Three Floyds Goes to Europe

Discussion in 'Beer News' started by radium, Apr 26, 2012.

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  1. SpottedZombie

    SpottedZombie Initiate (0) Feb 7, 2012 Illinois

    I'll be at the Marriott bottleshare the night before, already have a lot of plans to meet up with as many BA's as I can! It'll be nice to put faces to the names.

    Personally, I think Nick is making a great business move if he's planning on collaborating with Mikkeler (or any prominent European brew house). That will increase brand awareness massively in Europe, might plant a lot of seeds early (there was talk of the craft beer scene being underdeveloped/nonexistent in Europe) in a relatively new market. Also, this adds to the allure of FFF. I've noticed that during my time here, it seems the harder a beer is to get, the better it is perceived to be once acquired.

    It's funny that people are complaining about FFF not distributing to the US outside of a small area, but the same thing could be said for essentially every other high-quality brewery (Deschutes, Alpine, HotD, CCB, etc).
     
  2. Pundarquartis

    Pundarquartis Initiate (0) Mar 13, 2010 Denmark

    Well... many unhappy faces here... but I at least would be happy as hell if Three Floyds decided to open up a brewpub in Copenhagen... or anywhere in Europe really.
     
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  3. dbmernin83

    dbmernin83 Initiate (0) Jun 13, 2010 California

    Come to SoCal. Jolly Pumpkin is here and you're closer! We don't have to have everything, just a few beers at least!
     
  4. doopiedoopiedoo

    doopiedoopiedoo Initiate (0) Oct 2, 2010 Netherlands

    I'd go for a FFF brewpub in Amsterdam. It would be good times.
    You guys would be happy is well if Cantillon opened a pub somewhere in the US, right?
     
  5. WillCarrera

    WillCarrera Initiate (0) Oct 11, 2010 Ohio

    exactly. the hard-on this entire forum would have would be just absurd. I live in Chicago, and while I'm not happy that it's a virtually impossible to buy Zombie Dust off the shelf in this city, I can't really imagine that FFF opening up a joint brewpub in Europe is gonna be a huge drain on FFF's production or the distribution to my city (or anywhere in the US). I think it'd be really cool for one of our top breweries to become more accessible to the European market, and doopledoopiedoo is totally right, if Cantillon opened up a brewpub in the US we know we would all go berserk and talk about nothing else for months on end. Really, this is nothing for us all to get pissed about, yes we all want more FFF, but this isn't necessarily going to prevent that from happening. I say good for Copenhagen or whichever lucky city this ends up happening in.
     
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  6. TongoRad

    TongoRad Grand Pooh-Bah (3,848) Jun 3, 2004 New Jersey
    Pooh-Bah Society Trader

    They were here, about 6 (?) years ago. Just a few beers, too (Alpha King, Robert the Bruce, and one or two more) but they couldn't consistently keep up with demand, and then pulled out not too much later. Overall it was a big letdown on a number of levels, and I'm at the point where I could do without them unless they really pick up their game.
     
  7. jesskidden

    jesskidden Grand Pooh-Bah (3,071) Aug 10, 2005 New Jersey
    Pooh-Bah Society Trader

    I'd say it was longer ago than that - more than a decade ago (based on where I lived/shopped at the time- I moved winter of 2001-2). I'm not so sure that local demand was that great, I recall some of their beers (particularly Robert the Bruce- granted, not a particularly popular beer style) sitting on the shelves long after they pulled out of NJ. Besides the the ones you mention, I think Pride & Joy ("This ain't no 'mild'...") and (maybe?) Gumball Head might have been here as well.

    My impression was that they were ahead of their time in NJ. Forget who distributed them here- Hunterdon?
     
  8. Treebs

    Treebs Initiate (0) Apr 18, 2011 Illinois

    It mentioned Chicago specific beers in the article. I'm only assuming that if they were to open that brewpub and one Europe they would be run as separate entities a la the Goose Island Clybourn and Wrigleyville brewpubs. Barely any drain on current GI production.
     
  9. TongoRad

    TongoRad Grand Pooh-Bah (3,848) Jun 3, 2004 New Jersey
    Pooh-Bah Society Trader

    I just went to the videotape (well...actually my old reviews) and I do have a review for Robert the Bruce from early 2006. So it's in that range- unless they were here for 4-5 years? It seemed like it was only about a year at the time.

