Winnipesaukee Forum - View Single Post - Micro-Brew Store

Descant · 06-28-2016, 10:09 PM

It seems to me that, by definition, a micro-brewer does not have wide distribution. Discussions with the brewers at Abel Ebenezer (Merrimack, NH) indicated that bottling was way down the road in their initial business plan at start up i.e. years. Flights, pints and growlers to build local interest and kegs to local bars. The appearance to me is that when you can do enough volume to bottle and ship to stores out of area, you're no longer a micro-brewer.

I was at a (open to the public, free beer) ribbon cutting for the Biergarten at Anheuser-Busch today. They had 6-8 beers on tap. I bet they bottle and distribute on a low scale where the name is strange and retail customers think it's from a micro-brewer. Big wineries do this with the same wine and different labels, just to get shelf space and let you buy something that is "just as good as" at a sale price.

06-28-2016, 10:09 PM	#13
Descant Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Merrimack and Welch Island Posts: 4,478 Thanks: 1,387 Thanked 1,667 Times in 1,086 Posts	Micro It seems to me that, by definition, a micro-brewer does not have wide distribution. Discussions with the brewers at Abel Ebenezer (Merrimack, NH) indicated that bottling was way down the road in their initial business plan at start up i.e. years. Flights, pints and growlers to build local interest and kegs to local bars. The appearance to me is that when you can do enough volume to bottle and ship to stores out of area, you're no longer a micro-brewer. I was at a (open to the public, free beer) ribbon cutting for the Biergarten at Anheuser-Busch today. They had 6-8 beers on tap. I bet they bottle and distribute on a low scale where the name is strange and retail customers think it's from a micro-brewer. Big wineries do this with the same wine and different labels, just to get shelf space and let you buy something that is "just as good as" at a sale price.