Jack's Abby (2023)

That experimentation is really cool. I'm looking forward to trying more delicious and innovative lagers in the beer hall.

That said, JA's distro presence seems to be getting worse, not better. Here in Central Mass, I'm seeing a smaller variety of cans, typically older, and at higher prices than a year ago. We've gone from my favorite couple of stores usually having 5-6 JA lagers, most relatively fresh, available for $8/4pack to having 3-4 JA lagers (Hoponius, Post Shift, House, and these days, leftover Copper Legend), mostly pretty old, available for $11/4pack. Which is still a fair price, but maybe it helps explain why the product seems to be moving a little less. Smoke and Dagger, Red Tape, Shipping out of Boston, Pride and Parquet, and the Rising series seem to have mostly disappeared.

I'm hoping that trend reverses in 2023, and that we get more variety of JA's great lagers available on local shelves.

 

@kp7, thanks for starting this thread.

We get very little variety of Jack's Abby beers in my area (Philly area). I spoke to Jack Hendler about this at a lager beer festival last summer but his response was essentially just a smile. I suppose a situation of limited supply for their specialty beers?

Cheers!

 

The Massachusetts distributor is telling accounts there will be no new Springdale beer in 2023, but I can't find anything to confirm that.

 

Howdy! I'm not a brewer, I just wear Carhartt as cosplay at festivals

In all seriousness, distribution is a challenging game these days. Switching between distributorships has meant training a new sales team, and transitioning to a new network of relationships. Some stores love the distributor and reward them accordingly; others dislike some and punish them as a result. So, the places showing us the most love today may not be the same places as a few years ago.

In the general sense, you might say we've temporarily traded wider for deeper. A smaller selection of our products are available in more places than a few years ago. Our team is working with the distributor this winter to get deeper with our specialty beers to help counteract that trend. As corny as it sounds, it does help us if people looking for those products let the store know you'd like to see them there.

Thanks for the positivity, anyhow.

Nothing new planned at the moment, no. We do have some great barrel-aged draft beers that we may selectively release this year, mostly on draft.

Hey, it's me, I'm him (Joe).

We installed a new packaging line during the height of the pandemic in the former SBCo space. This gave us the opportunity to provide a real office space for our growing staff, not to mention proper office space for our hospitality management team. It's made for an altogether more comfortable working environment, but it has obviously left Springdale without a home.

We had two leases fall through during the last few years, to my absolute frustration. If we've met you know I'm passionate about what we'd built in the Barrel Room, and I was really relishing the opportunity to give it an independent home.

We've held back on talking much about it publicly just because we'd all hoped a solution would emerge, but as of yet no luck. We've invested lots into the Jack's portfolio this last year and feel like the opportunity is there for us to be speaking more loudly and clearly about what we do that makes us unique. So SBCo remains on the backburner for the moment.

It always strikes me that people cataloging what's exciting in lager beer right now seem to gravitate to a certain subset of brands. It's amusing on one hand because I feel like the opportunity to be 'hip" came and went with the original beer names and descriptions (Maibock Hurts Like Helles anyone...). But we don't need to be hip to be progressive. We just need to follow our curiosity, continue to try new things and bring world-class beer to the world. So we'll keep doing that in hopes that an "if you know you know" mentality can carry the day.

OK, end rant, go enjoy a nice Saturday.

 

@springdalebeer, just like @kp7 stated above, thanks for posting!

Cheers!

 

Thanks for popping in here. I'm hoping things start to look up, I fucking love what you guys do!

 

Hoping to see some of the "Loyal to Lager" beers in NJ, particularly the Czech Dark "Bohemian Dusk."

 

For those near the beer hall, this morning's newsletter says Kiwi Rising cans and draft will be available starting tomorrow at the brewery (no distro).

Felt like my prayers were answered after seeing it absent from the distribution release calendar.

 

Tons of the rice lager on the shelf at the Burlington Wegman’s. $12.99 a four pack. Nice little surprise popping in for school snacks for the week.

 

Enjoying the Black Pils in the taproom at moment

 

I love when regional, widely available breweries like JA put special focus on their onsite offerings. It's something that always bums me out when I'm driving home from skiing in VT and the Long Trail Pub has the same offerings going on 5 years now. Not that I need something new all the time, but more variety is always welcomed.

 

I'm sure costs have gone up as you say, but this is an enormous price increase of 37.5% for four packs of their core beers and a nearly unfathomable 75% price increase for Smoke and Dagger. And this comes not long after another substantial price increase when they moved from six packs to four packs.

With all due respect to the great beers they make, that's a more aggressive price increase than I as a customer am willing to deal with. Even if I can afford it, a business that raises prices by that much at one time is going to lose my good will. It will absolutely result in buying more of the German lagers that are available to me. Tucher Helles is $8 for a four pack. I very slightly prefer House Lager, but not at that price difference? It's gonna be Tucher every time.

 

Man that should constitute a material change in whatever social contract I've entered into with JA over the years, amounting to a breach. Suppose I will have to go to my local and buy off what is there at $8.99 then. Appreciate that info!