    Like you said, though, Robert the Bruce was definitely the most common find. I got Alpha King about a half-dozen times, and the slot on the shelf was usually empty. Never even saw Gumball Head, and definitely would've picked it up in a second if I had. Things could've been different in different parts of the state, but I definitely remember them being hit or miss, and mostly miss.

    In the past 5 years or so I have definitely taken a much more interactive approach with the beer guys at the stores; back then I just relied on what I saw on the shelves. These days I definitely have a good sense of what is in backorder (hello, Founders/Hunterdon) and what simply doesn't sell. Maybe back then the stores were happy to sell what they had in stock and didn't re-order, I couldn't say, but I'm guessing that they would've been really happy to get Alpha King regularly, at least. They were more expensive than their competition, so that may have also been a contributing factor in the inconsistency (i.e. Hunterdon not placing regular orders?).
     
  10. joeebbs

    joeebbs Initiate (0) Apr 29, 2009 Pennsylvania

    Opening a pub in Europe has nothing to do with distributing bottles in the US. Did you even read the article you posted?
     
  11. Hanzo

    Hanzo Initiate (0) Feb 27, 2012 Virginia

    It indirectly does since we are talking about resources and company focus. Any effort towards this brewpub takes effort away from expanding distribution in the states.
     
  12. Jason

    Jason Founder (0) Aug 23, 1996 Massachusetts

    ... and to think at one point in time they had sent their beer to RI. :confused:
     
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  13. joeebbs

    joeebbs Initiate (0) Apr 29, 2009 Pennsylvania

    It doesn't say that the bar in Europe will be a brewpub. Just a "pub".
     
  14. Bluecane

    Bluecane Initiate (0) Dec 30, 2011 New York

    Does Cantillon have extremely small distribution in Europe? If not, then it's probably not a fair comparison, regardless of whether this is a good idea or not.
     
  15. ShogoKawada

    ShogoKawada Initiate (0) May 31, 2009 Pennsylvania

    Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, rub it in, Jason :slight_smile:
     
  16. doopiedoopiedoo

    doopiedoopiedoo Initiate (0) Oct 2, 2010 Netherlands

    it's not like we can buy it all over the place here as well.
    Any specialty bottle shop will have Kriek or Classic Geuze but it's hard to find Cuvee St Gilloise, Fou Foune and the likes in Holland, and it's sometimes quite the hassle even in Belgium.

    Point is, I think people seem to get pretty worked up about it. Might just want to chill out and have a (non FFF) beer.
     
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  17. frazbri

    frazbri Initiate (0) Oct 29, 2003 Ohio

    That's a fair statement, but much of this thread is direct reaction to not having access to 3F bottles in other states. Would they be better off building a new, larger brewhouse to accomodate our desire for Zombie Dust? Maybe, but they've always done things their way.
     
  18. Mandark

    Mandark Zealot (575) Apr 8, 2008 Illinois

    Sorry for being unclear--I didn't think you were mad, I was referring to those unclear on the distro vs brewpub idea. But your avatar does look rather peeved, anyway....:wink:

    For what it's worth, with the impending glut of new breweries in the city proper, I would rather see them open up in the far northwest suburbs where there's less competition and more space. But that's also just me being greedy.
     
  19. EseLocoSS

    EseLocoSS Initiate (0) Feb 2, 2010 Illinois

    The article doesn't say anything about Three Floyds going to Europe. It just says that Nick Floyd wants to open a collaboration pub with
    Mikkel Borg Bjergso in Europe. This doesn't mean it would be a FFF pub.
     
  20. radium

    radium Initiate (0) Feb 17, 2010 California

    Do you really think Floyd would fly ALL the way out to Europe to open a brewpub and NOT have Three Floyd's beer on tap? You're crazy if you think he wouldn't.

    Even though the article does not directly speak of distribution to other states, I still feel it's relevant to this conversation. Why would he dump so much energy in going to Europe? Shoot, Stone is still trying to figure this out and they distribute to (almost) the entire U.S. It seems to make more sense to me to get your beers all over the country to create enough of a buzz that Europe takes notice. Taking your beers to Europe without being really known seems like starting from nothing. You could make better use of time, energy, and money by getting your beer into the hands of MORE craft beer drinkers here in America than Europe. Hear me out - I want Floyd's to blow up and have people drink their beer, but why not start by getting your beer to the east and west coast.
     
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