Magic Hat beers are brewed for the New England market, which is not exactly the same as the West Coast market. They might pick up some share just because they have a funky style, but I don’t seem them creating a base here. Certainly not in Oregon. But with Pyramid’s capacity, maybe it does make sense to try to brew something else for our market.

The issue just brings up the the dilemma everyone small faces…do you stay small and leave your far away fans (west coasters in Magic’s case) thirsty or do you expand to meet demand, even if it means losing a little intimacy with those fans(or being called not local)? Feels like your damned if you do and damned if you don’t.

What I like about Magic/Pyramid is they’re leveraging geographic locations of the breweries to expand (as opposed to Flying Dog moving completely from one coast to the other). Magic could have expanded their operations in PA to meet demand in the West, but the shipping costs (and enviro impact) would have been much greater.

Sam – When Rock Bottom began to expand they’d brewed basically the same beer everywhere, same recipes, etc. My opinion, and maybe only mine, is they became much more local when they gave their brewers some autonomy.

That started with seasonal/one-off beers, but since has expanded. So the stout you get in Chicago doesn’t have to be the same as in Denver.

now if i could only get gennesee cream ale here…not really.

This is sad news. Mergers start with great ideas of moving brands around into new markets and it starts out wonderful. As time moves, the company starts wanting to “focus on core brands” and we end up losing the new and the interesting for brand recognition.