tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6760958785336796611.post7924735228342692962..comments2024-01-17T03:50:26.727-05:00Comments on Beer in Baltimore: What Do I Have To Do To Get Your Beer, Anyway?Alexander D. Mitchell IVhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16063927891723178579noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6760958785336796611.post-22471277751803439272009-12-03T15:43:51.094-05:002009-12-03T15:43:51.094-05:00Really? I don't think Portland and Denver have...<i>Really? I don't think Portland and Denver have this problem. It all comes down to the space. Of course you won't open a brew pub in Harbor East, but what if you get creative with a long abandoned warehouse just to the north? I don't think many people thought a bowling alley would be a good choice in such a location, so why couldn't a brewpub work? If the right brewer comes along and finds the right space, I absolutely think the brewpub model can still work.</i><br /><br />You're welcome to try. But the reality is that in MOST of the country, if the real estate is affordable enough to build a brewery/brewpub, it's far enough "off the beaten path" that it's not going to attract the critical mass of patronage necessary to sustain a restaurant/bar. Using Baltimore as an example, I would have been happy to see brewpubs open up in, for example, the old buildings along Fort Avenue where the Merritt gym and Wine Market are now, or at the Globe Brewing location along Key Highway (so much wasted potential there), or off in Canton in the Can Company complex or in the Brewers Hill development in Highlandtown. But even there, the numbers just won't work--they're asking way too much NOW for the square footage for a brewpub to survive. You're NOT going to sustain a brewpub in the "bad" areas of town where people might give you the real estate cheap but your patrons would be mugged or have to walk around drug dealers on the corners. The chin-stroker would be an area like Roland Park, Hampden, or Belvedere--and once again, you run into high priced square footage. And I'm not even counting the cost of doing business in the People's Democratic Republic of Baltimore--taxes, licenses, permits, taxes, more taxes, etc.<br /><br />As I am to understand it, Denver and Portland's brewpubs also either predate the late 1990's/2000's real estate uptick and/or have benefited from being early "pioneers" into up-and-coming areas--do any of you remember when Fells Point was a seedy bunch of dives and the building that is now the Pratt Street Ale House was too far away from the Inner harbor to draw enough people, before the stadiums went in and the Convention Center was expanded to put the main entrance across the street?Alexander D. Mitchell IVhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16063927891723178579noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6760958785336796611.post-68357741706313353192009-12-03T13:49:27.139-05:002009-12-03T13:49:27.139-05:00Nobody in their right minds, unless they inherit t...<i>Nobody in their right minds, unless they inherit the property or have a "sweetheart" deal with a property owner or the city, would open a brewpub in an inner city in America today...</i><br /><br />Really? I don't think Portland and Denver have this problem. It all comes down to the space. Of course you won't open a brew pub in Harbor East, but what if you get creative with a long abandoned warehouse just to the north? I don't think many people thought a bowling alley would be a good choice in such a location, so why couldn't a brewpub work? If the right brewer comes along and finds the right space, I absolutely think the brewpub model can still work.The Oriole Wayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16483309131692836436noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6760958785336796611.post-19933953889666654442009-12-03T09:08:52.867-05:002009-12-03T09:08:52.867-05:00It's a fair response, Steve, and I apologize i...It's a fair response, Steve, and I apologize if I left a bad impression. But part of the whole "cask cult" mystique, in my experience, has been bars and patrons seeing how rare a firkin or from how distant a brewery you could score. You could be pouring the most spectacular cask beer in captivity, and because you're a "home town" brewery or just down the road, folks are always going to regard the beer dismissively as "been there, done that." Clipper City suffers from the exact same problem here in Baltimore (remember my photo of an abandoned, ignored, self-service full firkin of dry-hopped Heavy Seas Loose Cannon at one of the Timonium beer fests?); Brewers Art doesn't have enough production to do many firkins; and metropolitan D.C. doesn't have a brewery or brewpub cranking out enough cask beer to have a "home town" routine cask source for beer bars like RFD and ChurchKey, as far as I know--unless Rock Bottom and Cap City are selling firkins to DC bars and I haven't heard.<br /><br />The real challenge will come around late spring and summer, when fewer cask ale producers are wiling to take the considerable gamble to ship firkins ANY distance, thanks to soaring temperatures and unsupervised shipping. I would predict that Oliver's will start selling a LOT more casks come next summer!Alexander D. Mitchell IVhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16063927891723178579noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6760958785336796611.post-85982972929713028022009-12-03T08:35:28.518-05:002009-12-03T08:35:28.518-05:00Not sure that I like our beer being referred to as...Not sure that I like our beer being referred to as "default reserve casks". Oliver cask conditioned ales are popular in their own right because they are quality, authentic English style ales that are fined properly to give a bright, well conditioned beer. Obviously people are excited when local bars present casks from national or international breweries, as am I, but I think that our casks sell on their own merit, not as a "reserve"!stevejoneshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13363595767073695526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6760958785336796611.post-32334645196379457112009-12-03T06:01:11.348-05:002009-12-03T06:01:11.348-05:00When you start listening/reading interviews from b...When you start listening/reading interviews from brewers from brewpubs, this is an issue across the country. The more successful (monetarily) operations will have centralized locations where they brew and ship to their locations. <br /><br />Many also go with partner brewing (Contract brewing) where they don't own the stainless, but their brewers use the partners stainless. An example of this is 21st Amendment. Those cans that have been flooding the nation are brewed in the upper mid west, not San Francisco. (I don't know if Brewers art just contracts or partners)<br /><br />If you doubt the wisdom of this just think of the quote from D. L. Geary (Founder Geary brewing Portland Maine) about Jim Koch "We started off with approximately the same amount of money. He put all of his into Marketing. I put all of mine into Stainless Steel... Jim's is a better model"Caederushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00386122418202361610noreply@blogger.com