Empyrean News!!

Thursday, August 30, 2007

Empyrean News!!

Here is a quick note from Empyrean. I also wondered why Upstream wasn't at the State Fair, that is just wrong.

Fall is fast approaching as is the start of Husker football which will bring the throngs of red clad faithful to our neighborhood – hopefully they’ll drink their share of Empyrean while in the Haymarket, whether their at Lazlo’s, Brewsky’s, Doc’s, Old Chicago, Jack’s or Buzzard Billy’s.

Stop into Lazlo’s for a pint of our 2007 vintage Oktoberfest Martian Märzen or our newest Limited – Hefeweizen. We’ve brewed many Hefe beers over the years but this is easily our best and we’re serving in the traditional tall glass with lots of head.
Congratulations go out to long time Lincoln home brewer Dave Oenbring who won our Beer Quest event on Sunday August 26^th. Dave won with a Dutch Smoked Porter which we’ll brew in a week. Look for the Smoked Porter on Cask at the October 1^st Brewery Tour and on tap in all Lazlo’s and FireWorks by mid October. Registration for our November Beer Quest will go up just after Labor Day.
Stop by the Arboretum Pavilion at the State Fair this week and enjoy a Nebraska brew from Empryean, Spilker, Thunderhead or Gottberg. Be sure to thank them for having the beer there but give them a bad time about leaving Upstream out this year – only because they didn’t want to deal with an Omaha distributor – LAME!

Look for all the Nebraska brewers to be sampling beers at the October 4^th Okto Beerfest. It will be at the Lancaster Event Center, 84^th & Havelock Ave from 6pm – 9pm and benefits the Nebraska State Stroke Association. Great beer for a great cause!
Cheers!
Jim Engelbart
Empyrean Brewing Co.

6 comments:

CJ said...: That is very LAME that there are no Upstream brews due to this issue. Anyone know how we, the beer drinking public can get this changed???!!!!; August 30, 2007 at 9:01 AM
Nimz said...: Legislation...?; August 30, 2007 at 9:59 AM
Segnid said...: Shouldn't need legislation. I don't really understand Jim's explanation.

The guy that distributes the bottled Upstream stuff definitely sells them in Lincoln. He's told me he can't do kegs as inventory items or supply draft support, but I don't know why that would stop them from sending some to a special event like this. I've got a good relationship with him (just had dinner with him on Saturday in Omaha), so I'll ask if he has a better explanation.

Cheers
matt; August 30, 2007 at 10:39 AM
Segnid said...: Sounds like Upstream lost 8 kegs at this event last year, and never got any reimbursement for anything. Last year, they were handled by a different Omaha distributor than the one they currently work with.

I'm not sure where the blame lies for those lost kegs, either the fair or the distributor, but that's a pretty big chunk of change for a small brewery to lose. I don't blame Upstream for being gun shy to return. The cost of new replacement kegs would be easily around $1000.

Cheers
matt; August 30, 2007 at 11:55 AM
Nate B. said...: That is good news, nice research and follow up Matt!!; August 30, 2007 at 12:09 PM
JEBCo said...: There's way more to this than in my orginal post as there have been more than a few issues with NE beer at the Fair.
Platte Valley lost 6 kegs there in '05 and have no interest in being there again for this reason. Upsteam didn't get their kegs back in '05 until 3 months after the Fair and then not at all in '06.
The Fair is a large operation and sometimes being a small player in a big pond you don't get the attention you'd like. The Fair did choose not to have Upstream beer this year, not because they don't like Upstream but they didn't want to hassle with one small distributor that has been nothing but problematic in the past. The people to really fault are Upstream's previous distributor for making it waayy too hard to get 6 to 8 kegs delivered and then picked up 50 miles away. Once I can understand, but 2 years in a row?
This is a perfect example of how a distributor can ruin a sales oportunity for a brewer. The Fair did reimburse Upstream for the loss of kegs at purchase value which is a really big deal. The distributor should have been responsible for this but by law they only have to pay back the keg deposit to the brewery - which is typically $12 for a $120 keg shell.
This one distributor just happens to have huge portfolio of great beers they've given little or no attention to for years - they make their money selling wine.
My main goal of even bringing up Upstream's absence was as a reminder that if you want brewery x's beer you have to ask for it, keep asking for it and get others to do the same. Customer demand wins, every time, even at the Fair and even with a lousy distributor.
Sorry for the rant!
Cheers!
Jim; September 4, 2007 at 4:49 PM