Just received this email from Grapevine Craft Brewery...curious to see what the Texas folk think about the direction they are headed: Grapevine Craft Brewery has ceased distribution of its brands. Grapevine, TX – August 16, 2016 – The rumor mill has begun thanks to a popular Texas retail chain who made an error in speaking on behalf of our company on Twitter. So, we need to set the record straight. Effective immediately, Grapevine Craft Brewery will no longer be selling its beers for distribution to wholesalers in the state of Texas. Meaning, our beers will now only be found in our taproom and beer garden in Grapevine, Texas. This was a hard decision and one that was not made lightly. We value our customers and our fans. But at this time, it just doesn’t make financial sense for us to continue distributing our brands at a loss. We are still brewing and still in business. Our fans and community should continue to come out and enjoy our taproom and beer garden open 7 days a week featuring our brands and specialty beers like our Cherry Berliner Weisse, Single Hop IPA Series and our new Red Wine Barrel Aged Imperial Brown Ale. As some savvy consumers may know, we have linked arms with Deep Ellum Brewing Company in a lawsuit against unfair (and what we consider to be unconstitutional) practices which currently prevent production breweries from selling beer to go from our taprooms. We are hopeful to see change happen in this area which would only enhance what we are able to do in our taproom and provide our customers with an exceptional experience when they come to visit. Further, we continue to operate our contract brewing operations as North Texas Brewing Company and are proud to be partners with a handful of great Texas brewers. We are currently booked to capacity and are working on furthering our efforts to brew fresh, local Texas beer. It’s no secret that the last year and a half in our industry has revealed a whirlwind of mergers, acquisitions and strategic alliances of large and small brewers alike trying to navigate a difficult and rapidly changing landscape. We continue to promote our local industry by providing brewing services to local brewers who are growing by giving them immediate opportunities to expand in a competitive marketplace. And we’re proud of it.
Well I have had about 5 of their beers at a tap takeover and they are not beers that I would ever see myself buying again. So with the glut of local beer on the shelf, they obviously didn't stand out. If their taproom is churning a profit, then this is a smart idea, size down and work on your product.
Isn't this the place Specs declared closed without consulting the brewery, only to be corrected hours later? Class act
Or a misunderstanding that turned into a mistake? A lot of Spec's locations have their beer person running a twitter feed so most likely it was one person in the entire chain that reported the wrong information. They should have waited and confirmed but they aren't professional journalist that understand how to break a story.
I hate to see a local brewery struggling, but I have a gut feeling that the beer bubble is bursting. I truly hope not, but....
I get pretty tired of the "bubble bursting" talk. A brewery is a business like any other and must have both quality products and a solid marketing strategy to bring those products into the market. When breweries fail, it is most likely a failure on at least one of these two factors (mediocre beer or no clue how to sell it). I truly feel whatever happened with Grapevine is in no way an indication as to the current state of the beer industry in Texas.
Still less than a 5% shutdown rate this year for breweries in Texas. Why is that a bubble yet we never hear talk of a restaurant bubbles, bar bubbles, etc?
^^What @StevenLaValley said. You don't have to sell cans/bottles and all of that, you can prop up a good taproom and get people in and turn a profit. Pretty simple business plan. But when you get into distribution it is a totally different animal and easy to get lost on the shelf if your product isn't top notch
Listen to some Freakonomics podcasts.....it's pretty well established that restaurants only make about 7% margin when all is said and done. That is pretty slim. It is also pretty well known that most (read NOT all) restaurants don't survive a year. Not exactly a bubble. Breweries, much like the .coms of the late 90's and early 00's have popped up like mad over the last 3-4 years give or take, hence when, like the .com era began, people started looking for a bubble. Maybe it's hype, maybe it's people who wanted to start a brewery and didn't, just looking for some schadenfreude. I don't know, I'm not for small business closing, my mother has run one for the last 40 years, it truly feeds the local economy, so maybe it is a bubble, maybe it is something people are imagining. I think we can all agree, a local brewery no longer distributing does give rise to concern. Just my $.02.
call it a bubble, call it marketing, call it quality of product, but supply and demand play a major role. Food - people have to eat, Beer - is a luxury that is not required to sustain life. I see market saturation (too much supply). As stated above, a small local tavern/pub/brewery is a much different business plan compared to volume distribution...and either way, you have to sustain consumer demand, regardless if you feel the product is quality or not...lots of quality products don't last.
HA, nice! I chuckled when I wrote that, glad someone picked up on it!! On a side note, I saw a gaggle of Grapevine Brewing Co. cans today at Central Market in Southlake.
Yeah, they tend to be shelf turds, not only there, but also at Hall's and at Total Wine in Lewisville.
What's odd about this one is it seems like they should have had a longer term business plan. Didn't they just open the new place last year? Seems like an awful short time for the amount of money they put into the place. It's one thing to run on the cheap out of a spot in a business park and another to invest what they did in a fairly high rent area of the DFW area. I also wonder of the lawsuit had any bearing on any of this,
I just don't think their beers were good enough to sit on the shelf next to the other beers. I hope they win the suit, because odds are pretty good with a good taproom they could sell a good bit of beer to people when they are walking out the door. Somehow beer always taste better when you're having a good time. When you are shopping in the store, you tend to be more frugal/demanding.
They are contract brewing for other breweries. Their beer likely was not moving so they are going on full contract brewing and doing away with the tank space for their own. I wouldn't be surprised if they only do a batch of their stuff every now and then just to get enough for "some" beer on tap there, or they have a pilot system for their own. As far as their decision goes, it seems TABC approvals run around 6 weeks to get for labels. They just had 2 labels for cans show up last week. So, they were still submitting and designing cans as of 6 weeks ago likely.
