Why Don't We Stock XYZ Brand Beer September 27 2014, 0 Comments

One of the most frequent questions we get at Bier Cellar is if we have a certain beer, and if not, why.  We thought we would write a blog post to try to cover the most frequent reasons.

1.  It Isn't Distributed to Maine - This knocks out most of the white whale beers that we get asked about most often.  For us to carry a beer as a licensed retailer in Maine, the beer either has to come to us through a licensed distributor, or from a small brewery within the State of Maine.  There are a few reasons a beer may not come in to the State of Maine through a distributor, the most common is that the brewery doesn't have the capacity to come to Maine, for some reason doesn't want to come to Maine, or can't find a distributor who wants to bring them in to Maine.  So, Heady Topper, Pliny The Elder, Hill Farmstead, Three Floyds, Lawsons and so on, just don't have the capacity or desire to distribute to Maine.  Therefore, we can't legally get them to sell them.  There are some bullshit bottleshops who will purchase beer and sell it illegally, but we refuse to go against the wishes of the brewery, if they don't want to be in Maine, then there is a reason.  We also don't want to break any laws and endanger our license.

Another reason is that no importer or distributor thinks they could sell enough of Brand XYZ to bother bringing it in to the State of Maine.  So I apologize in advance I can't get that beer you had in that tiny town in Bulgaria when you were backpacking through Europe, but not every beer can be brought in to Maine, and I am 100% positive we can find you something you like as much, if not better.

2.  It Doesn't Fit In To What We Are Trying To Do - I don't want that to come off as snobbish, because when we pass judgement on a beer, it isn't passing judgement on you for liking it.  Rather, we just don't think it fits in to what we are trying to do here.  Our hopes are to carry a cultivated selection of beers.  We aren't trying to be Beers of The World and carry every since beer produced.  Our goal is that every beer on our shelf fits our vision of what Bier Cellar is.  So just because we don't carry a specific beer, doesn't mean we think we are better than it.  We hope more often than not you come to Bier Cellar looking not looking for one particular beer, but looking for a great beer or wine that fits your mood and are open to a surprise or allowing us to open your mind or palate a little bit. 

3. It Is A Crappy Beer - Okay, this one can come off as a little snobbish, I'm fine with that.  We don't carry mass market lagers from Bud, Miller or Coors.  We don't carry sicky sweet mass market ciders.  We don't carry industrial wines. We respect your palate more than that.  At the same time, we aren't a slave to black and white definitions of what craft beer is.  We love us some Narragansett, we carry Goose Island, because they are good beers.  No lobbying group definition of craft tells us what beers we are going to carry.  We met the brewmaster from Goose when he was here for Migration Week, that man is a craft brewer, no matter who owns his company, and he is doing things the right way. 

So we hope that answers a few questions as to why a certain beer isn't on our shelves.  But always feel free to ask, sometimes we can special order a certain beer, or it may be coming in soon.  We carry as many beers we love as we possibly can, and we always hope we have one that will hit the spot.