American Craft Beer The Best Craft Beer, Breweries, Bars, Brewpubs, Beer Stores, And Restaurants Serving Serious Beer.
We blame the industry for this… It used to be that when we wrapped up our Weekend Picks on Friday, we could coast through the weekend. There was little need to check in for updates – things were pretty much done. But clearly all that’s changed. So here’s some of what’s happened in the world of craft beer while you were enjoying your weekend.
Less Pliny for Philly (Philadelphia, PA) – Philly.com is reporting that Philadelphia’s allocation of “Pliny the Younger” appears to be 20% less this year than it was in 2012. The highly-regarded Triple IPA is primarily sold in California and points west, but because of a long friendship with Tom Peters of Center City’s Monk’s, Russian River sends a limited supply of kegs to Philly each year. Philadelphia should perhaps just stop bitching and consider itself lucky that it gets shipped any “Pliny” at all, as Russian River products, and especially “Pliny,” are an exceedingly rare commodity in the East to begin with…. just sayin’.
Canned Crafts Conquer! (Boulder, CO) – The Brewers Association held a conference call on Thursday with Symphony IRI Group’s Dan Wandel, who presented beer sales statistics for 2012, according to a report from our friends at beerpulse. Symphony IRI tracks scan data in off-premise channels like supermarkets, Wal-Mart -type chains, and convenience stores, and includes “transition brands” like Widmer Brothers, Redhook, Goose Island, and others in its ‘craft’ data (so keep that in mind). It was all pretty interesting, but one thing that really caught our attention was the growth of canned craft beer last year. Can sales skyrocketed 168% up to $32.6 million, a 3.1 share of craft dollar sales. Ninety craft vendors are now selling 240 can SKUs. Sierra Nevada Pale Ale 12-packs of 12 oz. cans stole the show as the year’s top new craft package with $5.2 million in sales.
Oregon Rising (Portland, OR) – Some interesting stats were recently released by The Oregon Liquor Control Commission, which highlights the state’s growing prominence as a craft beer powerhouse. In 2012, the total number of taxable Oregon breweries rose from 110 to 134, an increase of 22%! At this rate, the number of breweries in Oregon could pass 150 by the end of 2013, effectively doubling the state’s breweries in just three years. Oregon’s top three breweries included Deschutes at #1, the Craft Brew Alliance at #2 and Ninkasi Brewing at #3. The “Upstart of the Year” award goes to 10 Barrel Brewing, whose sales increased a whopping 225% in 2012.
Backlash Salutes Sam “Who Hopped to Help” (Boston, MA) – Backlash Beer Company is excited to announce the release of its first American-style beer, Salute, a West Coast-style double IPA brewed with hops sourced from the Boston Beer Company. In 2012, Jim Koch, the founder of Boston Beer Company, announced that he’d be sharing 30,000 lbs of specialty hops through a ‘Hops Sharing Program’ designed to assist small brewers who were struggling to secure hard-to-find hop varieties. After hearing the news, Backlash applied to the program and was selected to receive a limited quantity of Simcoe and Citra hops. “Being able to brew this style, using these incredibly hard to find hops, is really exciting,” said Backlash founder Helder Pimentel. “Without the Hop Sharing Program, we wouldn’t have access to these hop varietals and this beer simply wouldn’t exist.”
