shows as a bit richer, roastier, and full-bodied.

I did a side by side with Bell’s earlier this year. Didn’t pick up any citrus notes in the SN, but the Bell’s had a distinct hoppy quality.

 

Your side by side came to my mind immediately , made me miss bells for sure. But ya, your impression also confirmed mine of an porter.

In personally distressing news, the shop had none of my aforementioned porters. Taddy has a slot on their shelf and was sold out, so that may be a good sign. But sn porter was mia and is usually there, same with founders (although they have lots of founders stuff, so might just be part of the cycle. Same with sn honestly). And no anchor, although I don't know that I've seen the porter around in quite a while

 

I remember it took quite a long time to sell through Summerfest this year at my store. Reading through the threads about it being retired weren't that surprising: it's a lager, it's seasonal, etc. In the end, businesses need to make money; it's just a shame to see a great beer like that go away commercially.

Thankfully, Celebration doesn't seem to be going away any time soon, I have none left as of Christmas Eve in 6pk or 12pk formats, after going through an original allotment and re-ordering to bulk up for a holiday stockpile.

 

Does it really matter when all your seasonals are IPAs?

Regarding the Summerfest news...as they say, give the people what they want.

To which I say...fuck the people.

 

Blasphemy... Never. I'm back.

 

Finally, a voice of reason!

 

Terence I really, really hope you are correct here. But based upon the business decisions I have seen from Sierra Nevada Brewing Company over the past couple of years I will take a 'wait and see' attitude here.

Last fall I took a trip down to my neighboring state of Delaware and bought a 12-pack of Celebration Ale. As long as Sierra Nevada Brewing Company continues to produce this beer I will continue to buy it.

And if I can find Dankful IPA very fresh (e.g., a month from canning) I will continue to purchase that product. I suspect I might be able to do this for a couple of more months before this product goes the way of other year-round Sierra Nevada beers in my area.

Cheers!

 

Got a gift card to a local beer store and went out hopefully to scoop up one last celebration. Same thing where I checked. They had a huge stack about a week ago. All gone...

In fact I forgot it’s the worst time to beer shop, tons of empty shelf space from the holiday buying. I guess cause Christmas fell on a weekend too and New Year’s Day Friday, no hopes of a true restock till next week or so I guess.

 

I've been off line for a while so I can't go back and answer "ALL" the questions... But I think you guys nailed it. It was a business decision. I drank Summerfest with the best of them and I argued in it's favor, but the numbers didn't lie. We plan to have it available in small batches off our pilot brewery in 16 fl.oz. cans, if everything goes right. We are still looking in the "year-round" market for a winning lager/pilsner style... So hang tight.

Couple things...

• The Wanderland was going to be the summer beer and the Summer Break Session IPA the first out of the gate, but we had to rotate the releases when we had some registration issues.
• Seasonals will go to cans starting with Summer Break (although, we might still do Oktoberfest and Celebration in bottles too)
• Difference in Fantastic Haze vs. Big Little Thing... Hop profile (fantastic is more tropical; big is more citrus) & Price point (fantastic is premium; big is line priced with Hazy Little Thing)

I have 7-9 years before I retire... Celebration, I will fight for, until the end. It will will not be hazy but the occasional snow globe will appear.

 

We have Ken on our side... He feels the same about Celebration as he does Porter, Stout, Bigfoot and Pale Ale. They are part of our historical identity.

That is kind of why we are creating a whole new brand identity with the "Little Things" family, for a newer drinker. Not to say you guys are old or anything.

 

So, 1-2 years ago you nixed Nooner Pilsner and more recently Summerfest. What about those two beers resulted in them being 'non-winning'?

What are you plans in terms of creating a new, winning Pilsner (or lager)? Is there a perception that a new recipe = 'winning'? Or is there some business side of things (e.g., packaging, naming, promotion, etc.) that equals 'winning'? Or maybe just having a more modest goal in terms of sales volume = 'winning'? Or...

Will those Celebration beers in cans be can conditioned? Is it more difficult (more costly?) to achieve a can conditioned beer vs. a bottle conditioned beer?

Terence I am very glad that you are 'back' and it is my hope that you will remain 'back'. We need you.

Cheers!

 

Terence,

I discussed the topic of Stout and Porter previously (in a separate thread maybe?). Below is the inventory of Sierra Nevada beers at my local Retail Beer Distributor:

