As I have said in previous posts, the mere passage of our bill raising the ABV limit in Alabama does not guarantee all of your favorite breweries will immediately sign distribution contracts in this state and start shipping beer here. Many factors affect whether a specific brewery distributes beer in a given state, with production capacity and geographic limitations being two of the biggest.
That said, “demand” plays a big role. If a brewery hears from customers in a particular state asking for their products, they are more likely to put that state at the top of their list for places to expand distribution. At this point I could ask you to contact your favorite brewery and tell them you’d like to buy their beer in Alabama. And of course you should do that if you want to.
But we can have more of an impact if we get a lot of calls and emails to a brewery or two in one big wave. Over time we can contact several of the country’s finest breweries and encourage them to come to Alabama. Let’s start with a couple we know we can have an impact on: Dogfish Head and Goose Island. Both are fantastic world class breweries with tons of good beer available in bottles that fall within our container limit.
DFH told one of our members that we should email their VP of Sales, Adam Lambert to express our desire to buy their beers in Alabama. His email is Adam[at]dogfish[dot]com.
And Goose Island has an agreement with the A-B distribution network so Birmingham Budweiser has informed us there’s a good chance they could get GI here if we email or call the brewery letting them know we’d love to have them in Alabama. Their phone number is (312) 226.1119 and email is info[at]gooseisland[dot]com.
So let’s get going with round one of Operation Get New Breweries Into Alabama.