Russian River Brewing expansion

Just bought a piece of empty land ten minutes from the current location. Still a couple years off, but will almost double the capacity. And add a second pub.

It’s funny that Vinnie spoke at the Craft Brewers Conference a month about how they were going to stay small…

Even if RRBC doubles their capacity, wouldn’t they still be “small”?

It is damn near impossible to find most of their beers in Los Angeles.

They artificially limit the amount of beer that goes out to increase demand. Currently a 16000bbl system isn’t small nor is it large. But it should cover a decent amount of distribution. Take a look at modern times distribution network and availability. They produce an equal amount of beer at rrbc on a 16000bbl system.

Last I saw, RRBC made around 15,000 BBLs. If they double to 30,000 BBLs they will be about the 100th largest brewery in the U.S., out of around 4,000 breweries. The Brewers Association categorizes breweries as Micro (<15,000 BBLs), Regional (>15,000 BBLs), and Brewpubs (sell over 25% of their beer on-premise). Russian River is in the Brewpub category because they sell a significant portion of their production through the pub. They are one of the larger Brewpubs.

Charlie, I don’t think the RRBC is holding back beer to fuel demand. I think they are selling an increasing amount of beer out of their pub. This is a much more profitable way to sell beer!

Damn. I did not know that. Can’t say I’m a fan of the artificial limiting of supply. I love their sours, but am not interested in jumping through the hoops that one must jump through in order to get them … too much other beer of similar or better quality is easily available …

EDIT to acknowledge Rick’s follow-up comment re: selling through brewpub. [cheers.gif]

Please advise.

I just went and looked at the Brewers Association’s lists on brewery production. Russian River is listed twice. The Brew Pub is listed at around 4,000 BBLs, and their production facility is listed at slightly over 12,000 BBLs. I suspect that everything made at the Pub is sold at the Pub. In addition, I assume that any of the sours sold at the Pub are produced at their production facility, since the Pub doesn’t appear to have enough room for any kind of barrel program. In fact, it could very well be that all the bottled beer sold at the Pub comes from the production facility (bottling takes room too).

The growth in their sales has been much slower that the market as a whole. The Pub has been sitting at 4,000 BBLs for several years, and the production facility is only up 2,000 BBLs since it started in 2012 (and this was probably the sour production coming on-line).

If the two entities were combined, Russian River would be the largest producing Brew Pub with a single location in the U.S. The Gordon Biersch and McMenamins chains (there could be others as well) would be larger if reported in aggregate.

the Belgians

[drinkers.gif]

Brian is correct on this. I just visited Russian River so I got to sample their array of beers. They have a couple of great sours. Their IPAs are very nice but nothing unique or special (I like getting Pliney the Elder when I can because I have some beer geeks in town who go gaga when they see it- it is fun to make friends happy). But their Belgian stuff was pretty mediocre. There are tons of better stuff out there.

To me, the big news is that Pizza Boy Brewing is expanding its facilities, and is opening a local brewpub this fall. THAT is the big news 'round these parts, and now I will have access to their sours and specialty beers!!!

if pizza boy brewing has anymore acid in their sours I might need a new liver whenever I drink their beers. :smiley: