Good Beer Hunting

Today we’re going to dig into a part of the beer business that’s hard to crack—distribution. It’s typically very difficult to talk about this part of the three-tier system because it’s full of confusing laws that vary state-to-state, it’s federally mandated and regulated, and probably he most important reason is that no one is incentivized to really discuss it. It’s where a lot of the concentration of wealth happens in the beer industry, and when things get consolidated, there’s rarely progress, innovation, or even basic transparency as to how it all works. It’s a bit of a black box. But looking at it from the craft brewer’s perspective, it’s a box that needs opening. And in the last decade, a lot of the power dynamic has shifted due to new laws that increase access to market for brewers—things like self-distribution, dock sales, and own-premise taprooms have put producers much more in the roles of distributors and retailers than ever before. As a result, they’re having ideas. They’re getting ambitious about their go-to-market strategies. And they’re starting to get creative. Today’s guest is a catalyst for that kind of change. Kimberly Clements, a former owner of Golden Eagle distributors in Arizona, and her business partner Daniel Lust, who was a pricing analyst and territory manager at Golden Eagle, are the founding duo behind Pints LLC, a consulting company that helps brewers strategize new markets and distribution. They also work on the distribution side of things, helping align the interests of craft brewers and distributors across the country. Their insight into this part of the business is amazing. If you’ve ever wanted to learn how distributions really works, and what the challenges really look like, this is the episode for you. As a bonus, we get a really stark look into exactly how distribution networks, even so-called independent distributors, are controlled by AB-InBev’s influence form one generation to the next. It’s an amazingly candid conversation with someone who knows the ins and outs, both historical and contemporary. And before we begin, a quick shoutout to On Tour brewing for hosting us for this talk. As some of you know, we’re moving to a new studio space just down the street from On Tour, but it’s not ready until next week, so they were really gracious in hosting us so we had a temporary place to record this episode. I certainly didn’t want to miss my chance to talk to these folks. So thanks to On Tour for the hospitality. And fair warning, this is a live brewery taproom environment, so it’s not the quiet studio recording you’re used to. But it’s totally worth the listen. Thanks to Mark and the On Tour crew for helping us out. They’re great neighbors.

After last week’s brief layover in Colorado for a chat with WeldWorks, we’re returning to Spain this week. If you haven’t already, you can check out a thematic part one to this episode featuring Xavier Losada, brewer and bottle shop owner of Bee Beer Craft Beer and Cheeses. This time around, we catch up with Jeff Cioletti, a fellow writer and prolific traveler who’s long covered the world’s many alcoholic offerings. I’ve been lucky to know Jeff for some time, but we typically only see each other once or twice a year around the U.S. beer industry’s big events of the Craft Brewers Conference and Great American Beer Festival. In June, however, we found ourselves In Madrid as part of a short media tour hosted by Mahou San Miguel. It was as good a time as any to chat on and off the mic. Along with writing for All About Beer and DRAFT magazines, CraftBeer.com and acting as editor at large of Beverage World, Jeff has also written multiple books, including the most recent The Drinkable Globe, also the name of his website where he tracks the wide world of booze. Needless to say, Jeff is well versed in a variety drinks, history and their global connections, and continues to explore them. He’s most recently diving deep into sake. But beer is still where we can find a wheelhouse, and that’s what brought us together, so I decided it would be good to pick his brain about what he’s learned and continues to think about in beer and beyond.

