Stone Brewing bombshell: Looking into opening brewery in Europe
Stone to open a Brewery in Europe? from stonebrew on Vimeo.
From the Vimeo page: “This is a very exciting project for Steve and me…and all of us at Stone Brewing. We’re going to be learning quite a bit with this endeavor, first and foremost: Will we be welcome? We’re approaching this with no assumptions other than we’d like to consider any and all options (other than having our beers contract brewed by another brewery, as that’s simply not our style). Many of the countries of Europe have great brewing traditions. Some countries are also currently experiencing a bit of a resurgence of small, independent (and independent thinking) breweries. As anyone knows that has visited the Stone Brewing Co. and our attached restaurant – the Stone World Bistro & Gardens – where we have more Guest taps than we do of Stone, we enjoy sharing the camaraderie of great craft beers. We look forward to joining in the fight in Europe by doing our part to add to the growing trend towards unique, flavorful artisanal beers, as opposed to the mass-blandification efforts characterized by megabrand sameness!”
This is a very interesting play. BrewDog has proven that a Stone mentality works in Europe. Combine that with the fact that Denmark, Norway, and a few other countries there are seeing a surge in craft beer interest. It is a very smart play in my opinion. No harm in looking. While business is booming here in the States, we are starting to see that we are past the hill in terms of peak growth according to the latest Beer Association figures (at least for this cycle). Growth may continue to slow over the next few years and with an increasing number of craft brands jockeying for space on shelves, who knows what position each brewery will be in five or ten years. I’m not predicting the apocalypse but just making the observation that the double digit growth figures that we’ve seen recently may not be the norm down the road. It is smart for those who have resources and are game for it to give Europe consideration.
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December 22nd, 2009 at 2:20 pm
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December 22nd, 2009 at 4:26 pm
[...] Dec 22 Beer Musings News today from Stone Brewing Company that they may be interested in opening a brewery in Europe. I’m warning everyone right now that this is a completely reactionary [...]
January 20th, 2010 at 7:11 am
[...] Stone Brewing bombshell: Looking into opening brewery in Europe (beernews.org) [...]
December 22nd, 2009 at 1:30 pm
Stone Brewing bombshell: Looking into opening brewery in Europe http://bit.ly/7YRxL6 #craftbeer
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
December 22nd, 2009 at 1:35 pm
Stone Brewing bombshell: Looking into opening brewery in Europe http://ff.im/-dfpY6
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
December 22nd, 2009 at 1:36 pm
Breaking news RT @beerpulse: Stone Brewing bombshell: Looking into opening brewery in Europe http://bit.ly/7YRxL6 #craftbeer
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December 22nd, 2009 at 1:38 pm
Awesome! I’ll visit. RT @allbeernews @StoneBrewingCo bombshell: Looking into opening brewery in Europe http://ff.im/-dfpY6
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
December 22nd, 2009 at 1:40 pm
This is crazy RT @beerpulse Stone Brewing bombshell: Looking into opening brewery in Europe http://bit.ly/7YRxL6 #craftbeer
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
December 22nd, 2009 at 2:16 pm
@StoneBrewingCo to open a brewery in Europe? http://tinyurl.com/yejwdj8
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
December 22nd, 2009 at 2:26 pm
Stone Brewing bombshell: Looking into opening brewery in Europe http://bit.ly/8oLEdD
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
December 22nd, 2009 at 3:09 pm
Stone Brewing bombshell: Looking into opening brewery in Europe http://bit.ly/6wuoDF
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
December 22nd, 2009 at 4:48 pm
Stone to open brewery in Europe? http://ow.ly/OH8K #beer
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
December 22nd, 2009 at 4:56 pm
@Cubby
Opening a new brewery takes away money that could be used for expanding production here or even opening a new brewery to expand production here. Also, I’ll believe that 2011 date when I see it. Ask some local distributors how often they’ve heard the, “We’ll be there next year! Promise!” from Stone.
Fool me once, shame on me.
This comment was originally posted on STL Hops – A St. Louis Beer Blog
December 22nd, 2009 at 4:57 pm
I agree with Cubby here. Opening a brewery on a different continent is completely different to me than not distributing from the brewery in the states. If they start picking up other states before us, then I may starte to get upset.
