Moosehead & Sam Adams

Cass · Post by **Cass** » Tue Feb 16, 2010 7:34 pm

Received a media invite for this week for Jim Koch and Andrew Oland to "announce a new Canadian distribution venture" between Sam Adams and Moosehead.

Not sure I'll be able to make it, we'll see what the specifics are as it's announced.

Bobsy · Post by **Bobsy** » Tue Feb 16, 2010 9:02 pm

Could be interesting...

markaberrant · Post by **markaberrant** » Tue Feb 16, 2010 9:45 pm

This is the first promising bit of news I've heard from a big Canadian brewery since Molson rebranded Blue Moon as Rickard's White.

Ukie · Post by **Ukie** » Wed Feb 17, 2010 8:58 am

Heres hoping! Of course I was excited when Molson and Grupo Modelo announced a joint venture in 2007 and nothing happened.

TJ · Post by TJ » Wed Feb 17, 2010 10:37 am

More Sam Adams in Canada would not be a bad thing. Fingers crossed.

Bobbyok · Post by **Bobbyok** » Wed Feb 17, 2010 10:50 am

They would be the two largest independent brewers in Canada and the US now wouldn't they? It's too bad Moosehead wasn't more like Sam Adams - Winter Lager and Octoberfest may not be Dreadnaught or Speedway but they're a long way up from Cracked Canoe and Cold Filtered Light.

kwjd · Post by **kwjd** » Wed Feb 17, 2010 11:01 am

Hopefully this means we can get more Sam Adams products on a regular basis in addition to the Boston Lager.

Bytowner · Post by **Bytowner** » Wed Feb 17, 2010 11:06 am

Maybe Sam Adams is going to teach them how to brew beer, wouldn't that be something!

G.M. Gillman · Post by **G.M. Gillman** » Wed Feb 17, 2010 7:31 pm

The advantage I see is to have Samuel Adams Lager on draft - and perhaps other beers from Sam Adams, especially its Stock Ale.

Good move on the part of both.

Sam Adams Lager was and is a great beer and on draft it really comes into its own.

Gary

lagerale · Post by **lagerale** » Thu Feb 18, 2010 8:37 am

I'm in SW Florida right now and every restaurant seems to have Sam Adams etither on tap or in bottle. It's typically the only "craft" beer avaialable (though if lucky they have SNPA in bottle). Would be nice to see more of their offerings in Ontario.

JerCraigs · Post by **JerCraigs** » Thu Feb 18, 2010 8:47 am

Honestly, I don't mind Sam Adams, but the vast majority of Canadian microbreweries produce products that are as good or better in my opinion. I'm not sure this is a plus for the Canadian market if it potentially means that we start seeing "decent" US brewers displacing sales of "pretty good" Canadian ones.

If we are going to be importing stuff I'd like it to be at least as good or better than what we produce locally. We shall see!

GregClow · Post by **GregClow** » Thu Feb 18, 2010 9:57 am

G.M. Gillman wrote:The advantage I see is to have Samuel Adams Lager on draft

Sam Adams has already been available up here on draft, although only in a few places.

I'm a bit surprised that it didn't show up more places, especially at bars that have mainly Sleeman and associated brands (Unibroue, Sapporo, Okanagan Spring...) on tap, since Sleeman has been their distributor for the past several years. The brand never seemed to be a big priority for them, so it'll be interesting to see how things change with Moosehead.

Belgian · Post by **Belgian** » Thu Feb 18, 2010 12:21 pm

JerCraigs wrote:Honestly, I don't mind Sam Adams, but the vast majority of Canadian microbreweries produce products that are as good or better in my opinion. I'm not sure this is a plus for the Canadian market if it potentially means that we start seeing "decent" US brewers displacing sales of "pretty good" Canadian ones.

If we are going to be importing stuff I'd like it to be at least as good or better than what we produce locally. We shall see!

+ uno. Sam Adams is a moderately good large micro with an aggressive marketing push, and would probsbly displace some potential market share of smaller, better Canadian micros.

Also curious if the USA-made Sam Adams might dissappear, replaced by some Moosehead-brewed "Frankenbeer" that only calls itself SA.

Bobsy · Post by **Bobsy** » Thu Feb 18, 2010 12:48 pm

JerCraigs wrote:Honestly, I don't mind Sam Adams, but the vast majority of Canadian microbreweries produce products that are as good or better in my opinion. I'm not sure this is a plus for the Canadian market if it potentially means that we start seeing "decent" US brewers displacing sales of "pretty good" Canadian ones.

If we are going to be importing stuff I'd like it to be at least as good or better than what we produce locally. We shall see!

Sadly, a lot of the pretty good Canadian breweries don't find their way on to taplists, at least at the sort of bars that would carry something like Sam Adams, and at least in this province.

cannondale · Post by **cannondale** » Thu Feb 18, 2010 1:13 pm

Confusing to see protectionist sentiments here considering the 'free market or bust' attitude typical of this forum.

And besides that, these guys make a lot of excellent products that would be more than welcome.

http://www.ratebeer.com/brewers/boston-beer-company/32/