Today’s podcast is with the folks from Colorado’s WeldWerks Brewing Company—and it’s a fun one. In fact I might go as far as to say that this is one of my favorite conversations I’ve had, since I started contributing to this podcast a couple years ago. You’ll hear a number of WeldWerks voices over the next hour or so, including owners Colin Jones and Neil Fisher, Ops Director Kristin Popcheff, brewer Arne Garlick and Sales Director Jake Goodman. It’s been quite the journey for WeldWerks since they set up in the town of Greeley, some 30 miles east of Fort Collins and Loveland, along the Front Range in Northern Colorado just three years ago. They exploded onto the scene thanks to beers like their New England IPA, Juicy Bits—a beer that impressed me so much I was compelled to visit, and eventually write about this fascinating brewery for GBH. In its short existence, WeldWerks has already experienced critical acclaim for beers like Juicy Bits and its pastry stouts such as Medianoche. In fact the barrel aged version of the latter picked up a coveted gold medal in the barrel-aged stout category at last years Great American Beer Festival. But this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to their repertoire. WeldWerks released 100 different beers over the past year. And amongst zeitgeisty NEIPAs and Pastry Stouts, there were also tart Gose, crispy Pilsners and much more. This brewery is far from being a one, or two, trick pony. The brewery’s rapid growth and increase in popularity hasn’t been without its challenges, however. They’ve had to deal with long lines on beer release days, and in some cases, disappointed customers—some of whom, made their feelings towards the brewery pretty explicit in these instances. Learning to balance these reactions from consumers has been as important as it has building their relationships with industry partners, as they manage strong own-premise sales with increasing demand from retailers. What’s perhaps most impressive is that—along with fellow Greeley brewery Wiley Roots and local bars like Patrick’s Irish Pub—WeldWerks has helped to put its hometown on the American beer map. It would have perhaps been easier (but far more expensive) to set up their brewery in say, Downtown Fort Collins or Denver’s exploding River North district. But no, Greeley is where this Colorado brewery’s heart is—and their efforts are helping to develop the image of a town that locally is typically associated with industrial scale agriculture.

Beer people love to talk about how the beverage they care about so much has brought the same kind of sentiment with other human beings. We’re often finding ways that malt, barley, hops and yeast have given us another figurative ingredient: friends. For those of us who think about beer too much, it’s always a treat to find like-minded others wherever we go. In June, I found myself in downtown Madrid while staying in the city as part of short media tour hosted by Mahou San Miguel. I wanted to find some local craft beer and Google led me to Bee Beer Craft Beer and Cheeses, a small bottle shop with brands from around Spain, most notably the namesake brewery of the business. It was there I wound up chatting with owner Xavier Losada, learning about what led him to open a craft-focused store in a market where that kind of beer still feels a little new. Xavier has a curiosity to create something new that wouldn’t feel too out of place in an American market and he’s working to change the mentality of locals, not just tourists like me who wander into a welcoming bar that feels like home. These kinds of conversations, where there’s an international insight to trends or interests we may take for granted stateside, can be so valuable. It’s a time to meet others who are watching what’s happening in beer with a new perspective and better grasp all the changes taking place as craft beer becomes increasingly important around the globe. I heard all that from Xavier, who also actively watches the boundaries of flavor as he creates new brands to serve under the Bee Beer banner.

Today’s guest sit at the intersection of so many aspects of Irish craft beer. He’s an importer of American brands like Lagunitas. He’s a distributor of Ireland’s domestic craft brands like Galway Bay. He’s also the country’s first, and perhaps only official Beer Sommelier. So his perspective accounts for the curation, sales, distribution, and education of craft beer in a small country that’s recently flipped a switch in terms of its interests, with many people now drinking small craft, trendy beers like New England IPA alongside traditional beers like Guinness and Murphys. And in a market with incredibly entrenched brands as Ireland has, that sudden new interest has a major uphill battle to fight to gain awareness and shelf and tap handle space in the country’s on and off-license establishments, better known in the US as on and off premises - namely bars, restaurants, and liquor store and bottles shops. As of yet, there really isn’t a taproom model to speak of, with very few exceptions. So to get a crash course on the many factors influencing Irish craft beer right now, for better and worse, I sat down with Phil Tavey of Grand Cru beers. We posted up at a bar called Sine é in Dublin who’s tap lists were a perfect representation of the state of things, running the gamut from Guinness to Galway Bay and a host of other small brewery offerings. This is Phil Tavey of Grand Cru Beers, listen in.