Any way if you guys don’t buy the beer when it finally comes to Missouri (2001 hopefully), then more for me.
This comment was originally posted on STL Hops – A St. Louis Beer Blog
December 22nd, 2009 at 4:57 pm
K, looks like this came from some Vimeo post by the brewery itself. Not that I am calling Mike a reactionary poster, but I wanted to make sure it was “legit”.
Now that that is out of the way, F YOU STONE! We beg and beg and beg, and we get the “we know you want us and we are working on it”. But now you want to go to Europe to help BrewDog fight the “good fight” there when you are only available in about 50% of the market here and even then are not 100% present in that 50%?
F it, if Stone wants to shun its Central Time Zone loving patrons. Seriously, you have ignored 88% of a whole time zone. And no by including Texas does that give you some type of bonus for acreage. I mean you ship almost all your beers to Alaska, FING ALASKA, the only thing they drink there is vodka and salt water, have you seen Dangerous Catch? THEY DONT DRINK STONE.
You know, its okay, Schlafly is going to come out with the AIPA (which is better than your IPA) this fall, O’Fallon got their big beer permit, so Ruination will be one-upped, and we now have Founders, Lagunitas, and eventually 3 Floyds.
“youre not worthy”, screw that, have fun in Finland with the wooden shoes or whatever it is they are famous for.
This comment was originally posted on STL Hops – A St. Louis Beer Blog
December 22nd, 2009 at 4:57 pm
Basically, how about fulfilling demand in the US before moving on to other places?
This comment was originally posted on STL Hops – A St. Louis Beer Blog
December 22nd, 2009 at 5:01 pm
We are “flyover country” to them. I guess they don’t realize that this part of the country is putting out some of the best beers in the world right now.
This comment was originally posted on STL Hops – A St. Louis Beer Blog
December 22nd, 2009 at 5:08 pm
Well look. All they said is they’re INTERESTED in opening a brewery in Europe. Guess what, I’m interested in getting a Ferrari. Doesn’t mean it will happen any time soon. Did they put a time frame on it? I doubt it. If they don’t end up here in ‘11, and move forward with a European brewery, then I’ll have no problem saying F U… but I’ll hold off on hating on them, until then.
This comment was originally posted on STL Hops – A St. Louis Beer Blog
December 22nd, 2009 at 5:11 pm
I don’t hate them, but I do think it feels like a bit of a kick in the teeth.
This comment was originally posted on STL Hops – A St. Louis Beer Blog
December 22nd, 2009 at 5:25 pm
Oh well, I’ll just keep drinking Founders and enjoying them more than Stone anyway.
This comment was originally posted on STL Hops – A St. Louis Beer Blog
December 22nd, 2009 at 5:46 pm
First off, when did Cubby become so calm and collected when putting thought into something. But I digress. I actually was thinking along the lines of Cubby. Thinking maybe this would free up room for demand in the US at the domestic brewery. Love the passion guys, and yeah, I have that 2011 marked on my calendar. Only time will tell. I haven’t given up yet!
This comment was originally posted on STL Hops – A St. Louis Beer Blog
December 22nd, 2009 at 5:50 pm
I can’t believe for a moment that they’re brewing so much beer for the European market that it’s going to open up a ton of space for the domestic market.
I’d bet dollar to donuts that no more than 400-500bbls per year for the entire European market. Maybe I’m completely off-base on this one, but BrewDog is shipping a ton of beer to the US, because that’s the market that’s buying that type of beer.
This comment was originally posted on STL Hops – A St. Louis Beer Blog
December 22nd, 2009 at 5:56 pm
@StoneBrewingCo is ignoring pleas from Missouri (and me) and fulfilling demand in Europe instead? http://tinyurl.com/yejwdj8
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
December 22nd, 2009 at 6:15 pm
It’s probably another rumor, along the lines of the rumor that Stone wanted to pull distribution back to only 4-5 states.
This comment was originally posted on STL Hops – A St. Louis Beer Blog
December 22nd, 2009 at 6:16 pm
Although since it was started by the brewery, perhaps it’s more intended to pique foreign interest in Stone.
