Craft Beer Cellar - Braintree

Comments made on twitter now ... a reply here would be better IMO.

https://twitter.com/SuzanneSchalow/status/370905206147391488

 

To address what, though? Explain their business plan or why they train their staff how they do? Defend themselves against being called names? Offer parking solutions? As far as I can tell, it's mostly people taking potshots or predicting failure for future locations. I can't see the upside for them.

 

That's accurate. I doubt CBC does in fact get higher allocations of limited releases. I bet they have them longer simply based on a much smaller clientelle. Not everyone who goes after those beers posts on BA, etc.

And if that info on the franchise model is correct... Given the margins on beer, that's pretty ridiculous. "Franchisees" would be sending a decent bit of their profits to CBC. Again, only for the "privilege" of using the name.

 

Well that should thoroughly remove any doubt as to why people think CBC is pretentious...

 

In an absolute sense, perhaps. But I think it's reasonable to expect the cost of running business in Belmont/Newton to be higher than, let's say, in Westborough. Hence the higher retail prices.

it's 2% - http://www.craftbeercellar.com/franchise-info.php

 

I remember Suzanne and Kate when they were at Cambridge Common, and have shopped at the Belmont store many times. I can think of a lot of words to describe them, but pretentious is nowhere near that list. (As an example, they go out of their way to avoid the "beer snob" label both in walk and talk.) If I had to hazard a guess as to why they aren't posting here, I'd say they're picking their battles. Given how much they've accomplished in such a relatively short time, I can't fathom how busy they must be. Just my take.

 

As was already mentioned, usually the store gets limited releases according to their sales of the entire brand. Exceptions and favors happen, but usually you have to earn it. CBC, as far as I know, earn their share of rare allocations and some. And I've heard it from the industry people - their numbers are big. But I doubt they will JUST get additional allocation. In order for that to happen, as I see it, all the stores collectively would have to pull the numbers to justify/earn additional allocations.

Again, I don't think connect alone will do it. For a short while, or occasionally - maybe, but not all the time.

And yes, it's entirely possible for a new store to start getting limited releases... eventually. Just start selling a lot of Founders or Stone and you'll get your share of KBS or W00t.

 

If I'm not mistaken, enjayvee's first post was in defense of CBC, too

 

Plenty of stores have done that for me, including CBC. And I don't believe I was ever refused this favor by any. And if the stuff is too rare, even CBC wouldn't do it. Of which they notify in advance via twitter.

Not at all. You do realize that CBC carries only ONE type of product, right? Beer. I lump cider together with beer. The wine they sell is simply a bonus, not a core product. Most of the other liquor stores carry many: hard liquors, which can be broken down into several distinctive categories, liquours/bitters and such, and wine, which alone requires more knowledge than beer. Unless someone works in the industry for a VERY long time, you can't expect people to be experts in all of them. So instead of just having people who know small bits of everything, stores often have "beer guy", "wine guy", etc.

P.S. Having other people know a bit of everything should be a must addition, imo, but this doesn't always happen either. The industry, in general, is not paying enough for people to stick around long enough to learn or to invest one's own time/resources.

 

That was an odd choice of reply, considering the circumstances, I agree. But having spoken to Suzanne and Kate on many occasions, and at different settings, I don't have doubts that they're genuine in what they're doing.

 

I posted about this before but couldn't find the post, don't know why it would have gotten deleted, but I'll say it again.

CBC is a marketing gimmick. They tell people Goose Island isn't craft beer, yet they sell F/X Matt crap like Magic Hat and Saranac. They tout that they are oh so knowledgeable about craft beer and are for the betterment of the industry, but if you're going to be pretentious by telling people what craft beer is, you're doing a disservice in my opinion. Goose Island IS craft and better than a decent amount of the stuff they sell in the store. That's why I stopped going when I asked about Goose Island in the belmont store and was immediately slammed for asking about it. They are pretentious.

Goose Island did not sell out, they made an incredibly smart business decision. They sold the distribution rights to their flagship beers so they could just focus on their brewpubs and their barrel program. If any of you were in the same position and were offered the same deal, you'd be dumb not to take it.

