can't remember which brewery is moving, bells?

[hitachino]

i remember reading someplace no too long ago (like within a few months) that a big name brewer was moving from the midwest to the carolinas (raleigh durham area).....i want to say it was bells, but am not positive. does anyone know anything about this?

not that i'm able to even get NC micros down here in this beerforsaken A-B stronghold (FL) , but i was hoping that there might be some slight possibility of a bigger micro being able to distribute to FL.

[MOREKASHA]

It makes me wanna move to Fla for some Bells, and I'm not a Fla lover.

[Tom from Raleigh]

Hitachino-

Go to the South Atlantic forum of BeerAdvocate. There's a thread about which retailers and where with comments by the immortal Larry Bell himself.

P.S. Those Hitachino beers are excellent. I still don't get corn on pizza, tho.

[hitachino]

awesome! thanks so much for the heads up!

i'll be in highlands co. next month (sebring) and pinellas co. in june - i'll need to see which retailers they sell through so i can stock up.

[Tom from Raleigh]

hitachino-

Good news for you! Bells is now dipping it's toe into the Florida market. Check it www.bellsbeer.com

[MOREKASHA]

I just got Clipper City for the first time in NYC last night. Has their Imperial stout, ok but not great. I remember they used to have a great xmas beer.

[peetoteeto]

You may want to see if Clipper City out of Baltimore is expanding. Here in North Carolina, we're now privvy to their offerings. It's conceivable that they could push further south to Florida.

A call to a distributor or World of Beer in Clearwater couldn't hurt.

Cheers!

[hitachino]

yikes, the machinations of the distribution end of things......

it's interesting how a few select retail spots can offer quite a decent selection (in central FL, the best retail spots are whole foods mkt, big C liquors, hearts homebrew, and knightly spirits) but the LARGER grocery chains in FL are so lacking in selection.

a ways back, i researched the distributors for the area online, printed out contact info, and took them with me to various stores. i manages to get one large local grocery chain (albertson's) to order me a case of ayinger brau weisse (snagged it for $32 actually - big bottles!) but after that one time they mysteriously weren't able to order it anymore. go figure.

it's like they've signed their name in blood to A-B or something.

something's just not right.

[hitachino]

ok - thanks all. i think i must have misread the distribution change as a 'move'. sigh.

geez. if only one would move to FL. or (at the very freaking least) distribute here.....

c'mon! we have GREAT weather, give or take a hurricane or ten.

[ted]

Well, you can get Dogfish Head in FL, and you haven't been able to in GA since the alcohol limit changed. I believe that's changing here in a month or so, though.

[LStaff]

Are you thinking of the Flying Dog brewery buying the Frederick Brewery in Maryland?

http://beeradvocate.com/forum/read/78...

[JessKidden]

As brentk mentioned, Bell's is going to be distributed in North Carolina and, around the same time that was announced, Bell's (for totally unrelated reasons) withdrew from the Illinois market, so there were some posts on various beer sites about Bell's "moving" from the mid-West to NC- I remember doing a double-take at those posts, too.

[brentk]

Bells hasn't moved.

They have just started to distribute to the NC market. Not sure where else they plan to go but I feel your pain. Just too many light lager drinkers in FL, I'm afraid.

[kenito799]

Is Bell's available in the NYC market? I tried their Third Coast Old Ale when I was in Minneapolis and wow that is great stuff. I would love to try more of their beers. Why would they pull out of Illinois?

[JessKidden]

No, Bell's hasn't made in to NY- PA is as close as it's gotten, AFAIK.

They pulled out of Chicago over a problem with a distributor selling the rights to a different distributor. (Unfortunately, beer distribution laws in many states were written to protect small distributor company from the power of the big brewers and don't work well now that the situation is reversed for small brewers and more and more concentration in the distribution industry, meaning fewer, larger companies which in most cases depend on A-B, Miller and Coors for most of their business.)

[Jim Dorsch]

You're right about the legacy of beer franchise laws, but the situation is worse than that, as wholesalers, well-connected at the statehouse, are getting more and more franchise laws written for them.