Small Town Brewery owned by Pabst?

I am sure you wont see it on tap at your favorite beer bar, or at your local bottle shop, or hell, someone trading it on Beer Advocate.

I generally agree with you, but it oddly is rated even on beer advocate. So, maybe, that is why it is being talked about.

 

I used to work in 640 and believe they took over the 4 loko space as a coworker and I would joke about trying to get their business and then noticed it was a brewery and were more interested.

 

Having a "brewery" put out only 1 beer albeit in 3 ABV variations should have been our first sign.
Cases just hit NY and from what I hear if you want to carry NYFRB distributors have to buy 10cases and on premise minimum of 5. Sounds like they have quite a push from contracting to SELL SELL SELL before we all get sick of 35$ a case root beer and just spike it with some whiskey on our own

 

Seems they have put out more than "only 1 beer", although I don't know if this changes anything. I don't really care as it is a tasty alcoholic beverage and I plan on continuing to drink it on the rare occasion that I fancy a hard root beer. They do it better than everyone else (namely Sprecher and Mission).

http://www.hardcorecraftbeer.com/stories/smalltown

 

I wonder what Small Town is going to do with all the money they made on NYFRB. Invest it in more NYFRB? Variants? Alcoholic Ginger Ale? Brew up some IPAs?

 

Not Your Mother's Loko

 

Yes, actually.

 

Two state distro of Illinois and Massachusetts doesn't make sense as it is

 

Pabst Brewing Company doesn't own any brewery because it is actually owned itself by a Russian company. Pabst Brewing had long been just a holding company that owned the rights to a number of trademark beer names that were contract brewed, like PBR itself, by a several different real breweries. Now they and the PBR name are all owned by Oasis Beverages in Russia.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/19/pbr-russian_n_5849262.html

 

Those early reports re: the Pabst sale were later corrected:

from New York Times.com business article - Hey Guys, the Russians Aren’t Buying Pabst After All

 

And I stand corrected as well - thanks, jess. Still, nobody should be under the illusion that Pabst is in any sense a brewery.

 

LOL... wow...

I just drink it and enjoy.....

 

Pabst is just a marketing company, a 'virtual brewery' if you will. I worked there for a bit in 2006..and having to drink Lone Star at a bar always made me die a little on the inside.

 

Holy crapola. It will be next!

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/24798/140849/

 

via the SOS -

LLC MANAGERS

Entity Name INNOVATIVE BREWING, LLC File Number 04304128
Name Address
HUNTER, CHRIS 640 N LASALLE DR SUITE 265, CHICAGO, IL - 60654
FREEMAN, JAISEN 640 N LASALLE DR SUITE 265, CHICAGO, IL - 60654
WRIGHT, JEFF 640 N LASALLE DR SUITE 265, CHICAGO, IL - 60654


Assumed Name
ACTIVE - SMALL TOWN CRAFT BEER COMPANY
ACTIVE - INNOVATIVE BEER COMPANY

 

My main issue is just how far some places go to hide the fact that who owns them. The only reason you hide your owners is to trick people into thinking it is something that it is not.

Do you not find it odd that on the Phusion Projects website that they do not list this brand? Or that on the Small Town Brewery website, they make no mention of their owning company?

You do that so you can sell to a market that would not really buy it otherwise. This is just another example of that.

 

I think brewing companies and beer marketing companies also use dba names or not note/advertise ownership to allow a product to stand on its own and not be subject to consumers' preconceived notions and prejudices. Large, and increasingly, mid-size brewers often sell beers and other beverages, alcoholic and non-, to very varied segments of the market. If those consumers looking for "something different" stumbled across Blue Moon Belgian White Ale in the late 1990s, Coors marketers probably had a valid concern that labeling it "Coors Belgian White Ale" might bring to mind the brewer's very different flagship light lager/light beer, and some potential buyers might not give the brand a chance. (And, of course, the reverse could also happen - consumers who might buy it thinking it was simply a version of Coors Beer).

Deceptive? Yeah - especially their commercials today which show a small brewery (ditto for the many BBC ads that show only their tiny pilot brewery in Boston and not their million+ barrelage breweries in Cincinnati or eastern PA). But the deception is done primarily for marketing reasons as this thread alone proves. Would this alcoholic root beer be "better" if "Small Town Brewing Co." was really just a small town brewery? Would dumping in a few liters of root beer flavor into a 10 bbl batch somehow be more "authentic" than a 55 gallon plastic drum of the stuff into the former Heileman flagship multimillion barrel brewery's 1000 bbl. kettles in Lacrosse, WI? Given today's beer market in the US, does Pabst or Phusion ownership really matter?

The other day I heard an interview about another food product where the guest said something to the effect of "Well, they're all made in the same factory so they are the same." Really? So, ingredients, recipe, process, brewer, etc., don't influence a product, only the physical brewery or the owner of the label do? In the early years, Samuel Adams Boston Lager and other BBC beers were often attacked by macro and micro brewers alike for being brewed in the "same brewery that makes Iron City Beer". Yeah, so? Sixpoint's beers are coming out of the same multimillion, Schlitz-built brewery that, apparently*, is also bottling MillerCoors' Smith and Forge Hard Cider* and numerous FMBs in Memphis. Are they the "same"? It's little wonder that many brewers opt for a dba name for a product aimed at a differnet market than their flagship brand(s).

*Since ciders do not need TTB COLAs, no official way to check but the dba's listing of "Uncharted Cider Co., Memphis, TN" certainly strongly suggests City's "Blue City" subsidiary's brewery.​

Although, in this case, I'm just amused that so many supposed "beer connoisseurs" are going crazy over a flavored malt beverage because it tastes "just like root beer". I mean, how hard is it to make something (in this case, a base beer) taste "just like root beer"? Soda pop and candy manufacturers do it every day, and any brewery has access to same herbs, spices and commercial, natural and artificial flavorings used by the former.

 

I guess I don't take your angle if thats OK with you.

I picked up some of this to drink, I liked it so I buy more. If I didn't like it I wouldn't buy anymore.

If they were doing something illegal or causing harm in some way I guess I would consider maybe not buying it but I don't think that is the case.

If you are worried about who helps them out to be able to distribute their product or whatever else they do for them I will leave that to you and anyone else who cares.

I will just continue to pick some up and drink it when I get the urge.

 

I am not one to say you can't - that is your own choice obviously. Nor will I ever criticize people for doing so.

I have never had it either - and the main reason I started looking into it was that they are coming into TX in the near future. I will probably buy one to try it, at least. I just found their hiding of all of the details interesting.

 

I agree on all of those points. I would also add that if a new product flops or is just a fad, using a DBA name can protect a company from inadvertently dilluting their main product line(s), i.e. main money-makers. For example, if hypothetically, the Blue Moon beer line was marketed as a Coors product and it flopped horribly, then it could have negative ripple effects into the preceptions of regular Coors drinkers about Coors' main products. In a world of AALs where very little separates brands flavor-wise, just the suspicion of change or degradation in quality could be enough for people to jump ship.