For this latest version of the GBH Collective, I sat down with Oliver Gray, a fellow writer at Good Beer Hunting who recently took his love for beer by going pro. He’s currently helping launch Guinness’ new brewery in Baltimore as the marketing manager for the Guinness Open Gate Brewery and Barrel House. As a bit of disclosure, while Guinness is an underwriter for GBH, the reason Oliver and I sat down together was a rare occasion that we found ourselves in the same city at the same time, having both traveled to Nashville for the recent Craft Brewers Conference. For the sake of full disclosure, Oliver is one of my best friends, and we’ve shared lots of long conversations about beer, life, writing and more and it just so happened that I had my podcast equipment this time around. I’ve done hundreds, if not thousands, of interviews in my life as a reporter, but there’s something special about getting to ask questions of people who are close to you as a way to share them with others. Oliver is an important person in my life, and he’s been a valuable part of the Good Beer Hunting team whether it’s through his byline or expertise behind the scenes. I’m glad we had the chance to talk as a way to share more with you.

Today’s guest is Natalya Watson of Duvel Moortgat. Watson’s upbringing was something of an adventure, born to Northern Irish parents in Canada, then living back in Northern Ireland before growing up in California. Watson would then go on to live in New York, before eventually putting her British passport to good use, and moving to London in 2015. The start of her new adventure in beer here in the UK began behind the bar at Mother Kelly’s—an East London bar and bottle shop that’s become something of an institution among beer fans. Shortly after this she landed her current gig at Duvel Moortgat, where she’s held her role as UK marketing manager for almost three years. The Duvel-Moortgat family currently consists of 12 of brands spread acrossmainland Europe and the United States. However, it doesn’t presently have a stake in a UK brewery. The UK arm of its business looks after seven of these brands within this territory, which are: De Koninck, Vedett, Maredsous, Liefmans, Brasserie Achouffe, Boulevard in Kansas City and Duvel itself. Not all of the brands in its portfolio fall under Duvel UK’s jurisdiction, however, with examples like California’s Firestone Walker and Bernard in Czechia acting autonomously in this market. It’s an interesting time for Duvel in the UK—the British beer market is a landscape that’s unrecognizable from what it was 10, maybe even 5 years ago. It needs to find a way to compete in this space but in a way, the activation of the modern UK beer market has been a benefit to the Belgian company. In fact Duvelas a beer saw a 16% retail sales jump in 2017, and this year that figure might be closer to 25%. Remarkable numbers for a beer that will be celebrating itscentenary in 2023. Perhaps this is because as a beer, Duvel no longer looks so alien on the supermarket shelf to some consumers. In Britain—a land built on the back of sessionable ales—an 8.5% Belgian Golden Ale is nothing if not a little intimidating. Now, Duvel has been joined on these shelves by Double IPA’s, Imperial Stouts, Saisons and more, somehow making it feel more accessible than ever. Over the course of the next hour we’ll also find out why Duvel has decided to roll out a new draft version of its flagship using a unique dispense system. And we’ll speak about its US brands like Boulevard, Ommegang and Firestone Walker, examining why some of them are more prevalent here in the UK than others.

