A Migration Towards a Niche Market
McKean Banzer-Lausgerg from Migration Brewing talks about Portland's competitive landscape
In a recent post published at The New School, Ben Edmunds, a columnist for the site, prompted us to think about the point at which Portland would be considered a saturated beer market. Framed in the article as the Portland Beer Apocalypse, Ben offers his take on this very real possibility, saying:
"I fear for the Portland brewpubs. Already forced to compete with a tough restaurant scene, brewpubs are strained by large outlays of cash and credit for brewing systems, as well as the challenge of running both a brewery and restaurant." He goes on to say, "I fear that good beer and the best intentions may simply not be enough to make a brewery succeed. I hope I am wrong, but I’ll be surprised if the city can handle forty-plus breweries and brewpubs sustainably."
A Trip to Sisters, and Three Creeks Brewery
View from the road, driving through Sisters
If you haven't been to Sisters, OR, you're missing out. We rented a house just outside of town for Memorial Day Weekend this year, where views from our deck afforded us some of the best mountain views I've seen in Oregon. When we weren't exploring the surrounding parks and trails, we spent most of our weekend relaxing and enjoying the view. We didn't want to do much else. There was one exception, however.
Sisters is home to Three Creeks Brewery. The Brewery is located just southeast of downtown in what looks to be a rehabbed old barn. The build-out is beautiful. Separated into two parts: a restaurant and a bar, we grabbed a table in the bar on Saturday afternoon and ordered a taster tray.
Beer Releases: Timing is Everything
As a blogger who writes about beer, I generally find myself paying closer attention to details than most others typically would when attending beer events, visiting pubs, or drinking beer. After all, it's usually the details that offer the best content. But my attention to detail isn't confined to the beer industry. Outside of writing a beer blog, I work as a marketing consultant, and marketing is all about the details.
I say this to preface a point about beer releases: timing is everything.
While it isn't confined to one instance, I'll use an example that illustrates what I'm talking about. A local brewery recently had a bottle of a seasonal beer delivered to my house. In this case, the beer was delivered in advance of the beer's release party (this is pretty typical when a brewery is looking to leverage the reach bloggers have to help build anticipation about a beer before it's available to the public). This particular release party was marketed as being the public's first opportunity to taste and purchase the seasonal beer. Until this point, the marketing efforts for the beer that I had seen seemed to be doing a good job of generating awareness and anticipation for the release. I was looking forward to trying the beer and writing about it before the release.
