Hale's Ales is closing April 9th

Not surprising, but also a bit surprising since they recently brought in the couple behind Schooner Exact to head up their brewing program. Gonna need to get a final six pack of Supergoose.

 

Another early pioneer bites the dust. Sad to see, but happy for Mike Hale and his well earned retirement.

 

Maybe there was a plan for them taking over but fell though?

 

Damn, outside of Sierra Nevada they were probably the oldest of the "craft brewers".

(I actually didn't realize they were still around - I think I've been confusing Hale's with Hart Brewing, which merged with Kemper to form Pyramid).

 

Yeah, but even with a change of ownership, I'd say it's still essentially the same company, unlike Redhook (> Craft Brew Alliance > wholly-owned subsidiary of ABInBev) which was founded a year or so earlier.

 

Damn, what a shame. I feel bad for these old school brewers because they're really caught in a tough position. The average beer drinker has moved on to other breweries that are more evolved and if they try to evolve they risk alienating what customers they do have. Plus, as we've seen very few breweries are ever able to successfully reinvent themselves.
Hale's was one of the first local breweries I loved due to their cream ale. I can't stand nitro these days so I haven't had it in years. So, yeah I'm one of the beer drinkers that moved on myself. It's a shame the market isn't big enough to support these older brands.

 

I think the trouble is us older craft beer drinkers, while liking the traditional styles also still like to explore. So a brewery has to serve both worlds the older craft beer person that doesn't want to explore and the rest of us. They can still do this, many do a great job of this ( Deschutes, Widmer, Sierra Nevada etc)

 

Schooner no longer exists. They slowly phased out the beer part and it's basically San Juan Seltzer Company now.

With Hales bowing out, Big Time would now be the longest running brewery in the state.

 

Same, I visited Hale's years ago and immediately loved their cream ale, still one of my all time favorites. (Anyone wanna' grab me a couple and send them my way? )

 

Hale's was the first real brewery I ever went to. Visted them with my brother when he was living in Seattle back in the 90s. For a long time in Spokane, you still saw taps from them, a legacy of their days brewing near Felts Field. I'm gonna go get a Supergoose 6er if I can this weekend to formally see them out.

 

So I hit four grocery stores and didn't find any with Hales Supergoose or any of their other beers.I'm guessing their distribution pipeline has dried up here. Too bad. I always enjoyed a pint of Supergoose when I'd encounter it.

 

I had Supergoose on draft a few months ago at a local place. For a long time, their Cream Ale was often found on "safe" taplists around town, like at the 2-7 or, back in the day, the Blue Spark. But as local nostalgia for Hale's receeded and new local breweries stepped up, I saw less and less of it. I hadn't looked for it for ages and ages in grocery stores, so I don't really know for sure if it disappeared in such places because they were throttling back distribution in anticipation of closing, or if they already stopped reaching here prior to that. I definitely think, at least in regard to what I saw around here, that they reached a point of complacency a long time ago. Perhaps if they'd been a bit more dynamic, a new owner with big pockets could've been found and they might have continued on.