Written on Monday, August 10th, 2009 at 2:08pm by Ethan Cox | 2 Comments

You can’t buy 3 Floyds in Buffalo…

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… or Russian River.  Or New Belgium.  Or Hair Of The Dog.  Or… you get the point.

Well, we here at BOV get press releases (and even, sometimes, beer to review: look for that later this week; also our review of the Buffalo Brewfest), and while I try to avoid simple, mechanical “re-tweeting,” this seemed to merit it.  Thus, I crib:

Craft beer consumers have long been frustrated with the 3-tier beer system because they can not easily influence what beer brands are offered in the market. Those days might be over as a new website called BeerPetitions.com aims to empower craft beer drinkers to organize their demands so retail establishments know what their patrons want to purchase. This simple idea could give craft breweries and distributors a competitive edge when convincing retailers to carry specific craft brands.

That right, it’s a simple, but potentially powerful idea: if there’s a beer you wish Try-It, or Certo Brothers, or T.J. Sheehan would pick up, let them know! Well, to be fair, you can (and should) probably just email them directly- you should also inform your friendly staff at Consumer’s, Premier, or The Village Beer Merchant.  But BeerPetitions.com seems to offer you yet another tool, and one that let’s you keep some track yourself of whether your favorite beer is in demand around here, too. Give it a try today, and let’s see if we can’t get, let’s say, Lost Abbey, down at the VBM in a few months!

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2 Comments

  1. John says:
    August 10, 2009 at 10:46 pm

    The problem with this is that some of these craft brewers simply do not brew enough beer to make such a petition useful. In fact, I believe Russian River has pulled out of some markets that they were formerly in because they simply could not keep up with demand. I do not believe that we are victims of the 3-tier system, we’re dealing with the facts of craft brewers not having the capacity to meet demand. Especially with highly sought-after beers like Pliny the Elder / Younger, demand outstrips production. All the beer petition does is confirm what Russian River (and distributors) already know: people really want Russian River beers. I don’t think it is likely to have much influence.

  2. Ethan says:
    August 11, 2009 at 11:40 am

    Those are good points: I don’t think anyone whats to be able to get Russian River at the expense of putting them out of business! Moreover, I know a lot of people are “thinking local,” and so understand that there is merit in having to travel to get certain beers, rather than thinking all the world’s beers should be available at any time. A final point: The VBM (or Consumer’s, or whomever) is only as good as their ability to manage their inventory: selling staled beer doesn’t help anyone out.

    So, having said all that, I still think there is merit in their being a system whereby local customers, retailers and distributors can easily monitor the ebb and flow of demand. If the brewers can’t or won’t be able to step in to meet that demand, so be it. But at least they’ll know better where to target their expansion efforts, which saves $$ and waste.

 

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