F.X. Matt to Acquire Flying Dog

Dead rise lager is an awesome beer to go along with piles of seafood or chicken.
The sweet stout variety pack they had last winter was definitely beers that I could have half of one and never look back on.

 

Flying Dog seems like similar to 5-10 other breweries, just something getting dust on shelf. Not sure what niche they serve in markets like NY that are flooded with local and national brands

 

You don't appreciate the Fear and Loathing connection?

 

I just checked my review of Horn Dog and I found this interesting, from 2007.

"Further sips in makes me glad I picked up a 4pack of this at Wilbur's in Ft Collins yesterday and...the price was darned reasonable at only $6.99!!"

4packs? I had forgotten that 4packs were a thing back then. Shrugs.

 

Seeing that price for a four pack of barleywine is pretty wild.

 

Interesting, as Eric Warner started Karbach Brewing in Houston, now owned by Anheuser of coarse. Breweries he is involved with, seem to make the rounds, with both locations and owners

 

That’s a great brewery tour, fortunately I was an adult when I took the tour. It’s so hot in the brewery that by the time you get to the top floor bar room any beer will taste good. I think I just stuck to Utica Club. I’m within the 90 mile radius of the West End Brewery, so I have Utica Club distribution. I buy a twelve pack or two every year.

 

Flying Dog still sells over 75k cases of beer in NY. Even with an oversaturated market, their volume is very much relevant.

 

Used to get the Gonzo Porter in 4 packs. Good stuff.

 

Pretty much the original contract-brewer (as the term is understood today) - since they did New Amsterdam Amber Beer for The Old New York Brewing Co. in 1982. The brands they've brewed over the past 40 years would take quite a lot of research to list but would include (off the top of my head) Newman's, Samuel Adams, Pete's, Brooklyn, Prior, McSorley's, Dock Street, Harpoon, Olde Heurich, Manhattan, Blue Moon, Smuttynose... wait a second.

"Do I understand that FX Matt has been contract brewing?" was meant ironically, right?

 

He's a Weihenstephan guy. They teach 'em to think big. Not just brewing, but scaling up and doing business.

 

Yeah, makes sense, the few times I met him, he seemed really knowledgeable and a cool guy.

 

I haven't had many of their beers other than Raging Bitch which I used to buy a lot of when I was traveling to OK and they still shipped there. I liked it for the fact that it was readily available most of the year and had a decent price point compared to imported Belgian IPA's.

 

I believe Matt was one of the early contract brewers of Sam Adams. The also did New Amsterdam, Brooklyn, Newman's products, and certainly others. Recently, they are still doing Brooklyn beer (as JK pointed out, they have a fractional ownership relationship). Their other contract brewing might have diminished in recent years, with competition from City Brewing, Genesee (FIFCO), and some smaller outfits. Saranac is a fairly successful craft-adjacent line that they originated, and probably accounts for a good fraction of their current output (judging from their website emphasis).

 

Similar for me. Raging Bitch was one of the first US micros to come to Spain. I was deep in rural Spain last summer and was pleasantly surprised to find their pale ale at a bar. When it's all you've got, it's not too bad.

 

Soon in a beer store near you: Flying Dog that tastes like Saranac.

 

But Matt has been brewing some Flying Dog beers for at least 5 years...(earliest COLA I see is from 2018)

 

Actually it’s the opposite, F/X Matt has brewed, past and present many great beers. It’s their own Saranac beers that have been lacking. My favorites Matt’s beers have been Saranac Black Forest and Utica Club

 

Wasn’t Wild Goose in that Frederick facility (even though they started on the Eastern Shore) before Flying Dog?

on another note, I know some people who lost their jobs the week before Christmas when Flying Dog announced with no warning a) the move and b) the closure of their Colorado facility, effective immediately, so, you know, eff them.

 

Yeah, Wild Goose and another MD brewery, Brimstone, were bought by what was known as Frederick Brewing Co. (Blue Ridge and Hempen brands) in late 1997. And then a few years later, Frederick was purchased by the doomed Snyder International (Crooked River & Little Kings).

When Flying Dog bought the brewery in '06 they apparently also acquired the Wild Goose brand and for a time even called the brewery Wild Goose Brewing Co. - supposedly the brewery in Maryland was rated as having a capacity of 120k bbl. and could be expanded to 300k, pretty big for the era.