Does Alpine Brewing distribute to NorCal?

I don't think I've ever seen it here. I'm dying to try one of their brews!

hell, it's rare to see it in Southern California past Carlsbad.

Alpine is only for Alpiners.

It is actually the opposite. Most of their bottled beer bypasses San Diego and goes north to Los Angeles.

https://alpinebeerco.wordpress.com/where-to-buy/

It's rare to see anything but Mandarin Nectar in the liquor store 100' from the brewery.

In los angeles i usually can get captain stout or mandarin nectar it is very rare to see anything else.
Hence the reason I am taking off work tomorrow to go down to the brewery should be there for liquid lunch.
Woohoo can't wait. Damn do I love the DUET

yes i know of one place in sf, unfortunantely ive seen everything but their ipas! i know of another spot near my house that used to a few years ago but has since stopped getting any of their stuff.

All of the beer shops in North County San Diego wonder what they did to get snubbed by Alpine. We used to get it all the time but it is very rare now.

Nothing, probably. They will keep themselves stocked before stores.

Somehow a case of Alpine beers ends up in my house every few months.

Seeing how limited their production is, it is odd that Alpine couldn't get the money together to expand last year considering the amount of money being put into so many start-ups. Even if the returns were not as good, I would think that an investment in Alpine would be more attractive than a crap shoot with a new company.

Could be lack of a solid business plan? Great beer doesn't attract investors, the business plan does.

You're right. I have the prospectus. If I remember correctly, they were looking for investors in a new building. I don't think they were offering equity in the separate brewing business.

Even so, having a strong tenant in a new building might still be a better than some of the new start-ups coming out monthly.

Alpine owns the land where the new brewery will go. But finding the right (silent) investors is what I believe Pat is looking for. They want to keep it a family business and I think he has some pretty tough terms so the search continues. At least that's what I remember from a year ago.

Not much is found from Sun Diego and north. So I make the two hour drive to the brewery/pub for a case or two every 3-4 months. And for the grub too!! Makes for a nice road trip to Alpine.

It is probably snowing there today.

Bring chains!!

Don't worry, it's not snowing up here. You'd have to go a ways further east to see any snow.

And seriously, I think the last time it snowed up here was in like 2001.

The News was saying snow above 3500. I guess Alpine is just under that. Cajon Pass is higher.

Elevation in Alpine is under 2000 ft. The elevation out near where the 8 and the 79 intersect is about 3500 feet. So about 10-15 miles further east is where you might start seeing snow. It usually doesn't stick to the ground until about 4000-4500 feet.

A couple store owners make the drive down to pick bottles up to sell in their store, but you'll definitely pay a premium for them.

Perry's in Livermore had some a couple months back and sold them at $10 a piece. I also hear Pangaea in Sac occasionally has some, but you'll pay closer to $20 a bottle.

Alpine doesn't even get Alpine haha. Two weeks ago, they didn't have any bottles of Duet. Last week, I heard they were out of Nelson bottles. That's fine with me. Ensures the freshness of their beer

I see plenty of Alpine Ale and Willy.

On another note, are other people as annoyed as I am by auto-play sound on their web site?

This is the correct answer. They're never officially up here, but sometimes stores with a poor grasp of California beer laws buy and resell their stock. Perry's is the most well known and likely to have their stuff in stock.

I fucking hate their website because of that. I avoid going to their site at all costs.

Edit: I just checked out their site for purely masochistic reasons and they have changed it. There's no more crappy midi-generated annoying beer pouring sounds!!!

I think they were/are overvaluing the business by quite a bit. The potential ROI was not that attractive.

2 years ago now but I have a picture from a pub visit when some snow was falling. Didn't last long.

You are correct - Google led me to their old web pages, which still exist but not via direct link:

http://www.alpinebeerco.com/index2.html

what a gentle euphemism

They never update their webpage, their Staff page is out of date by at least 6 months.

Yah I think I remember that now. I've lived up here since I was about 3 years old and can count the number of times I've seen it snow on one hand. It's few and far between, but it does happen.

Edit: Now the weather forecasters are saying it'll snow down to about 2000 feet. So Alpine may get a dusting. Still no need to take snow chains unless you plan on trekking further east.

Hence the sign in the brewery that states no reselling of their beer purchased there. Oh well, whaddya gonna do, eh?

I know of one particular store that has Alpine's blessing to do this, but I think the proprietor is a special case and Pat probably likes him.

That's just stupid to be a business and not want to have more of your product distributed

What? No, Alpine is a TINY small brewery that makes maybe ~3,000BBL/yr. They can't keep their existing accounts supplied with beer, there's simply zero surplus to be distributed. Their motto has always been "Serve locals first."

I'm not talking about them pushing to expand/distribute. I'm talking about this idea that they should or even could be pissed if someone wants to come in and buy the sell thru bottles they're pushing out of their brew pub. Yeah, I get the "serve locals first" mantra, but even then, Downtown S.D. is a solid distance away from it. So can they even be considered local?

Either way, someone wants to come and buy my product and spread the word of how good my beer is, potentially drawing more to come visit my tiny shack of a brewery, I wouldn't be pissy.

Are you implying it's "pissy" to want to have control over how your product is distributed and sold? What about the legalities of re-sale? How about the conditions (and length of time) under which it's stored before being sold?

Is it "pissy" to be upset when you hear of your beer being stored warm, on a shelf, for who knows how many months, because someone is trying to get $20.00 a bottle for it? And when someone buys that old, oxidized IPA, and is disappointed that it isn't what they expected, whom do you think they complain to? Pat gets those emails, and dammit, I'd be "pissy" too, because he's tried to do everything he can to make sure that doesn't happen. His few existing bottle accounts have all committed to keeping his beer refrigerated, and none of them (well, OK, maybe one, we all know which one) are price-gouging.

The bottles for sale at the brewery and pub are for RETAIL CUSTOMERS to take home, drink, and enjoy. Trades happen, and that's understood. Store owners, buying up bottles (which would otherwise be available for customers who took the time to travel out to Alpine) and re-selling them, just to make a buck, is WRONG, and if you think it's "pissy" for him to refuse to do business with them, then you, sir, don't get the Big Picture.

Doing this with knowledge is illegal and violates the 3 tier system. Pat could probably lose his license if he knowingly sold to retailers.

Let's not get into the three tier system, since we all seem to toss that out the window with trades and the feeling is that it's time to put that out to pasture anyway. Since, you know, apparently it's not against the law in the case where he's buddies with some. Opening that can of worms is best walked away from.

Huh?