Dogfish Head Reduces Distribution

[Thakog]

...Do they get to a point when they forget that the consumer is their lifes blood?

To be clear, I don't think that's what Sam is doing or thinking, I'm just saying his reputation has outgrown him.

 

[maltbarleyhops]

im enjoying all the points being made here. and it doesnt matter that much to me which one is correct. it just pisses me off (whatever the reason) when i can get a good beer thats a bit different, and i really enjoy it, then some ********* decides that it wont be distributed to this area anymore.

call it selfish if you want. i hate it when this happens, for whatever reason, for whoevers sake, yada, yada, yada.

bottom line - there is yet another beer that i enjoy, no longer available to me. so since i cant have it, DFH can piss off.

THE LIST-

pyramid brews - for absorbing Mactarnahans Brewery and doing away with Blackwatch oatmeal cream porter

AB/inbev - for bastardizing beer

schlafly/st louis brewery - for never letting st louis have kentucky bourbon cask ale

bells brewery - because hopslam shouldnt be 17.99 a sixer. but ill continue to buy my yearly case.

...ok, my soapbox is officially been thrown in the fire.

cheers to all!!!

 

[Mudflap]

Have you really drank all of their beers? You cannot put a diff label on Midas touch or Raison d' Etre expect it not to become amazingly popular. It's not the "in" thing to like DFH. The simple fact that it is pretty damn expensive makes that almost impossible. Because of the fact that it is pricey, but is still sells extremely well is a testament to the quality of the brew. If you are basing your statement off of a bottle of ipa or something else, then you're not making a fair statement. Buy a 4 pack of Palo Santo and tell me after you've drank it that you regret it. Unless you absolutely hate brown ales (don't know anyone that does), i don't see how you wouldn't like that beer. I wouldn't buy it everyday (altho i want to), b/c it is pricey, but then again, if it wasn't pricey, i wouldn't be able to buy any b/c it would be sold out.

Ha. That's funny that you say that b/c Palo Santo is the only DFH beer I've tried that I DID NOT like at all. Tasted like it was mixed with sawdust, lol. Could be a freshness factor or something. But all other's I've tried have been great. Oh well, no matter anyways b/c I live in TN and therefore am S.O.L. We never got any of the really cool specialty stuff anyways I dont believe. I've never even seen 120min or Burton Baton? or some of these others you guys know.

 

[Mudflap]

This news sucks! I'm in Indiana and I'm already having a hard time finding the 60 and 90 Minute IPA's. I bought everything the local liquor store and Kroger had, which was only 1 4 pack of 90 and 2 6ers of 60 and those are almost gone. Guess I need a 60 Minute clone to try soon.

Dude, trust me, search for Yooper's 60min clone recipe on this site. You will not miss dogfish 60 or 90 at all!

 

[Mudflap]

Well isn't the purpose of expanding brewery capacity to increase production?

I understand what you're saying, but I think the timeline is off (either yours or mine). I think the expansion you're referring to has already been in place for a while now and they are already starting to outgrow it. In order to keep from expanding even more, distro cut.
please correct me if Im mistaken on this...

 

[Mudflap]

One more point I want to make on this and I will stop flooding the thread:
I guess I'm kinda confused on the market or DFH. I always thought of them as a specialty brand. I don't think of any DFH as session beers. I never have sat around and downed a 4pack of Midas Touch or needed my daily 120min IPA fix. I drink them occasionally and sparringly. One because they are usually higher ABV beers and two because they are damn expensive. Is the supply of this beer really so under demand that you guys in the states they are keeping distribution to really having a hard time finding it and starting to get pissy at the company about it? Who can afford DFH as their daily drinking beer? Seems like they could keep/reduce supply in all markets without completely eliminating entire states and still have a demand high enough for people to pay $15 or more for a 6er of beer. There are lots of breweries smaller that DFH getting their beer to us, albeit in small quantities. The fact that it is harder to find makes it kinda cool and special, but being impossible to get makes them irrelevant...

 

[RMitch]

I understand what you're saying, but I think the timeline is off (either yours or mine). I think the expansion you're referring to has already been in place for a while now and they are already starting to outgrow it. In order to keep from expanding even more, distro cut.
please correct me if Im mistaken on this...

Perhaps. To my knowledge they only started expanding late last summer, and I was viewing this distribution cut as them taking time to get their new equipment up to speed, bang out all the kinks, switch their big sellers (60-minute) to the newer bigger tanks, clean the other tanks, formulate new recipes for their future larger distribution, etc.

As for price, its not THAT expensive. Only about $1.85/per bottle of 60-minute, then maybe $3.99 per bottle of the high ABV brews.

Even BMC sells for ~$1.10 per bottle or so. ($6.50 for a 6'er of Coors light)

 

[ArtVandelay]

FFFFF!

