Tuesday, August 30, 2011

National Craft Beer Pulled from RI

Glass is half-empty in Rhode Island

This was an interesting read I saw on Boston.com today. It seems that in an effort to meet more demand, Dogfish Head, Avery Brewing Co, and Great Divide Brewing are pulling their distribution from the Ocean State.

You may have read specifically about Sam Calagione's Dogfish Head brewery, located in Milton, Delaware, growing so quickly that they have had to actually reevaluate their increase to production, in an effort to focus on quality. Because of this, DFH and the others have pulled their distribution from Rhode Island in order to fill orders from other states.

It's Rhode Island's loss, but the gain of several other states. As the author Steve Greenlee suggests, it wouldn't be a shock to see those from around the border of Massachusetts to cross over to fill up on their national favorites! On the plus side, there have been additional Massachusetts breweries increase their distribution to the Ocean State - notably Mayflower Brewing Co. from Plymouth, MA, who began distribution to RI earlier this year. There are likely to add Rhode Island to their list, due to its proximity to more area breweries.

2 comments:

Mickle623 said...

It's a shame that they would rather pull distribution from an entire state rather than find a way to do a scale back from other locations. Seeing as DFH is from a small state themselves they should realized how important it is to not ignore the little guys.

BrewEngland said...

I agree Mike, and like your point about small state to small state business. But perhaps they have some additional statistical/analytical data that shows they can grow profitability wise, if they're increasing distribution to other parts of states within their distribution? I'm sure there are enough fans of the beer to support them staying in RI, so I hope they can return very soon!