SN Fall Variety Pack

I don't know what's up. I just know my gf picked one up in Morristown like 2-3 weeks ago. Why not just make the drive if you know where it is and want it? Nothing in there was all that special, IMO. Although it did make me remember how goddamn good SNPA is.

 

I asked my local place about it today and they were surprised to know that such a thing even existed. I think the Kohler salesmen aren't telling the stores about it. It seems to be on the monthly order sheets, but it's buried in a wall of text; so if you don't know to order it, you won't hear about it.

Too much stuff is being mis-handled these days...

 

Haven't seen any in my area. We didn't get any of the 4 way ipa packs either when they came out. I was hoping we would get this one because the area did get the beer camp pack but it looks like we got jerked again on this one -.-

 

Not sure about Jersey but finally hit Long Island. Don't know what the hell took so long. Probably because they still have a lot of Summerfest still on shelves.

 

Yeah, it seems the SN wholesaler network in NJ (Coors or Miller houses, IIRC - Hub City, Shore Point, Peerless, Kohler, Warren South) doesn't put a lot of emphasis on SN's distribution or freshness, so new releases are often late to the shelves (compared to neighboring states) and some never show up at all. And lots of older SN beer on the shelves, as well.

I don't think I've bought any Torpedo since the first year it came out because I gave up checking the dates. Although my "favorite" example is seeing a stack of "fresh off the handtruck" just delivered stack of cases sitting on the floor of a retailer that contained a case each of the Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere Harvest Ales. Don't remember now if it was the spring or fall, but one of those beers was at least 6 months old.

It's a shame, because Sierra Nevada is (or would be...) one of the very few breweries from outside the northeast that I routinely buy, but that's pretty much limited to a 12 pack of Celebration and a six of Bigfoot these days, plus these newer variety packs --- when they can be found.

EDIT > Oh, wait - I guess I did get a 12 pack of canned Summerfest this year, too

 

Do you guys in NJ pay as much for Sierra Nevada as we do in PA? We pay a lot more than many parts of the country, like 40$ a case of torpedo or pale ale compared to 28$ in Delaware. If we had SN available at the real price point there wouldn't even be competition.

 

Yeah- up here Total Wine will occasionally put things like Torpedo on sale, but if you look through the stack they're a few months old already. And, as of last week, they didn't even have the Fall Pack, which surprised the heck out of me. You'd think that the salesmen would want to move the beer out of the warehouse (especially to a huge account like Total Wine), but it looks like it can sit around for at least a month before anybody starts mentioning it to the stores (which is what happened with Beer Camp over the summer).

 

JK, is this solely the purview of the Wholesale Distributors? Is there any leeway that Sierra Nevada has within their contracts to improve this situation?

I wonder if Bill Manley (@sierranevadabill) is aware of this issue?

Cheers!

Jack

 

It's kinda the job of the state/regional SN rep to see that their local wholesalers are getting the beers into the market in a timely manner, and keeping fresh stock on the shelves.