As I have said in previous posts, the mere passage of our bill raising the ABV limit in Alabama does not guarantee all of your favorite breweries will immediately sign distribution contracts in this state and start shipping beer here. Many factors affect whether a specific brewery distributes beer in a given state, with production capacity and geographic limitations being two of the biggest.
That said, “demand” plays a big role. If a brewery hears from customers in a particular state asking for their products, they are more likely to put that state at the top of their list for places to expand distribution. At this point I could ask you to contact your favorite brewery and tell them you’d like to buy their beer in Alabama. And of course you should do that if you want to.
But we can have more of an impact if we get a lot of calls and emails to a brewery or two in one big wave. Over time we can contact several of the country’s finest breweries and encourage them to come to Alabama. Let’s start with a couple we know we can have an impact on: Dogfish Head and Goose Island. Both are fantastic world class breweries with tons of good beer available in bottles that fall within our container limit.
DFH told one of our members that we should email their VP of Sales, Adam Lambert to express our desire to buy their beers in Alabama. His email is Adam[at]dogfish[dot]com.
And Goose Island has an agreement with the A-B distribution network so Birmingham Budweiser has informed us there’s a good chance they could get GI here if we email or call the brewery letting them know we’d love to have them in Alabama. Their phone number is (312) 226.1119 and email is info[at]gooseisland[dot]com.
So let’s get going with round one of Operation Get New Breweries Into Alabama.
16 Comments
E-mailed Dogfish and Goose Island. Let’s get them tasty 90min IPA’s HERE!!
This may be the wrong place to ask, but would Stone even bother with our container size restriction?
Emailed Adam.
From a Chicago resident, +1 for Goose Island Summertime.
To all you Twitterers, be sure to also hit up @dogfishbeer with your requests.
… and @GooseIsland too
Emailed. I hope Stone Brewing Company is next. They have a Southeast Regional Rep on their website.
The lack of bombers will be a detriment, but not so much. Stone has plenty of incredible 12ozs, like their oak aged arrogant bastard (5 dollar singles)…
You’re the man, Danner; passing this along to as many people as I can spam…
NEED DOGFISH HEAD IN HUNTSVILLE!!! Like now.
You B’ham people are making me SERIOUSLY jealous; we haven’t heard really anything about who’s going to carry what up here in Huntsville. We’re parched!
Emailing Adam right now
Just emailed Adam at Dogfish about enlightening those in the darkness, out of the light of Castiglione and Co.
I mean, about distributing here, in AL>
Off topic, but I just went to the Western in Mountain Brook, and loaded up on good beers. I would highly suggest going there and snagging some, as there was a pretty good crowd when i was there.
I’m already emailng Sam Adams hoping to get some of that imperial series double bock.
I agree with Stone. Arrogant Bastard and Oaked Arrogant Bastard are two fine beers that I would love to purchase in Alabama.
Please call 1-888-622-4044 to let the New Belgium Brewery know that Alabama craves their beer.
They decided to expand to Georgia recently and could expand to Alabama in 2010 if we can show a strong enough demand.
http://www.newbelgium.com/
From Adam at DFH:
Thanks for all the warm wishes and love from Alabama!!!
We have been following your plight with a deep heart here at Dogfish Head.
We’ve been a supporter of Free the Hops in every way we could have.
Over the past five years we have shorted beer to the entire country and we made a promise to all our consumers, retailers and distributors that in 2009 we wouldn’t open any new markets and make sure everybody gets all the beer they could enjoy.
We will be in Alabama soon, very soon, but not before the end of the year.
We appreciate the support, love and passion that all of you have and we will free our hops to you.
Thanks for everything you guys have done to allow us to deliver beer to you in the future.
We sincerely applaud your efforts, hard work and dedication to the good stuff.
Please follow us on our web site, twitter and facebook to get updates on when we will make the march to your great state.
I’ve kept all the emails that have come in over the last week and will reach out to all of you when we head down to Bama.
Cheers
Adam Lambert
Vice President of Sales
Dogfish Head Craft Brewery