Beer Selling Bulls**** er Blues

Most of the week at the brewery has revolved around labels that won't adhere to wet bottles. Confirming delivery of sold kegs and bottles and then waiting on the actual pickup and delivery. Since we operated in a three tier state. I sell to the wholesaler, the wholesaler sells to the retailer. Three price markups, including mine before the beer gets to the customer. So since I actually do the majority of the selling, (my wholesaler also has a sales staff who do quite well collecting vacations and incentives from bigger breweries than mine-(They sell some for me too, I'm not complaining) I sell the kegs or cases , then call my wholesaler so he can pickup the keg or case from the brewery and deliver it to the retail location. The disconnect comes during the pickup phase. Most wholesalers receive the merchandise via freight. So the delivery to the warehouse is taken care of. It's a rare wholesaler (distributor) that has brewery in the same town. Especially with craft beer, a lot of the beer is shipped from colorado and california-craft beer mecca. In my case the manager, a salesman, or a delivery person picks up the beer from my brewery when they remember and if they have the time. It's very frustrating to listen to a retailer that wants my beer yesterday and is less than 1/2 a mile away but can't get it because my wholesaler hasn't picked it up.It's hard enough just to keep tap handles with the our brand avaiable, The competition is fierce and beng local does'nt mean much to some bar owners. The other day I had the owner of a local bar tell me my keg of beer had gone bad. I checked it when it was placed on tap, gave a sample to the bartender and a customer-no complaints. That was on Monday. A few days later I went to give the bar some promotional pint glasses and I noticedthey had pulled my keg and replaced it with Boulevard Ale. I call him and he tells me the beer's tainted. So I pull my keg out of the walk in, pull the bud light connector and hook my keg up. I give samples to a customer, the bar manager, and the bartender. All say it's fine. I try it and I know it's better than fine. If by bad he means rich malt background, spicy hop presence, some alcohol warming, caramel and a small amount of diacytle and aroma atttributes and a slight mint almost medicinal tinge from dry hopping Hallertau whole hops. Yea- he's right. The complexity of that beer vs the boulevard is laughable. It's almost a double ipa that shows some strong ale characteristics. I'm not being immodest, just honest. So I walk the keg down the street to a multi tap bar and offer him a deal he can't refuse. Problem is, I can't bring a keg in. Only my distributor can. So I cut the air on in the car, call my sales rep and ask him to get his ass down there pronto cause I'm pissed and I can't wait to tell that other bar owner that the beer he called tinted is pouring just fine down. So my rep meets me at my car, I give him the keg and he carries it in to the other bar -(it's a 1/6 barrell) Then just cause I'm still pissed I go and sell two other kegs to two other local venues that appreciate how hard it is to survive as a local business here

You gotta love this business