re: Bell's Brewing Hates LSU

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Does this happen because they are waiting for the shelves to clear of existing inventory? Or is it because CCD is just that bad?

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It's both, I believe. They receive old arse product and then it just turds away because nobody wants old arse IPAs. Except for Martini, I guess

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Or is it because CCD is just that bad?

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CCD is apparently great in New Orleans. Everyone there raves about their service. It's my belief that these out of state breweries are focused on New Orleans and see the service CCD provides there and chooses them based on that.

Unfortunately, CCD treats the rest of the state like a red headed step child. If it's not Abita, Coors, PBR or Red Bull, forget about getting fresh product, particularly new releases. That's my biggest beef. New releases are just sitting in a warehouse shelf turding before they bother sending it to the rest of the state. Out of state brewers send their beer to one central warehouse, which is then theoretically moved to the local warehouses for distribution to the retailers. A brand new warehouse in BR opened last summer. It was supposed to be the distribution hub for the entire state, since it's more centrally located. Brewers like Stone, Oskar Blues, Lagunitas, Sierra Nevada, etc. are still sending their shipments to the New Orleans warehouse. So that's the first fail. Then the New Orleans warehouse is supposed to send a transfer truck with all that stuff on it for the BR market once a week. There are a lot of times when those new releases don't make it onto that transfer truck. Instead of correcting the problem, they just wait until next weeks transfer, when the product may or may not make it on the truck. Then it sits in the warehouse.

CCD also doesn't have a designated craft beer specialist to represent those breweries. Instead, everyone is theoretically representing all the portfolio. So Joe Blow Delivery Truck Driver who doesn't know an IPA from the IRS doesn't give a rat's arse if Stone Enjoy By bottles don't make it up here. He'll just bring them next week. Or not.

Hell, even when the local breweries send beer directly to the CCD BR warehouse, it sits. Great Raft send bottles of At Arms Length to the BR CCD warehouse on Friday. They've yet to hit shelves here. On the other hand, Parish sent the latest batch of Ghost to Mockler today. Calandro's already got it and sold through their 8 case allotment. Everyone else will have theirs tomorrow. Meanwhile, Great Raft's beer is still waiting to be delivered.

But don't take my word for all this. Ask the 2 managers of beer deparments and beer bars who expressed their disappointment in CCD getting the Bell's distribution who posted in this thread. I know they have even better stories. I've got a bunch of them from people just like them who manage beer at the retail level.