“Sierra Nev. BA Bgft 25oz BSng 25 Oz. Bottle Single 2

Sierra Nev. BA Bigfoot 25oz Bt 12 Pack 25 Oz. Bottles 224.9 1

Sierra Nev. Celebraton 12oz Bt 24 Pack 12 Oz. Bottles 38.5 1

Sierra Nev. Celebrtn 12oz B 6P 6 Pack 12 Oz. Bottles 11.49 2

Sierra Nev. Dankful 1/6 bbl 1/6 Keg 89 1

Sierra Nev. Dankful 12oz C6P 6 Pack 12 Oz. Cans 11.99 2

Sierra Nev. Dankful 12oz Can 24 Pack 12 Oz. Cans 42.99 1

Sierra Nev. Estate 12oz Bt Sng 12 Oz. Btl/Can Single 11 15

Sierra Nev. Fant Haze 12oz C6P 6 Pack 12 Oz. Cans 13.99 1

Sierra Nev. Fant Haze 12oz Can 24 Pack 12 Oz. Cans 49.99 3

Sierra Nev. Hazy Ltl 12/12oz C 12 Pack 12oz Cans 22.99 1

Sierra Nev. Hazy Ltl 12oz Can 24 Pack 12 Oz. Cans 42.99 8

Sierra Nev. Hazy Ltl 19oz CSng 22 Oz. Bottle Single 3.25 14

Sierra Nev. Hop Bull 19oz CSng 22 Oz. Bottle Single 3.25 1

Sierra Nev. Pale 12/12oz Btl 12 Pack 12oz Bottles 20.99 1

Sierra Nev. Pale Ale 12oz B 6P 24 Pack 12 Oz. Bottles 10.99 1

Sierra Nev. Pale Ale 12oz Btl 24 Pack 12 Oz. Bottles 38.5 9

Sierra Nev. Sampler 12/12oz B 12 Pack 12oz Bottles 21.49 1



Sierra Nev. Sampler 12oz Btl 24 Pack 12 Oz. Bottles 40.99 6



Sierra Nev. Torpedo 12oz Can 24 Pack 12 Oz. Cans 38.5 2

Sierra Nev. Trop Tpd 12/12oz C 12 Pack 12oz Cans 20.49 1

Sierra Nev. Trop Tpd 12oz C 6P 6 Pack 12 Oz. Cans 11.49 3

Sierra Nev. Wild Ltl 12oz C 6P 6 Pack 12 Oz. Cans 11.99 1

Sierra Nev. Wild Ltl 12oz Can 24 Pack 12 Oz. Can 43.5 3”

The good news is that there is a lot of Sierra Nevada product there (needless to say basically all hoppy/IPA type beers).

The bad news is that both the Stout and Porter are absent (which is typical for my area).

While the fact that Ken is ‘committed’ to the continuing production of Stout and Porter beer, for all intents and purposed for my area these products are gone. If a dedicated Sierra Nevada consumer/customer can’t get the product it is effectively gone.

Cheers!

 

I was asked recently what was wrong with Nooner & SierraVeza... My response was they seemed to be trying too hard. Not sure I can explain it. Just the name, the package, the marketing behind it, the beer (which I thought was good). They just didn't click or match. So I guess that kind of answers you question of what makes it...

Seasonals are a different animal. All larger craft breweries are struggling with seasonal offerings. Variety packs are up in chain stores, but I feel one of the problems with seasonals, is the consumer is looking for something different from "what they remember" and they avoid "I've had that beer before" purchases.

Celebration Ale was canned in 2017... Probably didn't make it your way. We tank conditioned it, it was killer. Very much like on draught accounts. Cost really isn't an issue (except labor -explained below). What's the biggest problem is having enough warehouse space for bottle/can conditioning. When Celebration is in full swing and Pale Ale is still being made it's like a massive jenga puzzle finding warm warehouse space without compromising beer that is cold packaged and stored cold... So pallets are constantly be moved around to accommodate. It's a juggling act.

 

Yeah, it sucks. We have a loyal consumer base that is asking all the time for these beers (Porter/Stout/Ruthless/Tumbler/etc.). That's why we need to move these to an ecommerce market. Small batches, fresher beer and we can avoid the distributors that don't want to handle 10-20 cases ever few months... A lot of these style can be provided from the local breweries. Most of our distributors realize a loyal customer that purchases our Porter or Stout will visit our Pale Ale, Seasonals, IPAs that are in the stores.

If we could only get the laws changed or at least to match the wine industry for shipping alcohol.

 

Well, that makes for a challenging situation in terms of crafting a new 'winning' Pilsner (or lager). As I know you are aware there are indeed marketing steps which can be taken here (e.g., establishing focus groups, asking folks to take polls, etc.) but this is an imperfect process. Just ask the high priced, professional pollsters from this past election on why their polls did not match the election results for down ballet politicians.

I was recently hiking with my friend Lou who is now retired but formerly worked as a marketing person. For some reason the conversation went to marketing strategies and he related his frustrations with dealing with his higher ups (CEO, etc) in that they constantly were advocating conducting surveys (marketing research) and he constantly pushed back saying: the only people who respond are the disgruntled people while the people happy with the product (or service) just don't respond.

That could indeed be the case with the 'new' beer consumers but folks like me (and other BAs) look forward to seeing every year some 'old friends'. For example there has been quite a bit of discussion about how folks are unhappy that the Sam Adams winter variety pack was missing Old Fezziwig (and other old favorites). Yes there is indeed a balancing act to please long term customers while trying to attract new customers.

Is this the same process as used to produce canned Sierra Nevada Pale Ale which spells out "Can Conditioned"?

 

Terence, how many states are covered by Sierra Nevada right now as regards eCommerce?

Cheers!

 

Porter recently showed up on the shelves at my local Wegmans, and it was a real treat to have that beer again. It had been years since I had this beer. Stout was also available for a couple months before that. Hopefully this is a sign these beers are in demand in my area.

 

We can do this...
Currently shipping to:

AK, CA, NC, ND, NE, NH, OH, VA, & VT

That said, most stuff is CA & NC only. An example, it takes upwards of 4 months to get registration approval in OH & VA, plus it cost to register in those states. A lot of times we maybe sell a couple case to each of those states, making it not worth our time to pay the registration fee for brands we might only release 20 barrel total.

Celebration that we canned in 2017 wasn't can conditioned like Pale Ale. It was carbonated in fermenter and packaged that way. Celebration bottles are bottle conditioned like Pale Ale in both bottle and can.

Draught version of Celebration Ale (which would be what we would can... more than likely. It's not decided on) is has more hop pop than the bottle conditioned version... Mainly due to the fruity esters produced during secondary fermentation in the bottle.