To some, vacation prep can feel almost as time consuming as act of being away itself, sorting through an endless number of online suggestions and guides with what you simply can’t miss in whatever location you may be visiting. And like so many other beer lovers, I’ve got the process down to a science. When I’m off to visit someplace new, I love tips of where to and what to drink. On a recent stop in Kansas City, I was thrilled to have seen one small up-and-comer pop up several times over. BKS Artisan Ales - like so many other breweries in the City of Fountains - is helping to establish a new era of beer in Kansas City. Boulevard Brewing has long been an attraction, but there are more and more small producers catching the eye and taste buds of beer enthusiasts, with BKS being a prominent one. Best of all, BKS is still growing. After opening toward the end of 2017, the neighborhood taproom has been forced to expand its hours - from one day to two - as owners Brian and Mary Rooney find ways to strike work-life balance with a passionate local fanbase eager to line up for their New England IPAs, saisons and more. They haven’t even been open for a year, but have already considered what small changes to their space can mean in terms of production, efficiency and quality. It’s amazing what a canning machine can mean for saved time and sanity. Having navigated local laws to finally get open, the business has set itself up for an exciting future in Kansas City. All you have to do is check online message boards to follow along, but maybe the cat’s out of the bag now.

Today’s guest is basically one of my personal hobbies. He’s one of my windows into coffee culture, and following him on Twitter has given me insight into so many of the social, business, product, and values issues within coffee that I find highly relevant to beer. It’s not always a straightforward translation, of course, and much of what we talk about today is about the gaps between the two. Coffee and beer, and craft-oriented niches, have so much in common. But the differences are meaningful and instructive. Nick Cho has been there for much of it. He’s served as director of the Barista Guild of America’s Executive Council, the SCA’s board of directors, World Barista Championship board, and chaired the U.S. Barista Championship, among many other roles. He’s also opened his own roaster, Wrecking Ball, has been a guest lecturer at Berkeley, Dartmouth, and UC Davis, and used to have a podcast of his own. But this all pre-dates how I came to know him, and that was as a #CoffeeTwitter personality that people either get excited about or roll their eyes at. I’ve always found him to be a fantastic window into it all, with a point of view few others are willing or able to offer in public. And, like me, he hates cold brew. So at the most recent SCA Expo in Seattle, the coffee world’s GABF, I took a break from Uppers & Downers with Nick to unite these forces for better and worse. Better for me, I think, but I’m not sure about him. For coffee folks, the beer world is just weird. This is Nick Cho of Wrecking Ball Coffee Roasters. Listen in.

On today’s episode I’m joined by Jez Galaun and Xochitl Benjamin, two of the four founders behind South London’s Brixton Brewery. Six months previously, I had sat down for a brief chat with the same pair, before GBH broke the news that the brewery had sold a minority stake of 49% to Heineken. Now that the dust kicked up by that announcement has had the chance to settle I wanted to catch up with Galaun and Benjamin to find out how things had been going for the brewery post investment.  Brixton was the latest in a string of acquisitions and investments that demonstrated an increasing trend in the interest in the London beer market from some of the industry’s biggest players. We saw SABMiller purchase Meantime Brewery back in May 2015, before it was subsequently sold on to Asahi following SAB’s merger with Anheuser Busch-InBev, a year later. In December 2015 AB-InBev’s ZX Ventures investment arm acquired Camden Town Brewery, before also investing in its purpose built £30 million brewing facility in Enfield, North London.  Denmark’s Carlsberg also entered the fray in July 2017, when it purchased the struggling London Fields Brewery, in partnership with Brooklyn Brewery—the latter adding London Fields to its growing empire of international brewpubs. Heineken’s investment in Brixton a few months later only further served to demonstrate that London’s breweries are hot property.  This investment means that like Camden, Brixton will be able to expand into a larger facility, although on nowhere near the same scale. At its existing facility under the arches near Brixton Station—which the brewery has called home since it was founded in 2013—it was producing almost 3000hl (around 2500 US bbls) per year. When commissioned later this year, the new facility will allow Brixton to produce ten times this amount annually. But this will still keep them under the volumes of several other London breweries, including smaller independents like Beavertown and Fourpure.  The new site will also be located in the heart of Brixton itself, just 600 meters from the existing location as the crow flies. Galaun, Benjamin and I unpack the importance of this during the course of our conversation. We also discuss how the London scene is still undergoing dramatic change and whether or not that Heineken stake is evidence of an eventual path to control, as it was when they acquired Lagunitas.