Russian River pulling out of WA?

Discussion in 'Pacific' started by distantmantra, Dec 31, 2012.

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  1. bgramer

    bgramer Initiate (0) Feb 10, 2006 Washington

    This. I've come into contact with Vinnie several times, both in person and via email. He's solid and has earned my respect not because he's a "nice guy" but because he's given back into the homebrewing community many times over. His letter is good enough of an explanation to me.

    Bottom line is, every business is different and he probably has some internal business affairs to settle and adjust his brewing operations (including distribution) to reflect that. That's really none of our business anyway.
     
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  2. Smurf2055

    Smurf2055 Initiate (0) Nov 12, 2011 Washington

    Unless you find it in some truly backwater place, I think it's long gone. Last time I saw it was July or August. Full Throttle and Super Deli are some of the last stores to have these things.
     
  3. BuckeyeOne

    BuckeyeOne Initiate (0) Mar 9, 2008 Washington

    I received a good explanation from Natalie via email (in response to my email confirming what I thought might be a rumor prior to seeing the letter). (1) They're at 100% capacity and don't plan to expand anytime soon, (2) WA liquor laws prevent them from directing who receives their beer, and (3) all of the beer that was being distributed to WA will be sold at the pub. As a aside, according to her email, Philly gets a "small amount."

    Finally, they do not currently have a plan to come back to WA unless they "build another production brewery and if Washington changes their liquor laws."
     
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  4. yojimbo1

    yojimbo1 Initiate (0) Feb 26, 2012 Kansas
    Trader

    Good info. So it was lip service...

    I'm a little curious if they don't want to expand at all or more likely if they don't want to give away anymore equity to investors and prefers to pay down company bonds at a faster clip using the better margins at the brew pub and someday expand into a larger production brewery without giving up additional equity.

    Also I kind of forgot about Younger until now. I haven't had the chance to try it yet and was hoping this would be the year. It's too bad they couldn't wait a couple more months. I assume their contract with Click was just expiring.
     
  5. 66jzmstr

    66jzmstr Pundit (836) Jul 17, 2005 Washington

    Bottlez Up in Kirkland did this. After that, and after leaving their "Grand Opening!!!" banner up for two years, they now appear to be out of business. My simple mind chalks this up to karma.

    My dog and I are going on a Russian River around Kirkland this afternoon.

    BTW, Kendall now has a blog post up about this: http://www.washingtonbeerblog.com/pliny_washington/
     
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  6. distantmantra

    distantmantra Pooh-Bah (2,954) May 23, 2011 Washington
    Pooh-Bah Trader

    I had Younger last February at Last Drop, but I was looking forward to taking a bunch of my buddies this year to try it. Oh well.
     
  7. tozerm

    tozerm Initiate (0) Jul 1, 2005 Washington

    2(a). Costco started a petition last year to challenge the three tier system, in turn moving WA into an open state model. Costco's thinking was that liquor/beer/wine suppliers would sell directly to them if they had the warehousing and capabilities to distribute. Costco coughed up significant investment in warehousing/DCs thinking that by cutting out the middle man (distributor) by becoming the middle man they would have lower prices than ever before. This backfired to an extent, because many big suppliers have multi state contracts with distributors or don't want to piss off their current distributor partners and put all their eggs in one basket with a big muscle retailer who has no incentive to build brands and entire strategy is bases upon low-price.

    2(b). What you see when you go to a grocery store on spirits are the new taxes as part of the new law, which has lead to significant price increases in the first year. What you also see is more private label cheap plastic bottles (Prestige) than in any other state in the country. This is where the WA law comes into place. These little run of the mill suppliers are selling directly to stores and bypassing a distributor which is why the private label products are much cheaper than all the other products. The problem is that the big suppliers with great operational and distilling capabilities aren't making the liquid because the current sensitivity of bypassing their distributor partner who carries all there name brands to steal a little share of the cheap stuff. Cascade doesn't mean a lot to distributors given their current model (barrel house online and brewery sales, limited distro) so if they sell directly to the retailers they aren't running much risk.[/quote]

    Beer has nothing to do with the new spirits/wine laws in Washington, but what you say relating to spirits is basically correct.
     
  8. Dogfishipas

    Dogfishipas Initiate (0) May 3, 2008 Washington

    Please don't rush out to buy up all the inventory left on the shelves before I get a chance lol.
     
  9. distantmantra

    distantmantra Pooh-Bah (2,954) May 23, 2011 Washington
    Pooh-Bah Trader

    Pliny is long gone, but I haven't seen a run on the -tions in the last couple days at my local spots.
     
  10. Orca

    Orca Grand Pooh-Bah (4,441) Sep 18, 2010 Washington
    Pooh-Bah Society

    That's what the rest of us are thinking too.
     
  11. distantmantra

    distantmantra Pooh-Bah (2,954) May 23, 2011 Washington
    Pooh-Bah Trader

    Chucks on 85th only has Damnation according to their FB feed. Let the hoarding commence.
     
  12. Orca

    Orca Grand Pooh-Bah (4,441) Sep 18, 2010 Washington
    Pooh-Bah Society

    I'm gonna take a wild guess who got a lot of those bottles. :wink:

    [​IMG]
     
  13. distantmantra

    distantmantra Pooh-Bah (2,954) May 23, 2011 Washington
    Pooh-Bah Trader

    Surely you're kidding. :wink:
     
  14. yojimbo1

    yojimbo1 Initiate (0) Feb 26, 2012 Kansas
    Trader

    I just got here in early Feb but was busy unpacking and wasn't really aware of where to find that. Oh we'll cant blame anyone but myself. When I was living in Southern California I went have it at one place but I was about five minutes late, damn.
     
  15. pjdipes

    pjdipes Initiate (0) Nov 18, 2012 Washington

    Supplication and Sanctification are at Rocky's Deli on 196th in Lynnwood. Multiple bottles of both.
     
  16. adkieffer

    adkieffer Initiate (0) Nov 23, 2010 Washington

    Man, leave for a couple days and shit hits the fan. Time to find what I can, then start buying bottled sours made by WA brewers.........oh, wait! Much happier with my choice to join Crooked Stave's Reserve Club now! I will at least have a consistent follow of world class sours rolling in.

    I hope to have them back again soon. If the WA distribution companies can't figure their shit out it is gonna be a long year. Get it together Click and A/B!!!
     
  17. Dogfishipas

    Dogfishipas Initiate (0) May 3, 2008 Washington

    Well I was able to get (2) Consecration (2) Temptation (2) Supplication and (1) Redemption. I now have to hide the receipt from my wife and not buy anything for the rest of 2013 haha.
     
  18. Mages64

    Mages64 Initiate (0) Sep 7, 2009 Washington

    Please explain... I can promise you that this was not because of anything Click did... and A/B has nothing to do with this:slight_smile:
    Also, if a retailer were to go down to the brewery itself and pick it up, then you can resell it... just sayin'.
     
  19. distantmantra

    distantmantra Pooh-Bah (2,954) May 23, 2011 Washington
    Pooh-Bah Trader

    [​IMG]

    Don't give Chuck any ideas.
     
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  20. Smurf2055

    Smurf2055 Initiate (0) Nov 12, 2011 Washington

    He's got a couple of the 750's in his private stash but we were actually sold out of everything except Redemption and Temptation before this was announced. I told him we should put away a case of Supplication because it was going to be the last release for a while, but we stocked it and sold it anyway. Oh well.
     
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