Time for Tastemaking PDX Beer Bars to Stop Supporting Big Beer

While I agree with your underlying sentiment, I don't consider Firestone Walker among the breweries you've listed. I just don't think of Duvel Moortgat in the same category as InBevMillerCoors and Constellation. DM's portfolio is still pretty much craft IMO.

 

As usual, I'll point the finger at us, the beer consumer. We continue to buy these beers. And, even if we don't, we still shop at these stores. If you spend money at shop, the store is taking some of your money, and using it against you, and buying more macrocraft beers. We'll have to become willing to miss out on certain things, and not support those stores.

On the other hand, I've never understood why a beer store refuses to sell the cheap, mainstream beers. The college kids are gonna buy their cheap beer somewhere, why not from the craft store? The store can then use that money against the large brewers. Put a pallet of Bud Light in the back of the store, why let the mini-mart down the street get that money? Charge a buck more for a cold case than you do a warm one. Take the profits from that pallet and buy some beer from the new brewery. or the one that's struggling to save money for a couple new fermentors.

Either way, it's on us as consumers.

 

I blame it on the distributors you have to keep them happy.

 

And that's part of the other side of my coin. Stores want (for example) BCBS because we will stand in line on Black Friday for them. To get that beer, they've gotta carry other beers from that brewery, during the year. Somebody has to be buying them, because the stores keep getting more. If we consumers stopped caring about BCBS, B-Bomb, whatever hype-wagon beer beer ya care to mention, the stores would stop ordering the base beers from the macrocraft brewers, thus opening shelf and tap space for more local/regional brews.

 

"We have met the enemy and he is us."

 

Bars and bottle shops (at least most of them) are in the business of selling what their customers want to buy. As @beertunes said, if people stopped buying it, the stores would stop stocking it. Wheterhwe like it or not, we're in the tiny minority of people who know and care about who owns the brewery.

Need proof that most people don't know or don't care? Look at how busy 10 Barrel's pubs are.

 

It does make me happy seeing Elysian's pumpkin fest still not sold out. It used to sell out within a week back when it was a 3 day event. Now it's been almost a month since tickets went on sale for the 1 day event and tickets are still available. Take that ABI.

 

The problem is not with the locations which choose to serve what you call "Big Beer." The problem is the people who choose to purchase those products.

If you go to "(insert bottle shop here)" and see Big Beer on tap...don't buy it. If nobody buys it, then the location won't carry it.

OR: If you feel so strongly about it, the next time you see Big Beer on tap at "(insert bottle shop here)"...ask the owners to stop serving it. I'd love to hear the response you get.

 

I have a feeling he's referring to Beermongers recent Goose Island Flyover tap takeover. They sell very little GI beer, but still host their events.

 

I think running a beer bar means compromising and picking one's battles (like all businesses), and it's easier to call for absolutes when one doesn't have to keep the business viable. Make your wishes known to the places where you drink, and if you find a place that changes, support the hell out of 'em, but you're fighting against some larger market forces.

 

You'd be surprised. When the Station first relocated we did offer all of the big brands, imports like Corona, and retro lagers in several formats. The ones that didn't sell were discontinued, and now the only things they carry are PBR, Rainer, and a couple other things like that in 6pk pint cans.

The folks in the neighborhood didn't want them because it was cheaper at the Fred Meyer on Hawthorne, and the beer geeks didn't want it for obvious reasons.

 

As a retailer, I can tell you, this is something I struggle with. I would love to see the day where a local beer release creates city wide fervor like black friday, but right now BCBS and it's variants continue to draw crowds that other beers just don't. I like to think our bottle selection is pretty good, but the only time we have ever had a line outside for 30 min before we opened, was for Rare. It would just be bad business if we did not continue to do what was necessary to get that beer again.

 

As a consumer, I am extremely happy that most releases to not create 1 hour lines. I think thats what makes Portland special. And the real special releases are usually so limited that the beer is gone before a line can even develop.

 

Who are these "shops in disguise"?

 

If you really cared, you'd stop going to these places. Hypocrite.

 

I think squaremile was referring to beers which are "AB-InBev in disguise" (Elysian, Goose Island, etcetera).

 

I think you missed the point. It's not that the line was so big it took an hour, people were just willing to get there 30 min early, to make sure they got it (which does not happen for any other beers that are so widely distributed). I was just trying to illustrate that the demand/buzz for this beer exceeds that of most beers, even the "really special beers" you mentioned. If your goal is to get more people in your shop, you need beer that can draw a crowd, and that one does.