We followed up with Jesse Edwin Evans of New Chicago Beer Co. on the distribution deal they announced yesterday with River North Sales and Service.
CHITOWN ON TAP: What makes River North the right fit? Why not craft-centric distributors Windy City or Louis Glunz?
JESSE EDWIN EVANS: We are very excited to be working with River North for many reasons. We spent a lot of time researching and in decision making to get to this point. The process literally took almost a year and a half to complete and was still a difficult decision.
Here in Chicago, we are very lucky to be blessed with very good distributors. All of them are putting in a lot of investment to understand craft beer and we appreciate those efforts. In the end, our decision was decided because of the quality of the team at River North. It was a very hard decision and working with any of the distributors in Chicago would be an excellent choice for any new brewery coming on the horizon.
Do you have any reservations about doing business with a company that was singled out as using unethical business practices in last November’s Crain’s article?
Obviously, as a craft producer, we are concerned by unethical business practices that breweries feel that they need to do to compete. I can’t speak to the specifics about the Crain’s article, but I do think that it is more of an indictment of the practices, real or otherwise, of an industry that is not craft beer. I have spent a lot of time talking with bar owners, beer buyers and distributors and feel that the accusations are essentially sensationalist and make a good story.
I immediately thought of that Crain’s article when this was announced. Somehow, I doubt that Greg Koch, the representative from New Glarus, or any of the other craft brewers who have been the subject of attempted extortion by distributors wanting “free kegs” and whatnot would agree that story was “sensationalist.”
How would Evans even know? He’s just getting into the business. Is the representative from River North saying “Oh no, we don’t do that stuff” good enough for him, I guess? That doesn’t sound terribly thorough.
And by “getting into the business,” I meant to Chicago market specifically. In general, I’d say “the people who lodged the complaints” probably have a bit more experience in the realities of the problem than the guys who are starting a brewery that hasn’t begun distributing beer yet.
In fact, I give props to someone like Greg Koch for actually having the balls to name names as to specific bars and distributors that demanded pay to play, even though they’ve all naturally denied it. What other recourse does the brewer have, besides “name and shame”? It’s the only weapon they’ve got.
Evans was speaking specifically about River North, so be careful applying the broad themes of the article to this specific company.
I don’t know what River North is doing with their American light lager and shitty import products, but I know their craft and Belgian import reps are very highly respected around town by people at the best bars and restaurants. I wonder how separate those parts of their company are.
Paul you obviously do not work in the industry, the river north reps are not respected on the street! No matter what they are selling due to their lack of knowledge. It doesn’t surprise me due to your many amateur attempts at blogging about the local beer scene. I work in the industry and every distributor EVEN Glunz & Windy City pay to play one way or another. Call them Incentives if you will. It is very competitive out their and I have heard sales reps from certain companies “windy city” straight up lie to accounts to gain ground and sales.
You’re right, I don’t work in the industry, except for what I do here. It’s always good to hear from people who do, so thanks for your perspective. I’m always open to criticism and suggestions, so please feel free to shoot me an email.
Interesting info on the Chicago beer industry. I’ve always tried to follow what’s going on in Chitown since I first visited back in 2005, and after Bell’s decided to leave the market.
Since I work in the industry in NYC, I can easily say, the same situation exists in this market. All SLAs have their rules and regulations, and they are all pretty similar from what I can see. But no matter the distributor, all seem to do some things to skirt the law….some more than others. Even the ones dedicated to craft beer need to sometimes do so to get placements for their brands. Unfortunately its the name of the game, created and ruled by the big boys. Thus the reason so many craft brewers might go with a distributor that has a BIG national brand. Although that particular craft brewer might not be giving away free kegs, they can easily get “bundled” in as a package deal. It helps. Things won’t change as long as the big brands and their distributors only get slaps on the wrist from the State regulators. The cost of getting caught in NY state has certainly gone up, but the practices have just changed methods of getting the deed done.
Anyway, great site Paul. Enjoy the updates on whats going on, despite someone else that obviously checks out your site thinking its amateur. Keep up the good work. Its not an easy thing to keep on top of all things going on in a big city’s beer scene and doing it for just the love of it all.
I don’t know enough about the relationship between the brewer and the distributor to comment on whether this is good or bad for NCBC, but I am curious as to how this is happening already… have they brewed any beer yet?? I took a tour of The Plant last fall hoping to see a budding brewery but all I saw was empty space in their area. For me, it seems like signing a record distribution deal without having made a record yet. Or something like that. Just curious as to how this works.
I really want these guys to do well, but I hope they made the right business decision in what seems to be a crucial part of the successful brewing process.
(Recently discovered the blog, great work and please keep it up.)
Cheers!
This is what I constantly wonder about. They’ve said they’re going to finally start talking about the beer sometime “soon,” but I’ve yet to meet anyone who’s actually had anything they’ve made. I don’t really understand the secrecy. It’s been very cloak and dagger. Contrast that with say, the Pipeworks guys, who always seemed to be getting people to taste stuff. Wouldn’t you expect that to serve them well as they finally start professionally brewing this week? (By the way, I am crazy excited about that)
Have you had any New Chicago beers, Paul? Or do you know anybody who has?
Haven’t had any. I guess you could ask people out in California what they think about the beer the New Chicago guys made with Lucky Hand, or check out those beer review sites that will not be named–I don’t patronize the dark corners of the online beer community. The “secrecy” is actually more common than you think. Not everyone is out there pushing their goods before they have their business and legal matters firmly settled. I take that as evidence of business experience, which the New Chicago guys have from starting Lucky Hand in California. Look at Solemn Oath in Naperville–what have you heard about them? Not much. They’re quietly going about their business. This is not their first rodeo either.
New Chicago has received a large amount of media exposure because of the facility and idea they’ve joined themselves too–wisely, I believe. Why should that exposure mean they’re bound to parade around town pouring their beer? They couldn’t even do so if they wanted to at this point. After filing with the TTB, breweries are closely monitored and may not brew on their premises or publicly provide their beer.
I was under the impression that the Pipeworks guys have been “providing their beer” just about anywhere and everywhere, but you have the advantage of living in the city whereas I do not.
One could look into what they did in California, but from what I’ve read in the past the beer they made there isn’t really the kind of stuff they WANTED to make in the first place, so I’ll give it a bye.
I guess you can make a case for them playing the beers tight-to-the-chest as business-savvy, but personally I can’t help but think it’s a missed opportunity to get buzz going for something other than The Plant. I write entertainment previews for a newspaper for a living, so it’s just my natural reaction to think “let’s get all this info out there.”
You are 100 percent right that I have heard nothing at all about Solemn Oath. The only reason I know anything about them at all is what I’ve read here, haha.
I have a piece going up on Aleheads in a few days that heavily uses your 2012 preview piece with my thoughts on all the opening places and any other information I was able to dredge up. Thanks for collecting it all in one place.
BTW, in the last few days I’ve been getting randomly redirected by certain links on this site to stuff like “CHEAP CIALIS, CHEAP VIAGRA.” Has this been happening to anybody else? It’s happening to me right now if I try to access the 2012 preview. This page, on the other hand, loads normally.
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