Except import beers disappeared from my market years ago, way before the current tarrifs. Maybe something happened 10-15 years ago with tarrifs that I’m not educated about.
I drink a few beers a year at this point. I want something I like, not an adventure in a bottle.
Are these beers no longer made or just not being imported? I’ve not seen many breweries give up on a reasonably popular beer for novelty. They just add to the lineup. Genuine curiosity on this one, if you have the names of any of the beers, I’ll check Untappd to see if it’s available to me.
I can’t find Newcastle brown ale around me anymore, used to be one of my go-to’s. Smithwicks is very hard to find, but a decade ago it was regularly on tap at bars.
Rochefort is only in the smaller bottles now, can’t get the big ones for sharing.
I could go on, but I think that’s a good start. None of these are out of production, they just aren’t available in my area anymore.
You’re right about Newcastle. It was changed and brewed by Lagunitas for a while there. Everyone hated it. Imports from the UK started again a couple of months ago. It’s owned by Heineken, so you might be able to contact a distributor to find or request it. Sales were really slumping before the change so it might not have a super long life span with import costs. And yeah, people having more options have probably kept this one at bay for you. Same with Smithwicks. They are good beers but would need better sales to really become available to you.
You should look into how distribution works. It’s very likely that companies doing distribution, which are shockingly also mostly the major beer companies, simply decided to offer less of it or raise prices for it to push retailers and bars toward things they fully own, which is a sizable chunk of the craft beer market available in stores other than the brewery itself.
It’s all really shady nonsense collusion shit, but not really the fault of breweries. Most of them don’t benefit either.
I’m sure this has a lot to do with it, but that’s exactly what I’m going on about. I’m not mad at the guys downtown that want to brew beer, or their customers. I’m mad at the stores for filling the shelves with crap I don’t want to drink at home when there are plenty of great beers that get pushed to the wayside so that a mega brewery can sell a more expensive product.
Except import beers disappeared from my market years ago, way before the current tarrifs. Maybe something happened 10-15 years ago with tarrifs that I’m not educated about. I drink a few beers a year at this point. I want something I like, not an adventure in a bottle.
Are these beers no longer made or just not being imported? I’ve not seen many breweries give up on a reasonably popular beer for novelty. They just add to the lineup. Genuine curiosity on this one, if you have the names of any of the beers, I’ll check Untappd to see if it’s available to me.
I can’t find Newcastle brown ale around me anymore, used to be one of my go-to’s. Smithwicks is very hard to find, but a decade ago it was regularly on tap at bars. Rochefort is only in the smaller bottles now, can’t get the big ones for sharing. I could go on, but I think that’s a good start. None of these are out of production, they just aren’t available in my area anymore.
You’re right about Newcastle. It was changed and brewed by Lagunitas for a while there. Everyone hated it. Imports from the UK started again a couple of months ago. It’s owned by Heineken, so you might be able to contact a distributor to find or request it. Sales were really slumping before the change so it might not have a super long life span with import costs. And yeah, people having more options have probably kept this one at bay for you. Same with Smithwicks. They are good beers but would need better sales to really become available to you.
You should look into how distribution works. It’s very likely that companies doing distribution, which are shockingly also mostly the major beer companies, simply decided to offer less of it or raise prices for it to push retailers and bars toward things they fully own, which is a sizable chunk of the craft beer market available in stores other than the brewery itself.
It’s all really shady nonsense collusion shit, but not really the fault of breweries. Most of them don’t benefit either.
I’m sure this has a lot to do with it, but that’s exactly what I’m going on about. I’m not mad at the guys downtown that want to brew beer, or their customers. I’m mad at the stores for filling the shelves with crap I don’t want to drink at home when there are plenty of great beers that get pushed to the wayside so that a mega brewery can sell a more expensive product.