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70 active breweries with 12 to 15 opening up per year.

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How many of those have distribution versus just being restaurants/bars that brew beer?

Just joined untappd. I'm looking forward to checking out some new beers. If you received a friend request from me, feel free to accept. I promise I don't bite.

Picked up a Terra Incognita today. I'm pretty interested in it, but hasn't seemed to get very good reviews. Anyone had it yet?

How many of those have distribution versus just being restaurants/bars that brew beer?
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Most distribute within the local area and depending on the initial investment of the new guys they may be buying bottling/canning lines soon.

About 5 years ago there was a shift in consumption within San Diego. The tasting rooms of industiral breweries suddenly became very popular and breweries were starting to sell upwards of 50% of their production on site.

This broke the conventional thinking that you had 2 options to brewing:

A) Be a mass producer and sell into distribution at a lower profit made up by higher production or

B) Be a brewpub to bring people in for food and sell a smaller amount of beer at a higher profit.

The latter isn't as attractive as most brewers don't want to the hassle of running a restaurant AND if you have a restaurant you're regulated at the State level (for the brewery) and the local level (for the food). Which is a lot more regulations/inspections etc...

Plus, if you're running a restaurant it's also about location/location/location which means higher rent.

This has pulled a lot of new guys with 15bbl systems making > 1,000bbl/yr and they're making enough of a profit to reinvest because they're located in a light industrial section of town and people are flocking to the brewery's tasting rooms. That the eruption of food trucks means they can have meals on site and not have to deal with the BS of a restaurant.

As TX changes their laws and breweries can sell pints and bottles/growlers/kegs to go on site...I fully expect what's happened in CA to happen in TX. A lot more smaller breweries will open.

Quality of beer is a different issue all together. There are quite a few breweries making B/B+ beer that will get by, but in this town the bar is set so high that average beer is sort of considered crap when you have many options near by that make better beer.

As for those that have nation wide distro:

Green Flash (not in TX yet...but they're planning a new brewery in VA so I'd expect it soon)
Ballast Point is just moving in
Stone

Those are the Big 3.

The rest either do small bottling runs or self distribute kegs to local accounts. With most selling a huge volume in house they won't get more distro until they add capacity. But...they're making money faster to do just that.

Here's a list of all the breweries in SD. I used to have been to them all, but not anymore.

http://www.westcoastersd.com/sd-brewing-industry-watch/

I think of Alesmith before Green Flash when thinking of San Diego breweries.

Alesmith makes much better beer but has much smaller production thus doesn't distribute nearly as far.

Top San Diego breweries:

Alesmith
Societe
Alpine
Rip Current
Pizza Port (5 brewpub locations)
Coronado Brewing
Ballast Point

Stone is OK, their only 2 standout beers are the IRS and Enjoy By. The rest is average.

Green Flash is all over Houston

Gonna get impaled here in a bit

i'll be in town for alabama, ticket or not. depending on what time the bottle share is happening, i'd be in.

The bottle share will be casual. Ill just open stuff i bring as people come by. Ill be there around 7ish. If we wanted to target a time, I'd say something like 10-12. I usually start walking over to our seats about 40 minutes prior to kickoff.

[This message has been edited by NColoradoAG (edited 7/22/2013 7:34p).]

the earlier the better. we end up nailing jello shots and shotgunning cheap beer at some point.

Ill be mainlining speedway stout and lambics at 7am so I'm your huckleberry

[This message has been edited by NColoradoAG (edited 7/22/2013 8:02p).]

AggieOO, I also want to see you open something nice for post #50,000

didn't even realize i was that close.

How the F do you get 50k posts!?

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Green Flash is all over Houston

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DFW, too.

Where is that lot located Ncolorado? We don't have a parking pass yet and not sure if I will get one but I will try my best to make it over your way with a bottle or 2

jetch - i've literally been on texags since day 1. and i had a job while in grad school that i didn't do anything except sit on the computer surfing the interwebs all day. Not sure how many posts i lost back in the big crash of '99.

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How the F do you get 50k posts!?

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jetch17
51413 posts, joined 02/05/2002

I'm willing to bet 10k of those are sh*tter related.