Recently stone pulled out of WI and now DFH? come on!

 

[Hoosier-Brewer]

I visited 6 liquor stores on my way home and only 2 had any DFH so I bought them both out of 60 and 90 Minute IPA. That was only 6 6's of 60 and 4 4's of 90 minute, but he said he would get me a couple of more cases this weekend.

That should get me by for a bit until I can get a clone recipe together. I like to have a few DFH IPA's during the week, maybe a 6er,but sometimes a few more.

 

[motobrewer]

FFFFF!

Recently stone pulled out of WI and now DFH? come on!

wait.......................what??

stone pulled out of WI????

 

[upperNY01brewer]

Readily available in upstate New York but very pricey. $15.00 for a 4pack of Burton Baton. Love it but......hard to justify $15.00 on a 4pack when I can spend that much on 2 6packs of another fine brew that I can get my hands on.

 

[munche]

I'm torn, because while I thought you had to be 21 to drink here, some people are responding like spoiled children to DFH trying to preserve the quality of their beer rather than dilute it. I'm sure these same people are praising BMC for always having a beer available to them, right?

 

[bluesman88]

I was talking to the DFH engineering manager at our brewclub meeting at The Dogfish Brewpub last week and he said they are in the process of a huge expansion right now. They have three brand new fermenters that they are installing and hope to have up and running by August. He said that it was an agressive schedule but could be done.

It's not that they want to cut back but they have a capacity issue right now. So stay tuned folks.

DFH is on the rise!

 

[count_dookie]

well they really only have two options for dealing with their lack of supply until they can build the capacity, pull out of some markets or raise price. I'm not a regular buyer but I know I would be even less regular if they were more expensive

 

[linuxbgood]

DFH makes some great beers, but they are getting a little over hyped imo. Same thing with Russian River. At this point, Sam could bottle horse piss, talk about it on the discovery channel for 15 minutes, and still sell it like hot cakes.

I dont think thats true, I love their beer but their red and white is horse piss haha and it dosnt move on the shelves around here.

 

[drinkmybeeryo]

Good that he's staying true to craft and not to cash.

You're so right man! He's staying true to what craft brewing is all about! We've all seen BEER WARS! He probably did the tv show to get extra money to give his business a jump start, most likely not expecting it to be such a huge affect! I don't blame him! He will expand and grow when ready, not just be impulsive!

 

[Mudflap]

I was talking to the DFH engineering manager at our brewclub meeting at The Dogfish Brewpub last week and he said they are in the process of a huge expansion right now. They have three brand new fermenters that they are installing and hope to have up and running by August. He said that it was an agressive schedule but could be done.

It's not that they want to cut back but they have a capacity issue right now. So stay tuned folks.

DFH is on the rise!

Here's the problem: If this were true (and Im not saying it's not, bluesman) then why wouldn't Sam put something to this effect in the topic blog. If it was stated that this is a temporary capacity issue that is in the works of being remedied by an expansion, this would have been much better received than the 'sorry bout ya luck folks, I need the beer you would normally buy from me cuz my distributors in other areas don't get all that they could sell' and then blame it on the fact that he doesn't want to grow the company too fast. It just doesn't check out. I don't wanna be a whiner cuz I can't buy some of the beer I want, truth is I'm getting pretty good with this home brewing thing and I'm making about 70% of my stash these days anyways. It's just that I was really rooting for DFH and this move has really left a bad taste in my and many other's mouth...yea pun

 

[RMitch]

Here's the problem: If this were true (and Im not saying it's not, bluesman) then why wouldn't Sam put something to this effect in the topic blog. If it was stated that this is a temporary capacity issue that is in the works of being remedied by an expansion, this would have been much better received than the 'sorry bout ya luck folks, I need the beer you would normally buy from me cuz my distributors in other areas don't get all that they could sell' and then blame it on the fact that he doesn't want to grow the company too fast. It just doesn't check out. I don't wanna be a whiner cuz I can't buy some of the beer I want, truth is I'm getting pretty good with this home brewing thing and I'm making about 70% of my stash these days anyways. It's just that I was really rooting for DFH and this move has really left a bad taste in my and many other's mouth...yea pun

He definitely inferred it. It is a little obscure though. He says he won't be able to put any stock on shelves in those states in 2011. If it were permanent, wouldn't he have said, "from now on"?

And he also says they will be "limiting" their distribution, rather than "eliminating" distribution.

 

[Rotgut]

Huh! Well that sucks for peeps in those states.

My local Safeway just started carrying Dogfish Head 90min IPA within the past month or so.

 

[jvcjbl]

Readily available in upstate New York but very pricey. $15.00 for a 4pack of Burton Baton. Love it but......hard to justify $15.00 on a 4pack when I can spend that much on 2 6packs of another fine brew that I can get my hands on.

