Green Flash pulls out of 33 states

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What happened to Saranac? They might have been the first real craft beer I started drinking in college (not like I’ve had it since though)
 
JCastle said:
Don't forget Saranac It's gonna become way more common, there's way too many local breweries that the big regional ones are no longer interesting to most people.
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Shakedwnst said:
What happened to Saranac? They might have been the first real craft beer I started drinking in college (not like I’ve had it since though)
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Saranac has a huge local following. Much of their business is in contract brewing as well. I don't see them ever going the route of smuttynose. They stay the course and make safe and smart decisions.
 
keef said:
Saranac has a huge local following. Much of their business is in contract brewing as well. I don't see them ever going the route of smuttynose. They stay the course and make safe and smart decisions.
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My bad, I meant Saratoga which just shut down earlier this week.
 
Lutter said:
Surprised they're not pulling out of Texas....

... I almost never see them on tap in the big 4 cities (SA, ATX, HOU, DFW).
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We get it a fair amount in DFW but not like we used to. It lost a lot of handles to local IPAs but it's still all over grocery stores. I don't think they have much if any of a marketing presence here, which doesn't help. Their beers are still significantly better than most of the local options.

On the broader topic:

I don't think this move by GF to pull back is necessarily a sign that they are struggling but instead that they recognize they are spread too thin to be competitive everywhere they currently compete.
 
SeaWatchman said:
Welp...

https://thefullpint.com/beer-news/green-flash-brewing-puts-virginia-brewery-up-for-auction/
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fake_surprise.gif

I have seen the same Alpine bottles sitting on the shelves at my local shop since they first hit distro here. Haven't even seen a GF bottle in a year or so. I saw this coming from a long way away.
 
JulianB said:
OG Duet was one of my top 5 IPAs of all time.

The GF version I thought was good as a "grocery store IPA", but obviously was a shell of its former self.
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I went to Alpine for the first time about 6 months ago and the difference between their Duet and the store Duet was very noticeable. I'd definitely recommend people to make the trek up the mountain because Alpine still had some of the best IPAs I've had.
 
libbey said:
https://thefullpint.com/beer-news/g...reclosed-sells-green-flash-and-alpine-assets/
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After a general slowdown in the craft beer industry, coupled with intense competition and a slowdown of our business, we could not service the debt that we took on to build the Virginia Beach brewery — and in early 2018, the Company defaulted on its loans with Comerica Bank. While we took substantial efforts to recapitalize the Company over the past several months, both before and after the bank default, we were ultimately unable to close a transaction.
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Every beer geek who has ever said something like "Why doesn't *insert brewery* just expand and make more beer so it's easier to get?" should read that paragraph, then read it again several more times and very slowly.
 
JulianB said:
Every beer geek who has ever said something like "Why doesn't *insert brewery* just expand and make more beer so it's easier to get?" should read that paragraph, then read it again several more times and very slowly.
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Eh, they'll just say Green Flash did it poorly and <insert other brewery> would be way smarter about it.
 
shadowane said:
Eh, they'll just say Green Flash did it poorly and <insert other brewery> would be way smarter about it.
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Except Green Flash did do it poorly. They're essentially a small family outfit with no real business acumen whose eyes were bigger than their stomach.

I mean, I don't doubt than any other brewery would have failed as well, but not as spectacularly as Green Flash has managed to do.
 
So I was curious what the takes on BA were like about this, and, well:

"And also lets not kid ourselves here.. Many might not want to hear this but they didn't capitalize or jump in on this current haze craze-tap room- exclusive can release era. Go ahead and do your expansion but where's your tap room experience at? They didn't cover all their bases.

No can releases, no haze, no sexy stout releases. It is what it is."

Yes, this is clearly why they weren't able to service the debt on a massive expansion project. If only they'd been selling 4-packs of hazy IPAs to the same two hundred people every week, they'd have surely been able to sort out their finances...
 
JulianB said:
Yes, this is clearly why they weren't able to service the debt on a massive expansion project. If only they'd been selling 4-packs of hazy IPAs to the same two hundred people every week, they'd have surely been able to sort out their finances...
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$20M in debt. Like, that’s all you really need to know to know how impossible of a ship this was to turn around once they were pointed that direction.
 
Sage said:
$20M in debt. Like, that’s all you really need to know to know how impossible of a ship this was to turn around once they were pointed that direction.
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No you don't understand, all they needed to do was sell 1 million 4-packs of hazy at $20 per and they could pay off that debt. Do the math, plebe
 
I feel this is going to have some fairly significant implications as its going to be much more difficult to secure loans for expansion. I'm hoping Alpine can get through this unscathed.
I'm going to miss walking over to Green Flash from the Holiday Inn :(
 
ggfunk said:
Man, I forgot how much I loved Rayon Vert.
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one of the best...american brett gateway to wild and wonderful wild world of 'merican wild. been half ass homebrewin one for years but never unleashed on big boy system because the brett/sacc blend would explode the cans on warm shelves.
arren said:
No you don't understand, all they needed to do was sell 1 million 4-packs of hazy at $20 per and they could pay off that debt. Do the math, plebe
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it costs like 5 to 8 bucks to make & package haze, so they'd need to sell like 1.66 million 4-packs
 
dbannister said:
I'm going to miss walking over to Green Flash from the Holiday Inn
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Some high risk investment group (with I think more money than sense) bought their assets. So the brands, the buildings (outside the Virginia brewery.... it was split out of the deal), fixtures, equipment, etc etc...

So they shouldn't be closing. They'll want to keep it open to, ya know, make back their investment. Since they buy high risk businesses, they'll then try to flip the business once they get it low-to-no risk.

That or they'll light another cigar with the deed to the brewery and say "oh well" while drinking a nice glass of wine.
 
When I heard Green Flash was being foreclosed, I tried to remember the last time I actually saw a Green Flash beer. Not fake Alpine bottles. I see those all the time. True Green Flash beers. Went to a local Giant Eagle that I don't usually visit and to my surprise, they had some. Still full price of course. The Le Freak was best before Sep 2017 and the Cosmic was best before April 2017. Collector's item now?

CvmqprB.jpg
 
matedog said:
Green Flash were/are really poorly managed. They ****ed up Alpine, they ****ed up West Coast IPA, they probably did make people get kegs of Green Flash to be able to get Alpine, they ****ed over Mcilhenny financially when they bought him out.
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Oh also, I'd have to relisten because I kinda missed it at the time, but Green Flash bought Alpine in a sort of round about way. Something about Alpine was purchased by another company that was bought by Green Flash later?
 

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