Douglas Lager: When Micros go Macro

To be fair, Jeff did add a lot of new information. Notably the fact they did decide to start doing draft when their was suddenly a dearth of Rainier and the fact they fully plan on expanding into Oregon in the not too distant future.

Personally, I don't see the appeal of a slightly-better-than-macro - other than strictly on price - but I also suspect I am not the target market. I haven't been since putting away way too much Blitz back in college in the late 90s. I honestly don't know what the target market is.

 

I can appreciate what they're trying to do, from the perspective of rebuilding local food systems, but man it seems like a long shot to try to entice macro lager drinkers with the more expensive local ingredients or the locavore types with low flavor macro lagers. I'm sure there's some people that fit in that thin ven diagram overlap (and honestly, the pnw is probably the best place to find them) but that's a tough needle to thread

 

I agree retro lagers like Douglas are a tough sell, especially at a higher price (but AB did that for years with Michelob!) When I turned 21 in the 60s, I indiscriminately drank Heidelberg, Blitz, Bohemian Club, Blitz Dark, with tastes of Rainier Not-so-Light and Pabst. I thought Blitz and Henry's flavors started drifting with the first Pabst takeover (about '80). I can't really imagine the recent Rainier (or not-long-ago discontinued Oly) tasted like they did in the 70s. Years ago, I tried Full Sail's Session Lager when it appeared once on the east coast. I didn't see the appeal (maybe like Blitz??). It's apparently been reformulated (now with18 IBU)
https://fullsailbrewing.com/session_beers/session-premium-lager/.
I haven't had many macro lagers in recent years, and even fewer i could say something good about (one is Mexican Bohemia Clara).

 

I have never seen it anywhere

 

Pelican Beach Beer, while not a lager seems to fill a certain niche for a cheap easy to drink 6x16 .
Sells well. Question is why no other craft brewi can do it at this price point

 

By the way I just purchased a 12 pack of Rainier for this weekend camping
It's. Not bad while being eaten alive by mosquitoes

 

Well the article does say it's only available from Seattle to Olympia. So since you both live in Oregon or very nearly Oregon that's not surprising. When's the last time either of you went for a beer in seattle?

 

Not recently, but Jeff is an Oregon person. So assumed they wanted to sell here

 

Did you read the article? He said they had to send him some because it's not available in Oregon and they hope to expand to Eastern and Southern Oregon at some point.

Pretty sure he wrote this cause he's a beer writer based in the northwest and this is the northwest-iest version of this trend around.

I haven't seen any sales data or anything so no idea how it's doing, but it's not the kind of beer I'd expect BAs to seek out really and unless we get some insight from someone who frequents hipster bars near the sound I don't know what kind of insights we'll get on this site.

 

Yeah I know, but if you want to crack the cheap beer market with a better product you have to go canned. Montucky did this. Having a few kegs in some hipster areas of Seattle is not going to help. Pelican Beach beer is in all Safeway's in the PNW

 

Yeah, I don't get what's going to set this beer apart. It reads like something that might become a sort of seattle-tacoma staple. Which is kind of what they're going for I guess?

California has 805 from Firestone Walker, it's not a retro throwback but it's fucking everywhere in all the weird big cans in the sme fridges as modelo, the cheladas, and coors.

North coast revived the Acme beer brand not too long ago. Haven't tried it yet but it's kind of going for this same market. I don't fully get the target audience. Guess it isn't me.

 

For the record, I did see it in the cooler at E Station in Bellingham, well outside the Seattle-Olympia boundary. Sold as singles rather than 6pks (like most stuff there), I did not feel curious enough to pick up one, but with this discussion and the relatively few first-hand reports here, I may have to remedy that next visit.

 

Well it sounds like they haven't reached the ubiquity of rainier (did you notice that option at the places you visited). I went to their site looking for a beer finder but no such exists. They just note the handful of counties they are available in in Washington and that they aspire to be available in Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho, and BC

 

Maybe I'll take one for the team, and visit the Station and obtain one.