OT: Jersey Cyclone Brewery opening in Somerset May 4 - Ribbon Cutting 12 noon
- Thread starter ScarletR97
- Start date
Good luck to them. A very tough time to get into the business.
Brewery business. Tough business these days. Too many and many are folding. The success of a brewery is having a great Tap Room. Live on local business. Have to be great not average. Too many options for beer lovers. If there business model is to make money from selling retail the will fail quickly. They are late to that party
I wouldn't say they're late. As you said, live on local business.
There are zero production breweries within the New Brunswick/Somerset/North/South/East Brunswick area. Despite our population we are near dead last in breweries per capita, we have the capacity to support 400 more.
Also, no, there's not too many, and there's not many that are folding. That's a big assumption to be making.
Agree. Retail shelf space for new microbreweries is hard to come by these days. Too many nondescript craft beers on the market already that aren’t selling well. Retail margins also are low for craft breweries compared to sales in the tap room.
The brewery tap room is where margins are best. But how to create a steady stream of customers every month? Food trucks and low end entertainment events at the brewery are no longer big draws for customers that have little loyalty to any one brewery.
There is a microbrewery in my area of FL that started 5 years ago and did well enough to stay alive and look successful until recently. But they are carrying huge debt and newer breweries have passed them in quality and demand for their products. They are likely a dead man walking as a brewery imo.
Just look at Demented Brewing in Middlesex. VG products and reasonable buzz from the beer community, but probably underfunded and not able to survive in the current beer market. Investors beware.
Hope it is successful. Close to me, will have try out a couple of growlers to see which ones are tailgate worthy.
Breweries per capita yes but I'd like to see numbers on breweries per capita per distance. We have a high population but are also so small people don't have to drive to far for their favorites.
I live near Somerset though so I'm excited for this and hope it's good. We only have Flounder, Lone Eagle, Troon, and Conclave within 30 minutes of me which I know of. River Horse slightly further.
There is way too many. I'm a beer retailer. I only have so much space. There is only so much square shelf space in my store. Getting new beers on the shelf is nearly impossible these days. They and all new brewers must succeed by sales in their Tap Rooms
And many rely on their tap room sales so I don't even know why this is being brought up. My best friend is the beer manager at Petrock's, so I know the issue of shelf space. What's working in local brewers favor is that people want to buy the local stuff, and stores want to make room for it. Where he once had very little room for New Jersey based brews he now has whole coolers devoted to them.
They have 1 door there let's not go overboard. They are my favorite though because they do have some stuff I can't find elsewhere unless I go to Canal's. With that said you should get me discounts there because that's my normal store!!! :)
If your near North Brunswick stop here and start brewing your own:
https://www.love2brew.com/
They have the ingredients to clone almost any beer.
https://www.love2brew.com/
They have the ingredients to clone almost any beer.
Ok ok, shelves not coolers lolol.
It's still a lot more than what he used to put out there.
That is my point. If you don't sell at your tap room you fail before you start. And if you don't buy your own canning machine don't even open. If you don't make great brews nobody cares if your local. Retailers only cares about what sells. There is no point if it is local but average. There is a ton of options these days for retailers. And there are many breweries folding or getting bought out. It's a numbers game and a bad time to be just starting.
So you're stating the obvious to begin with, and I think you're ignoring mobile canning lines which are keeping plenty of breweries up and running without needing their own canning lines, and then the obvious of needing some level of quality (you don't even have to be great if your taproom is nice sometimes).
And within New Jersey, no, there are not a lot folding or getting bought out. The numbers work for New Jersey. The market is under served.
I sell a fair amount of beer. I agree 100% with WhiteBus here. SO many beers. I receive samples of terrific beer on a daily basis from breweries trying to "make" it. For every discerning customer who appreciates a good local brew, there are 10 customers drinking Stella, Sam Seasonal, Blue Moons, Yuenglings, etc. Yes, I know you probably shutter at the sight of these folks but it's just the way it is.
Selling beer at a store has little to do with the Jersey brewery market. Most new breweries want to sell mostly local and via their tap rooms these days. All but three states have more breweries per capita than New Jersey, and all of them also deal with numerous national, regional, and local beers at their stores.