This comment was originally posted on STL Hops – A St. Louis Beer Blog
December 22nd, 2009 at 6:16 pm
It’s not really a rumor if they have the video posted on their own website:
http://www.stonebrew.com/home.asp
This comment was originally posted on STL Hops – A St. Louis Beer Blog
December 22nd, 2009 at 6:24 pm
Yeah, I realized that just as I made that first post.
This comment was originally posted on STL Hops – A St. Louis Beer Blog
December 22nd, 2009 at 6:37 pm
Not as big of a fan of Stone before this…pretty much over rated other than one or two beers.
This comment was originally posted on STL Hops – A St. Louis Beer Blog
December 22nd, 2009 at 6:39 pm
Stone has always responded, and I am sure they will this time. Give Greg time to read and digest Mike’s post.
This comment was originally posted on STL Hops – A St. Louis Beer Blog
December 22nd, 2009 at 6:53 pm
I already sent an email to Stone about this, hope to get a response. I was nice too.
This comment was originally posted on STL Hops – A St. Louis Beer Blog
December 22nd, 2009 at 7:04 pm
Hey Guys!
Happy Holidays. Hope things are well out there in the Show Me state (note to self: look that up in Wikipedia one of these days and learn exactly what the heck that means)! Things are well in SoCal, thanks. It’s that time of year and the leaves on the trees are now brown, and some trees are already bare.
Anyway, thanks for all the cool comments. Even the ones that might appear on the surface like they are lashing out, I know come from good places. Ummm, at least that’s what I’m telling myself.
As some have correctly surmised, there’s no direct connection between Europe and the great state of Missouri. The idea of Stone opening a brewery in Europe would have no effect whatsoever on the timeline of Stone arriving in MO. Now on the other hand, how about angry lashings from Missourians towards Stone? Do they have an effect? No, we’ll still get there as soon as we can and we won’t let a rash comment or two slow that down! ;-]-=
Sorry, and that is a very sincere “sorry,” that we can’t get our beers to your state as soon we might all like. We’re simply governing our growth curve as best we can. As you might imagine, it’s in our best interest to do what we can to properly supply fans with our beer. Sure, from the outside it might not always seem logical, but each step we’ve taken over the years has been made as carefully as possible.
Mike, if you ever would like to shoot me an email in advance with questions/concerns, I’d be happy to address them. Of course, I can respond as I am now, but the discourse might not be able to hit the same heights this way.
The poster cubby_swans pretty much correctly surmised the situation at hand.
Cheers to all!
Greg Koch, CEO
Stone Brewing Co.
This comment was originally posted on STL Hops – A St. Louis Beer Blog
December 22nd, 2009 at 7:15 pm
Now I know what to get Cubby for Christmas! A t-shirt that says “The poster cubby_swans pretty much correctly surmised the situation at hand. – Greg Koch, CEO Stone Brewing Co. 12/22/09″
As always, Greg, it’s nice to see you wade into the fray with a cool-headed response, even if it’s not what we’d prefer to hear.
This comment was originally posted on STL Hops – A St. Louis Beer Blog
December 22nd, 2009 at 7:20 pm
If we had been begging for a BREWERY here in St. Louis, I could understand the outrage, but we’re only asking for distribution. It seems like apples and oranges to me.
This comment was originally posted on STL Hops – A St. Louis Beer Blog
December 22nd, 2009 at 7:35 pm
I sent Greg an email. Basically, I apologizes for the tone, but I won’t apologize for the sentiment. I was passionate about getting these guys in and at the time it felt like they were turning their backs on us.
This comment was originally posted on STL Hops – A St. Louis Beer Blog
December 22nd, 2009 at 7:59 pm
Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Lousiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts. etc, etc. In all there are 24 other states that Stone distributes in that are farther away from there Brewery In California than Missouri is, hell their beer most likely passes through MO. to get to these other states and we can’t get their beers?
This comment was originally posted on STL Hops – A St. Louis Beer Blog
December 22nd, 2009 at 11:01 pm
I come from a country that raises corn and cotton, cockleburs and Democrats, and frothy eloquence neither convinces nor satisfies me. I’m from Missouri, and you have got to show me.
