Green Flash to brew for Alpine Beer Co.

This is great news for those of us who live in SoCal and still rarely get their IPA's. And to have more on draft available is fantastic!

 

This is great news for all, but will only mean that they really hit the SD market more. 5000 barrels might make it to LA, but I can't imagine that the stuff will go THAT far afield. It will be interesting to see if this means that at Alpine they start making more things like Ugly, Token, and Bad Boy. Beers that I wish made it out more.

Remember that Pat started out contract brewing in a similar way at Alesmith before he got the pub going. I imagine that he knows what he is doing really well in regards to making this work the way that he wants it to go.

 

Thier BBQ chicken sandwich is insane!

 

For anybody outside CA, looking at this or the Cold Springs contract as meaning that they are going to have enough beer to start distributing outside of CA, I doubt that will be the case. These are moves to help generate enough revenue to build a new brewery. Currently, they can't even distribute properly up into Orange County and that is the very next county above San Diego. I am looking at these moves as just barely satisfying current demand through SD, OC, Riverside and LA counties. I would be surprised if Alpine reaches Ventura county after both of these deals go through, never mind states outside of CA. I would say that the only state that might see some Alpine might be MN, but that is only if they believe that there is better net gain from distributing some of the Cold Springs inventory here versus the additional shipping costs of bringing it back to CA. But that also involves marketing in MN, which could make any potential benefits a complete wash.