This is also why I take what the craft brewers guild says with a grain of salt, they raise their own standards for craft beer every year just so they can call Sam Adams craft, its a joke.

Anybody who is more focused on trying to tell people what craft beer is doesn't get it. Its like people who say they like indie music; its a generic label that means nothing to somebody with a brain.

Its about the liquid in the glass and good company.

Julios, Gordons, Acton wine n spirits etc. will all continue to get my business because they're knowledgeable, prices are solid and they sell everything I want.

 

Yeah, point made, they won't even listen to legit criticism. I'd seriously love to see them defend their choice of having Matt F/X but refusing to carry goose island. They're soo gimmicky its emperor wears no clothes obvious and I feel bad for newer members of the community who probably don't even realize they'll never be able to buy a Bourbon County or the ever so delicious Sofie at their precious CBC.

 

They may have at one point, but they don't any more.

 

http://www.craftbeercellar.com/locations/ma/belmont/beers.php?sort=b

Matt brewing is still listed

 

lol and they sell guinness...soo they can cater to Diageo but god forbid they handle ab/inbev products? As I said, they are an Emperor wears no clothes joke.

 

Good call...missed that. Was going off of memory and I couldn't remember seeing anything Saranac or Magic Hat in ages.

 

That true? If so... Heh. Amusing indeed.

Twitter feed is nice too.

 

Though it goes slightly against, at least a portion, of my business sense, to respond to this post, I feel that there are several questions or points that are made that I'd like to share some insight on or answer. And, just for the record, when I say "we" I am speaking on behalf of both myself & Kate Baker, my business partner.

We have long honored & respected BA for the work that they've done in the beer world, and have long supported Jason, Todd, & Candice in their individual and collaborative mission(s) to get people more involved in the (beer) community. They have done amazing work with this website, their festivals, and most recently, the magazine. While we are not big advertisers, we do support, financially, here & there with ads and have sold tickets for them on several occasions, both at our time in the restaurant biz and our first year at Craft Beer Cellar! We pay attention to what Beer Advocate is doing and work hard to keep people informed.

We use Beer Advocate as a resource every single day and I'm not talking two, but rather 17 people! I, personally, have long envied the more serious or hard core Beer Advocate members that have the time to keep up-to-date profiles of beers & visits to beer-centric places, but more importantly, spend so much time in these forums. I've had extensive conversations with BA Members about being more involved in the forums and while the desire is there, it has just never matched up with the time!

We would never, intentionally, be disrespectful to anyone at Beer Advocate, as we feel that we have a good relationship and that's very important to us. The "Lion King" Twitter Post that went around on Friday was not an attempt to put BA down, or ill-involve anyone that may have been linked to the post (@leemovic & @beerbabe). In a moment of feeling irritated with myself because I had done what I know to be slightly dangerous (venturing into a thread and reading it in it's entirety) - it can be a time drain and an emotion roller coaster for any human being, and especially business owner. I thought the Twitter feed was funny, and it captured that moment so beautifully. I also get where it may have been offensive & disrespectful to BA and its community and for that, I extend an apology!

My name is Suzanne, not Sue, nor Susan, and if you really know me, you would know that. Also, if you truly knew me, you would know that pretentious is the farthest thing from my world. Period.

We do what we do because we love good beer and we love the community of people that we have become so connected to over the years. We do this because we are passionate about having a voice for the small brewer who can't afford to have a voice for themselves. We do this because we love the product and are deeply committed to making a difference in the ideology of how people think about beer, for the greater good of every small brewer from the mountains of Switzerland to the valleys of Chico, CA!

Our business model is based on passion & love for the small brewer, taking exceptional care of the people that work with us and share our common vision for good beer and people (yes, we pay $15 an hour), educating people about beer, as best we can, and really 'knocking it out of the park' with customer service, something we more fondly call hospitality. Nothing more.