I was banned for 4 years with jetch17, too

If I read the gameday parking map correctly, Lot H is on the north side of West Campus Garage. Luckily for me my apartment is just down the street. Hopefully I'll be able to get my hands on something somewhat interesting.

AggieOO is one of the few still around that have been here longer than and Jetch and I.

For the bottle share, I'll break out something fun from the beer cellar. An Abyss maybe or perhaps a Dark Lord. I have a bb Rasputin, a couple black cracks as well. I don't have a group to do a bottle share with around here so I'm excited and don't mind grabbing one of the rare bottles. What fun is it if you can't share?

I was a dumbass and didn't take a pick of the haul I picked up from BSD. But it was pretty baller.

A dark lord, a framboise for a cure rrbc, salvation, consecration, sanctification, temptation, bcbs, abyss 2012, two logsdons as well. I might have forgotten a bottle or two.

Tonight's beer is my last bottle of rolling in the hay. It's even better than I remember. I'll probably grab another bottle or two. Will it age well? I wish more brewers would put that info on the label.

I had a stone 12-12-12 vertical and a lost abbey 10 comandments tonight at a great beer bar in Greeley, Patrick's Irish pub. Great selection of more 'off the wall' craft beer, not the standards I see at so many places (up here, standards being new Belgium, Odell's, Avery, Oskar blues, etc)

I wasn't impressed with the 12-12-12.

My untapped name is la_fours.

Yep, Lot H is right across Kimbrough to the north of the garage. It's a laid back spot and just a short walk to the stadium under the train tracks.

Patrick's is a good spot. I go there a lot on Fridays. Hit me up next time you're headed over there.

I'm all about a bottle share for the Bama game. My only issue is that I'll be introducing some former coworkers from Minot(USAFA, Bama, & St Joes grads) to Texas Aggie football & all things Texas A&M so were gonna have to be on the quad for step off. I might have to try and swing by round 8 or 9. I can still taste the greatness that is the zombie dust you so generously shared with me last year. I'll also be back for the Miss State game as well. Unfortunately I won't be able to get my hands on any Surly Wet this year. I'm hoping that they're able to expand their distribution with their new facilities.



[This message has been edited by Jock 07 (edited 7/23/2013 12:03a).]

I will definitely be back for Auburn and Miss State as well. Surly Wet was damn good. It was drinking well even when I was back at thanksgiving

[This message has been edited by NColoradoAG (edited 7/23/2013 12:17a).]

This thread, for getting me through the offseason

I thought 12-12-12 was ok, didn't try any of the others. But to say their stuff is average is a bit of an overstatement when SSR, the arrogant ******* series, and Ruination/RuinTen are all thought of pretty highly in the styles.

I definitely think Stone is a solid brewery. DFH is the one that I am struggling with (and I'm pretty sure I defended them on this thread somewhere along the way). It seems like every beer is a bit. That being said, the 60 and 90 min are hard to beat, and 75 Min is not too shabby either.

Haven't posted here in a bit, but I too helped BSD with his cleanout. Just wanted to say thanks again for putting up with my tardiness and I am really looking forward to trying some of these. I will try to get a picture of my haul later today or tomorrow.

Took one of these down last night, pretty great.

NOCO ag, I usually stay in Greeley Monday night. I'll let you know Monday if I'm staying, and I'd like to go back to patricks. I get there around 7:30ish.

army- I sort of gave up on dogfishhead bombers... I got tired of spending $15+ on them and ending up with a weird tasting beer. I applaud him for really pushing the boundaries of beer, but I never know what I'm going to get (the labels don't really say what style beer it is.. just 'ale with ingredient, ingredient, etc...) and that's a hefty price to pay for them. If it's on tap I'll try them, and their 4/6 packs are all pretty solid.

Agreed, DFH bombers are overpriced and usually gimmicky. But their 6-packs are really good, and many of their 4-packs like Burton Baton, Immort, and Palo Santo are awesome.

As far as DFH is concerned, I like the 60, 75, 90 and even 120 minute's but beyond that nothing has really blown me away, and I really don't buy their bombers anymore.

I do like most of Stone's stuff, though. It doesn't always like me back..