From Smuttynose:
(Hampton, NH)- The din of the craft beer industry gets
louder and louder everyday as new breweries and new beers hit the street at a
dizzying pace. Smuttynose Brewing Company, New Hampshire’s leading craft
brewery, is breaking through that din with The Beer Vault, a revolutionary, new
allocation tool that directly connects the most discerning specialty craft beer bars
with limited and unusual offerings from Smuttynose and Smuttlabs.
"The last few years have seen a paradox with limited release beers. Beer
drinkers crave them, but they can be difficult for wholesalers to manage because
of the small volume,” said Michael Saklad, Smuttynose’s Sales Director,
"Creative limited-release beers drive buzz and excitement, but they’re not
efficient for volume growth because of the time needed to constantly create new
brands with short life cycles."
The Beer Vault, a simple but powerful online portal, shatters this tension.
For each new release, the bars, restaurants and tap houses who have signed up
will get an advance email announcement introducing a new beer and the go-live
date. When bar managers log-in, they’ll see a real-time inventory of everything in
the special stash and can call “dibs” on whatever kegs they want and submit their
requests. The rest of the work will be handled by Smuttynose and our valued
wholesaler partners across 27 states and Puerto Rico.
By paying a little bit of attention, any interested on-premise account can
get the kegs they want. This direct connection between the brewery and beer
buyers allows our Smuttlabs team the freedom to be spontaneous and avoid
having to schedule six to nine months ahead, shackling the vibrant spark of creativity.
Wholesalers have been very excited about the concept once they
understand that the Vault helps them focus better on volume brands.
This approach will be especially helpful in evolving Smuttlabs,
Smuttynose’s innovation center. The Vault is the only way to get Smuttlabs beers
like Brett & I, The Stallion, as well as brewery-aged, vintage beers and new,
draft-only releases of storied Smuttynose Big Beers, such as two-time GABF
gold medal-winner, Wheat Wine. All Vault beers will take the shortest, most-
direct route to the snifters and palates of beer lovers everywhere Smuttynose distributes
The first new Vault release is March 11 with a 60 keg release of Kisses
and Kittens, a 3.8% barrel-fermented, Brettanomyces saison spiced with orange
peel and coriander. Future releases will be announced by email to every
business with a Beer Vault account.
If you manage a bar or restaurant and want your own keys to the Vault,
send a message to vault@smuttynose.com.
If you don’t manage a bar or restaurant, but you want to drink Vault beers,
ask your favorite tap house to email vault@smuttlabs.com to get set up.
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