This comment was originally posted on STL Hops – A St. Louis Beer Blog
December 23rd, 2009 at 2:00 am
I suspect Stone sees more opportunity in the european market than it does in starting a 2nd brewery in the states because of market saturation. Given our trade deficit I don’t see a problem with that. As to why they’ve passed up MO, I wonder if it has something to with the terms offered by the large distributors? Maybe the collective whining is misdirected. Besides, if you were a big shot brewer would you rather go to somewhere in the midwest or europe to visit your satellite brewery?
This comment was originally posted on STL Hops – A St. Louis Beer Blog
December 23rd, 2009 at 2:35 am
“I wonder if it has something to with the terms offered by the large distributors?”
Sorry, Mister, our business doesn’t work that way. Think of it kind of like the auto business–auto manufacturers sell the cars to the dealers for the dealers to re-sell; the dealers pay the same amount to the manufacturers; the manufacturers may offer incentives to the dealers.
The breweries sell us the beer, and FOB’s are in the same ballpark to all or most of their distributors. We then re-sell the beer to retail accounts. Distributors don’t offer “terms” to the breweries. The breweries tell us how much they’re going to charge us and we decide how much to charge our accounts based on that.
This comment was originally posted on STL Hops – A St. Louis Beer Blog
December 23rd, 2009 at 10:11 am
http://beernews.org/2009/12/stone-brewing-bombshell-looking-into-opening-brewery-in-europe/http://vimeo.com/8315456
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
December 23rd, 2009 at 11:56 am
holy crap how did i miss this? and cubby being the voice of reason? i checked to make sure this was not bizzaro stlhops.
meh, i can wait until 2011 if stone comes here then. i do knot they distribute in lower numbers to the UK and they pay over double what we pay. alesmith is also there and a bottle of old numbskull i think was like 24 quid which is like $50 here.
i am sure stone hs the capital to start something of this nature as well as expand here. i did not watch the video but i would think possibly contract brew? idk…
This comment was originally posted on STL Hops – A St. Louis Beer Blog
December 23rd, 2009 at 11:57 am
I’d say the blogger got what he wanted out of his misguided rant.. A response. By the way Greg, if you really want to make these guys angry, start distributing in Kansas!
This comment was originally posted on STL Hops – A St. Louis Beer Blog
December 23rd, 2009 at 1:09 pm
Mike, I like the picture. Kramer’s strike against H&H, right?
Best in the world and they’ll ship to your door.
http://www.hhbagels.net/
This comment was originally posted on STL Hops – A St. Louis Beer Blog
December 24th, 2009 at 12:57 am
“I wonder if it has something to with the terms offered by the large distributors?”
I also forgot to mention that contrary to what some may think, all distributors who are worth their mettle are talking to/ looking to bring into the state all of the hot breweries that everyone wants. Keep in mind, we are all in business to make money. Therefore, we want to sell as much beer possible. This means that if there is a brewery in high demand, we all want to be the ones to supply it to the consumers who are demanding it.
If a brewery is not in Missouri, it is most likely because the brewery has determined Missouri is not yet a priority for one reason or another; not, because they have not been approached by a distributor.
Distributors are not “the enemy” to beer selection in a market; we are the facilitators of variety in a market.
This comment was originally posted on STL Hops – A St. Louis Beer Blog
December 27th, 2009 at 5:05 am
Greg, nice of you to come in here and let us know. I guess the principle is to fill the national demand before the international demand. Open that new brewery in STL or KC (nice central point for distribution to the south/midwest/east coast), become the national powerhouse, then storm the beach at Normandy.
This comment was originally posted on STL Hops – A St. Louis Beer Blog
December 30th, 2009 at 11:39 am
Why be mad at Stone? If they can go to Europe and do well or hold their own, then why not. Guerilla tactics and going in under the radar has their advantages, plus a nice coup if it works. Then the distributors will get real pressure from the not so beer geeks too and then Stone can be that beer everyone wants because they conquered Europe. It’ll get here, otherwise a great excuse to go to Ocean Beach, CA and go out on the pier to fish or go surf with a stash of Stone Beer (Escondido kinf sucks compared to the beach and Mission Beach is way too crowded. Sometimes the effort results in more enjoyment than just the beer.
This comment was originally posted on STL Hops – A St. Louis Beer Blog