Washington privatization, a year later.

You're going to have to cite your source. Everything I saw pointed to not being able to keep up with increased in demand

 

This thread, reply #21 has a link to the letter RR sent to accounts.http://beeradvocate.com/community/threads/russian-river-pulling-out-of-wa.58855/

 

While increased demand was the primary reason, they chose Washington over Colorado and Philly due to liquor laws in Washington. See the letter RR sent to wholesale customers: http://seattlebeernews.com/2013/01/russian-river-brewing-company-withdraws-from-washington-market/.

 

This might be an exercise in semantics, but I thought it was distribution laws, not liquor laws, cited as the secondary reason. Specifically, the fact that any retailer that placed an order for RR beer was entitled to the beer if it was available from the distributor, regardless of whether the brewery or distributor wanted the beer to be sold by that particular vendor; i.e., "control of brand." My understanding was that this situation existed before privatization of liquor sales, and that the former was in no way affected by the latter. Correct or not?

 

Correct. (1) The letter uses the term "liquor law" so I used it, too; (2) These distribution laws (actually administrative rules in the case to which RR objects) fall under "liquor laws" subject to the rule-making authority of the State Liquor Control Board; and (3) these laws/rules were not changed under the privatization initiative.

 

distantmantra suggested here that Russian River specifically cited privatization as a reason for the pullout. But just because RR used the phrase "liquor laws" in their letter doesn't mean they specifically meant privatization; and I'd argue that privatization had little or nothing to do with their decision to pull out (as far as we know anyway). I know that you didn't say directly that it did, but you did reply to StarRaptor supporting distantmantra's assertion that "liquor laws" (broadly defined) were a reason they pulled out. So I just wanted to clarify, "liquor laws" may have been one of the reasons they pulled out of Washington, but it wasn't because of privatization.

 

Agreed, again.

http://beeradvocate.com/community/threads/washington-privatization-a-year-later.78726/#post-1131746

 

Went in to Bevmo-Ballard today (my first stop in a Bevmo). Awful selection of wine, awful selection of beer, awful selection of liquor. What am I missing here?

Seemed so disgustingly suburban. Where the hell am I supposed to be buying bourbon?

 

"Where the hell am I supposed to be buying bourbon?"

TPS aka The Party Source in KY. Check out their website. You'll never buy in WA again.