Stone Enjoy By distribution question(s)

I'm pretty sure the "Enjoy By" series is shipped to certain distributing areas every other month. Example: If you got the 9/2/15 version the next one in your distro area would be 11/?/15

 

The mysterious world of beer distribution, my bottle shop guy even seems perplexed by the randomness of it all sometimes.too bad it can't be more straight forward, its just beer.

 

What @eb1610 said is pretty much right. Each version of Enjoy By does not go to the same places all the time. While Florida did get 10/31/15 we aren't getting another until the 12/25/15 edition. If you got to http://enjoyby.stonebrew.com it has the most recent and upcoming releases on the bottom that you can click. It then says which states are getting it. The current on (11/27/15) is showing as only going throughout California. So once the local market is dry on 10/31/15 that's it until the 12/25/15 one comes out. Those stores you saw on the site may have had 10/31/15 but just ran out.

 

@peteboiler - as someone who used to distribute Stone, the answer is no, mostly. Stone would decide which batches we (SC) would receive, but it was up to us to make sure our Stone supporters were covered as best we could. Some accounts sold through it faster than others.

 

Not totally. It's a 3 tier system at work. So there are a lot of moving parts.

1. Supplier - Stone decides to send Enjoy By batch to specific states. They work with their distributors in those states to decide how much to send each one.
2. Distributor - The distributor receives the beer and then sells it to the retail stores and bars. Depending on quantities some may get them while others may not. For something limited like Enjoy By they probably take care of accounts that are big Stone buyers first.
3. Retailer - They sell the beer to the public but with a small supply they may sell out. They may try to re-order it but the distributor is out until the next batch.

As for updating their website with listings this itself can go many ways. Most distributors report to their breweries where sales on product goes but neither the brewery or distributor may know when that retailer is out of said product. This is why the site may have said your nearby stores had it but when you went in they weren't available. Those "beer finders" on websites are not real time. For example I get a report each month at the brewery I work for from our distributor that shows accounts that purchased. This allows me to update our page to the best of my ability.

So it looks like you will probably just have to hang tight on more Enjoy By until late November/early December.

 

Unfortunately, not all batches of Enjoy By make it to every market. Each batch is a different size, we try and be fair about where the smaller batches end up.

As for our Enjoy By Site and beer finder, that information is where the beers are supposed to go and are not removed from the map at any point (e.g. it sells out). The best thing to do would be to would be to check out the map and call before heading over, just in case!

Cheers,
Jamie Sherlock