Ouch... $8.99 here... only thing that pricey is Palo Santo Marron which is worth it IMO.

 

[Mudflap]

He definitely inferred it. It is a little obscure though. He says he won't be able to put any stock on shelves in those states in 2011. If it were permanent, wouldn't he have said, "from now on"?

And he also says they will be "limiting" their distribution, rather than "eliminating" distribution.

actually, it was not inferred that it was temporary suspension of distribution to those states and the 2011 reference was regarding foreign export that surely was sent out in a letter at the end of last year to the UK and Canadian distros. I've been getting plenty of DFH in 2011 in TN up until now. He stated 'pulling out' and I guess only Sam himself could give us the implications of this, but from what I've seen from businesses that 'pull out' of markets, lots of times its indefinite. Especially with beers. And we all know from Beer Wars how political beer distribution is, so who knows why states that were cut were.

 

[jerryalan]

I won't miss DFH at all. I cannot say I like any of the beers I have tried at all. All the IPA;s taste like grapefruit juice and Sam can keep all his weird screwed up beers.....

I liked their 90-Minute IPA but that's about it. I wasn't ever that impressed with anything else. I've had much better beers IMHO.

 

[JoeBronco]

The Punkin, 90 & 120 and the only three i drink. But they are all very good beers.

 

[ruffdeezy]

Next time I'm down in the USA for the weekend I'm gonna pick up a case of the 90 min.

 

[Native302]

If anybody wants DFH just PM me. I can go to the brewery and pick up whatever for a small handling fee.... then ship it to you.

 

[Mudflap]

If anybody wants DFH just PM me. I can go to the brewery and pick up whatever for a small handling fee.... then ship it to you.

Ehh, I'm good. I'm not gonna reward Sam for a bonehead business move and then pick up the distribution costs for them. The beer is good, but its not that good. I believe I'm gonna have to 'pull out' my support for Sam and DFH. Thanks for understanding :cross:

 

[munche]

I've been getting plenty of DFH in 2011 in TN up until now.

You just haven't been paying attention lately. They've been back ordered and behind for months in every market, and I don't think TN is magically different there.

When they can't supply their demand, what are they supposed to do? I love how it's a "boneheaded business move"....obviously if they had the beer to sell, they'd sell it.

Also gotta laugh at the same people who are mad that they can't buy DFH saying they never liked it anyways.

 

[Mudflap]

You just haven't been paying attention lately. They've been back ordered and behind for months in every market, and I don't think TN is magically different there.

When they can't supply their demand, what are they supposed to do? I love how it's a "boneheaded business move"....obviously if they had the beer to sell, they'd sell it.

Also gotta laugh at the same people who are mad that they can't buy DFH saying they never liked it anyways.

I can only comment on my personal experience with this, and I believe I have been paying pretty close attention. Over 3 years ago when I first started seeing DFH 60m 6packs, they were few and you had to go to the "good beer" store to get em. Since then, more seasonal and specialty stuff has come through and you could buy the higher ABV beers at liquor stores. In the last year I watched as DFH got to more and more stores, grocers, and better pubs and restaurants in my area. Recently, I could even buy DFH at the packie down the street and before that the most exotic beer they had was SN pale ale. So magic or not, the beer has been here and I believe demand has been supplied pretty well in my area. I would've like to have seen more seasonal and specialty varieties on shelves but I wasn't bitching.
And the reason I think this is the more boneheaded business move to make in their supply crisis is because now they will be decreasing demand to the markets they are keeping (by flooding with more supply) and at the same time eliminating demand in the markets they are pulling out of. It's economics. They were selling at $12-15 a four or six pack because it was scarce and you couldn't get it everywhere all the time. See if you're all still willing to keep paying premium price for beer as common as BMC (ok, thats a little exaggerated, but I hope you get my point).

 

[munche]

Having more supply doesn't == more demand. They basically had to choose: crank out some crappy contract beer to be able to give all their distribs enough, or deal with disappointing their vendors, retailers and customers by having spotty distribution.

"I like DFH, but their beer only comes in every 3 months at the beer store. I'll get another brand."

"I used to like DFH, but ever since they got big, their beers have changed and suck now."

Neither of those sound like smart business decisions to me. Backing off on how many places they send to until they, you know, have enough beer to send there? Sounds smart to me.

Obviously if they had the capacity to make and sell beer everywhere they would, that's good business. I just have to marvel that they catch so much flack for taking the quality over quantity route, especially when most of the people complaining will bash the hell out of BMC at the same time for being mass produced crap.

 

[jonmohno]

How have their beers changed and sucked now.I was able to get 60 min and loved it now i cant,sucks for me but how did they change their beer? .