Category: Uncategorized

When searching for beer on line, Amazon has more than 101 pages of books listed under the beer category.  The majority of these beer books are about styles, bars, countries, or cities and their beer culture or history.   There have been, however, a few beer books published offering more than simply beer styles. There are […]

Last month, at a retailer appreciation kick-off event for a new brewery, a longtime importer reminded me of a prediction I had made 15 years ago regarding the future of wholesalers.  Given the direction of the industry at that time, it was clear that the biggest change would occur at the middle tier. With the […]

Marc Sorini, the noted lawyer for the law firm, McDermott, Will, and Emery, recently outlined his opinion, noting that the expansion of brewery owned brewpubs or retail outlets, sometimes referred to as satellite outlets, will not disrupt the market.  He goes on to state that even in California, a state that has as many as […]

This year’s Craft Brewers Conference has just concluded, and once again, the event was well attended with over 12,000 industry people. While the attendance was impressive, the initial feedback from a number of attendees was not positive.  From those who attended, many mentioned that the overall excitement from previous years’ conventions was missing. The early […]

When Coors Brewery expanded their Texas footprint in the mid 1960s, the brewery approached each major market looking only for one distributor.  Prior to the 1960s expansion, Coors was only sold in El Paso and Amarillo.  Coors appointed a few distributors in small markets, Mineral Wells being one of them, but the company had only […]

I acquired Texas Beers in May 1981 and Schlitz immediately announced a general market price increase.  As a new owner, this decision on the part of Schlitz, put me in an awkward position. Retailers would be pushing back at the idea of a new owner raising prices on their product. So, despite having a more […]

Six years ago while in New York City, I decide to visit one of New York’s oldest bars, McSorley’s Old Ale House, established 1854.  While not the oldest bar in New York City, it is one of the five bars featured in the YouTube below.  Even today, McSorley’s serves only two beers: one dark and […]

When the G. Heileman Brewing Co. was riding its crest of success, their business model was simple.  Heileman’s portfolio was predominantly regional brands which the company expanded nationally.  They assigned various brands in in the market to different wholesalers, therefore, if a market had four wholesalers, all four might have a Heileman brand.  The wholesalers […]

Columbia Distributing was formed with the merger of three Northwest beer and wine houses, one of which was Mt. Hood Beverage.  Mt. Hood Beverage was formed when Dick Lytle purchased Coast Distributors in 1990, at which time I was the General Manager for Coast. Coast, which had existed for over 100 years, was one of […]

Miller Lite was the first line extension introduced in the early 1970s.  Lite’s success was soon followed in the mid-1970s by Coors Light and Bud Light.  These three brands created an entirely new category, and as successful as they were, these three brands not only replaced their mother-brands, they surpassed them.  The term “cannibalized the […]