Are we getting kick-backs from breweries, distributors, or the Brewers Association? No. Are we mad at AB-InBev or MillerCoors? No. Though, I can tell you that the reason we don't carry products from these breweries is because we don't want to give them money that could otherwise go to a small brewer! And also, some of their products don't taste very good, in our opinion. We're not interested in continuing to perpetuate the notion that this country is all about Adjunct Lagers and giving people the tools to do so. And no, we're not talking about Goose Island. The last time we had their beer, it was amazing, but at the end of the day, they are owned by a brewery that controls near 50% of all the beer consumed in the world and while we know they don't even know who we are and could care less, we VOTE with our DOLLARS! For the record, on March 28th, 2011, the day that Goose Island sold to AB-InBev, I actually shed a tear, because I knew what it meant for our philosophy!

Continued . . .

 

Yes, we carry Guinness. Part of what we do is based on the Brewers Association and part of it isn't. If we based our entire philosophy on their mission, quite frankly, we wouldn't have any beer from outside the United States. We decided to use it as a starting place and eventually agreed to focus on beers that make up the bottom 20% of all beer consumed in the world. There have been beers or breweries that have caused us to debate our own company philosophy and over-turn our own decisions for removing a beer that we'd carried, like the long debated "Craft vs Crafty" argument that left us re-shelving Narragansett, after having pulled them. Is it right or wrong? I'm not sure we have the answer, but what I can tell you is that we passionately decided to put them back on our shelf.

We'd rather give our money to Founder's, AleSmith, Uinta, Mystic, Long Trail, F.X. Matt (brewers of Saranac, Utica Club, Lake Placid, and various contracts), and others, for example. We are not trying to run a beer store that specializes in only the most sought-after rarities that would bring any beer geek to their knees. We are trying to get better beer in peoples hands and educate anyone who needs it, on styles and flavor profiles. We focus a ton of our energy on freshness, which is something that's long been a reoccurring issue in the beer world. We are pushing the envelope and leading the charge of getting fresh beer in and out of the marketplace, for breweries and distributors, alike. No, we don't know everything about beer, nor do we claim to. My guess is that we've barely begun to scratch the surface of education.

We do pride ourselves on education and yes, being a Cicerone Certified Beer Server is a requirement for working at any Craft Beer Cellar. We feel it's the least we can do for our consumers and customers; to be able to answer their questions about what products we are carrying in our stores. This seems like good business sense to us and furthers our commitment to customer service & hospitality! Once again, we don't have all the answers for running a business. What we do, we do from our hearts, our passion, and our business experience, in both the restaurant and beer world. Yes, Kate & I are both Certified Cicerones (second level) and yes, we are going for Master Cicerone within the year! Is it because we are pretentious? Hardly. We are borderline obsessed with knowing everything about beer that we can because we love it so much and are so excited to share that knowledge with our customers & friends, in this community. Also, for the record: we had to retake the second level Certified Cicerone exam twice, having both failed to pass it on the first try. We are not perfect.

We decided to franchise our business model because after about a year in business, with all the energy & time that we had put into one single location, we knew that it could take us years to expand and grow this idea of a beer store that focused on craft beer, only. With only some unknown amount of time on this planet, we were guessing that before we were out of gas, we'd be lucky if we were able to get three stores open. We never expected that everyone would agree with it, but we're here to tell you that if it can be done correctly, in a model of great beer stores, we're going to do it! We set our franchise fees super low for a reason - we wanted people to be able to get in. $10,000 is a respectable amount of money, but the lowest fees we've ever seen. We use that money to help pay for the investments we've made in being able to replicate our business, our website (and continue to make), social media presence, and various administration fees. The 2% royalties we will receive from partners in our Craft Beer Cellar family, will be used to continue the above and help grow the brand, which is, ultimately, good for craft beer! Oh, and we're not "getting around" the state liquor licensing laws - any entity can have five licenses, currently.

Our hiring process is treated the same way as our journey for finding franchise partners. It's thorough. And it's a lot of fun. We receive some amazing short stories from people that want to work with Craft Beer Cellar. It's an easy way to be able to extrapolate personality traits and character. Beer Geeks are special people. We know that because we consider ourselves as geeky as anyone. We want to be able to interview or ask "ten questions" that will help us find the geeks that are out there, hiding, like a needle in a haystack. We've 'passed' on over eighty potential franchise partners, because we thought they didn't have the geekiness that would be good for our community! In all that we are, every single day, we care about good beer and the people behind it. And, we're trying to have a little fun at what we do - it's just beer, after all.

Continued . . .