Stone Brewing Announces Restructuring & Layoffs

There are certainly some low quality local beers on the shelves. Based on my own experience tasting, there are also some mediocre nationally distributed beers on the shelves (perhaps better on QA though? Mediocre in a more consistent fashion? ) Clearly there are non locavore beer drinkers who cannot or do not always choose quality. We should encourage all beer drinkers to be better informed, and encourage quality (as well as QA) at brewers of all sizes. Those of us who value the local food movement can continue to take geography and size into account, while also encouraging quality. This is particularly easy to do in places with multiple local breweries - support the best ones.

 

Indeed.

Although I'd say the concern that many have is that such small start up breweries may not be getting the feedback from customers or engaging in the self criticism required for them to recognize the need for improvement and then take the steps required to make improvements. If they don't have the necessary experience to recognize brewing faults and are repeatedly getting positive feedback from the customers about how great their beer is....

 

I agree. I considered this view in my response to @rgordon above, but I focused on the quality side of the argument to avoid rambling more than I already did. There is an out-spoken minority of localvores who can be quite annoying and generate some backlash against the buy-local movement. Furthermore, when a devout localvore craft beer drinker also does not know enough about beer quality to taste a flaw when it's there, then their mind is doubly defended against any contrary facts, logic, or opinions.

 

Well, at the end of the day any business that keeps their customers happy will be a successful business.

Tom, I suspect that breweries in our area (SEPA) will need to produce higher quality beer in order to succeed since there is so much competition from high quality breweries (e.g., Sly Fox, Victory, Yards,...) and high quality brewpubs (e.g., Forest & Main, Tired Hands, Iron Hill,...).

I can't comment to the dynamics of other areas of the country.

Cheers!

 

Yup, for sure, even if only beause SEPA has a greater density of folks who are able to drink and experience a much wider range of beers (quality wise) than folks do some areas.

I recall on my second visit to Brussels (when I made the the first I wasn't yet a fan of flavorful beer ), spending a good bit of time during those two weeks looking to find some top quality Belgian beers that I hadn't already tried. It was a real challenge after I'd ticked off some Cantillon and the Westvleteren beers. (On the other hand I got to have fresh Westmalle Tripel with my dinner most nights. )

 

Actually, you'd think so but often, not true. Usually the MC or Bud wholesaler draws the POG and runs the resets at chain grocers. Harris Teeter for example, actually has a MillerCoors rep (paid 100% by MC), who works out of an office at the HT corporate office: drawing sets, pitching ads, etc etc. So no, it's quite rigged. Also, if you park a pallet of SN/Sam in the front of every store in your chain, and they sell it at $0.50 over cost, how is anyone small every going to get any traction when only a case fits in their slot in the cooler? At most you can sell one case a day, until the salesman/merchandiser fills it up again. That's not even accounting for the brands that can't even get into the sets/cooler at these mega chains.

 

I bought a can of Stone IPA (brewed in Germany) when it was released this summer at the monopoly here and my impression of it was that it could have been brewed by just about any modern craft brewery, including any number of Swedish craft breweries already on the shelf here. Caramel malt (without sweetness), American hops, bitterness, overall clean flavor. I bought one can and most likely wont buy a second can, my next IPA purchase will most likely be a Swedish brewed IPA which provides the same flavor profile without any perceptible reduction in quality. That's my take on it at least. I simply don't see the point in brewing Stone IPA in Berlin as opposed to in California as they didn't even print canned on dates on the cans sold here.

 

And I'm willing to bet that GI IPA being pushed on to lots of taps is affecting Stone. Where GI use to be one of the default IPAs on tap at the less beercentric establishments I'm now seeing GI IPA almost exclusively. (Think airports, hotel bars, etc.)

 

FWIW I have noticed the same thing. How much of Stone's competition is the crafty breweries owned by AB InBev or MillerCoors (or whatever they are called these days) vs. local breweries is anybody's guess. Maybe Stone has done some market assessment studies which quantify this?

Cheers!

 

I'm very familiar with HTs reset technique- free labor from a distributor (Bud/Miller/Gallo-wine) and the remainder of the suppliers if they wish to keep space or garner any new skus. It has always seemed illegal to me, but they continue the practice. The resets are supposedly using sales numbers to justify what goes where. The classic is to suggest a newly authorized item to the guy leading the set, to which he replies, "That item shows 0 movement". The chain sets are very rigged to always include key new items from the big distributors. The practice was/is an insult to the smaller distributors, some of which had the most "cutting edge" new beers. My company quit doing business with these chains for this very reason. This was a number of years ago as a large number of independent retailers began emerging to properly supply the burgeoning craft scene.

 

Right on! Unfortunately that's not feasible if you have beer+cider (and especially wines) that have to be in the chains ie not going into any specialty shops. VA is possibly a little different since the brands can't leave their wholesaler, they own the franchise, that is the sole rights to sell that brand.

People say Total Wine is "bad" but they're by far the most "fair" in terms of giving new stuff from anyone a shot and not dominating the sales floor with stuff from the biggest cash/executive vacation sponsor. Trader Joe's and Costco probably second, all grocery chains and convenience chains far out of sight in last place.

 

Getting back on the original topic, have earlier posts made by some former Stone employees been deleted from this thread?

 

For your consideration I replied to one BA's post (see reply below) and that post no longer exists.

Was that BA a former Stone employee? Boy, I don't know.

"Can you please provide some more information here? I would appreciate to read more on this topic.

Cheers!"

Cheers!

 

Virginia and North Carolina ABC laws are similar. Yep, Total had no problem with new items. They also bought BIG!

 

Your definition of quality is subjective taste. Mine isn't. End of story.

 

When was the last time sierra nevada put out a beer that was knowingly far too sour and told you to sit on it (proclamation), grassy and much different for a long period of time than the beer you knew (wormtown), released a beer that accidentally soured and just slipped the word tart into the description (CBC and NS), released a beer that burnt most people who drank its throats (Trill), sold through a beer and then admitted it shouldnt have been released all while having the most laughable percentage of good to bad beer of any brewery in the state?(NS)

There are some great breweries here but quality is far more that you just liking some beers.

 

We actually sell very little Goose Island & Ballast....... Other beer that has become available in the last 2 years (take 2 bigger brands like New Belgium & Shiner) we also sell very little of. People couldn't wait until it was available in our area, then tried it all and moved on. I guess if you can get it any day of the week the novelty wears off. People are gravitating to the lesser known brands that they haven't heard of. But I get your point, that's something I did not think about.

 

Not a sou/tart/gose kind of beer drinker. I drink Wormtown be hoppy. Changes going to a new brewery? All of the Night Shift hoppy beers have been great. I don't buy Trillium. Night Shift santilli took silver in the world beer cup against 280? other American ipa entries. Enjoy what you like, Boston has ones of the best local beer scenes in the country. That said, just about the only national brand I buy is Sierra Nevada, at least 6 cases every year. Just got a case of Narwhal to cellar over the winter. I heard celebration is due out pre Thanksgiving. Something to be said for being safe and others to push the boundaries. Quality, everyone has their own opinion.

 

Wrong. If you talk to a brewer "quality" is a system of best practices and traceable/verifiable measurements of the beer being produced. You don't have to believe me because you can read all about quality and best practices on the Brewers Association website HERE.

People who use the word "quality" to support an opinion of taste are using the word incorrectly, usually because they are grasping for terms that make their opinion sound more valid and authoritative than "I like/dislike this."

 

OK, great points.