Why do people continue to think New Jersey can't have more thriving breweries when literally every other state but three is doing better than us in this regard.
This place rules. They have just about everything there and the people that work there are extremely knowledgeable and helpful. They were going to shut down a few months ago but a couple of the employees have taken it over to keep the store in business. One of them plays in the men's hockey league I run, which ironically is at a rink directly across the street from Jersey Cyclone.
Speaking of Jersey Cyclone, I have been looking forward to them opening for years. They were originally going to be in New Brunswick, and I lived in Highland Park until a year ago so I was excited to have a brewery that I could ride my bike to, but that location didn't pan out. They must have already been leasing a spot though because their logo was already on a window on a street downtown. Anyway, when I heard they were not going to be opening at that location I was bummed until I heard that their new location was going to be across the street from my job.
Lots of times when I'm at a bar or restaurant looking for a good local craft beer, I end up with a Sam's Seasonal by default. Either the local beer list consists of 12 varieties of the same IPA, or the beer list doesn't contain any descriptions of the beers, and the server/bartender is unhelpful.
(I also don't understand why if you go to dinner with 6 people, you get 6 menus but 1 beer/cocktail list. If alcohol is the most profitable part of the business, I would think you'd want every customer to have a beer list so they can review the options, and maybe talk about it, before ordering.)
They might want to add their beers (with pics and descriptions) to their website and social media sites (IG and FB)... even their Untappd entries don't have a description other than the style. Maybe today?
Village Brewing Company in Somerville also recently opened and is 10 mins from Jersey Cyclone. Village also serves food, but doesn't yet have its ABC license, so they can't serve their own beer and instead have been selling other local craft beers.
I hope both can be the next Kane or Troon (hard acts to follow), and I'll be curious to see how both of these do.
Village Brewing Company in Somerville also recently opened and is 10 mins from Jersey Cyclone. Village also serves food, but doesn't yet have its ABC license, so they can't serve their own beer and instead have been selling other local craft beers.
I hope both can be the next Kane or Troon (hard acts to follow), and I'll be curious to see how both of these do.
Last edited:
Very small margins for small breweries, I have a friend who was partner in Backward Flag Brewery in Ocean County, from the outside it looks to be a thriving business but in fact they are barely breaking even and that's with a fairly full tap room most days.
I've read part of the problem is the breweries can't sell food, and are being hamstrung by local politicians (lobbied by local bar & restaurant owners) from continuously booking food trucks & entertainment. Claiming unfair advantages over the owners of million dollar liquor licenses.
The consolidation has begun with a huge bang. Dogfish Head sold to Boston Beer. Get used to it. More to come.
Wow ! I've been to the Dogfish Head Brew pub in Rehoboth many times when vacationing in Bethany Beach (terrific family beach town). Dogfish 90 one of my favorite IPAs, I had their 120 too there, which was very strong, very tasty, but 1 was enough.
Will the takeover change the Dogfish brand and beers? I hope Lagunitas and Russian River never sell out.
Using Dogfish and Sam Adams to try and make a point against New Jersey being able to support more hyper local breweries.
Interesting strategy.
Lagunitas sold out to Heineken a few years ago.
And no, part of this deal is that the owner of Dogfish Head is now the number two to Jim Koch of Sam Adams stock wise and will retain control of his brand and beers.
This was reported as a merger but it is a sale. DFH will have members on the Boston Beer board and have an avenue to express an opinion but Boston Beer has complete control.
All mergers are sales if you want to spin it that way. DFH retains its operations and with such a large control over the voting shares no, Jim Koch will not have complete control.
First of all Jim Koch doesn't control Boston Beer. He was just the founder. The CEO of Boston Beer is Dave Burwick formally of Pete's Coffee. This isn't like the investor group that owns Victory, Cigar City and Southern Tier where they are still somewhat independent. This was a take over. Similar to Goose Island.
Jim Koch has control over the voting shares. It is still very much his company. Sam Caligione now has the second most control over the voting shares.
Yes, he still holds the largest percentage of the class B voting shares. He still controls the company. It's the same as when Sam hired a CEO for Dogfish Head. Him and his wife still held the power within the company.
Similar threads
OT: Minor to Moderate (2-4?) Snowfall Likely Sat morning (2/17); will be <32F, so expect slick roads
