New Belgium in NJ March 2016

Was hoping for Bell's.

 

Can we just get back in Shelton Brothers good graces already?

 

I'm happy. Slow Ride, Snapshot, Frambrozen, and fresh Ranger are favorites of mine.

 

I guess I understand what you're saying, but I am certainly not complaining about NB coming to NJ. I honestly have not had very much of their year round stuff, I'm sure it's decent, but will most likely collect some dust. Their Lips of Faith stuff seems to be pretty hit or miss, but it's fun and, if I'm not mistaken, well priced. Their sours are wonderful though. Give me all the La Folie and La Terroir.

I wonder who's distributing them. I would assume the BMC houses. If so, I think ultimately this is a win for NJ - as far as tap handles are concerned at least. When breweries like Boulevard and Duclaw showed up here, they were all over the taps at those "not so craft" bars. And this just means you'll be able to get some NB at those places now as well - which I'm supportive of.

 

^ yupp, looks like Miller/Coors or just straight Coors houses got them.

as per the statement from john holl, i didnt see any AB houses listed, and hunterdon is the only other big player in the NJ market.

 

Not happening in NJ until they change their deposit labels.. (dumbest NJ law, but yeah... it's a law)

 

Could you clarify what you mean by this, please?

 

For some reason, NJ beer labels need to have the "CRV" ("California Redemption Value") symbol on them, even though there is no deposit charged on beer in the state nor a system for any sort of redemption/refund. See Sierranevadabill's explanation in an earlier thread. Apparently there is - or could be - a fee that the distributors are charged in the state but that is rolled into to retail price unlike in a true mandatory deposit state where it is a separate charge.

Since finding out about it, I've thought it was possibly a law passed during the "Mandatory Bottle Deposit Mania" era (which has since stalled or slowed down at least) in anticipation of going to that sort of system, which never happened. Not much info on it that'd I've ever found - various searches on NJ ABC turn up nothing.

 

I am excited about this. I could really care less about Fat Tire, I wasn't all that impressed by it, but their sours are spot on. In Central Jersey ShorePoint will be distributing New Belgium, they posted it on Twitter today.

 

Just found out we will be waiting a while for any NB sours. Oh well.

 

I don't think its the breweries but the distributors. I don't think they have realized the demand that sours have.

 

i can pretty much say for sure its on the breweries not bringing in the sours. The wholesalers want all the rare stuff to grow the brand as fast as possible.

On the brewer side, they dont know who will be selling the most NB beer, so they dont know who will get allocated cases of rare stuff. The salesman can use this unknown to leverage buying big deals and getting good prices for NB on the shelves. The retailers who play the game right for a year will then be rewarded with rare cases. If they just sent in La Folie right away, customers would buy up all the rare stuff and leave Ranger IPA on the shelves, and the brand wouldn'tt grow year after year, it would just be one big quarter, then downgrowth which looks bad.

 

I'll take your word for it, since you are in the business.

 

I'm glad New Belgium is coming to NJ. Can't wait to try Shift Pale Lager

 

Their lips of faith series are pretty solid.