Dave Alexander, who made The Brickskeller what it was, and, by extension, created the modern DC Beer scene, passed away earlier this week. His importance to beer in Washington, DC cannot be overstated. Greg Engert, managing partner at Neighborhood Restaurant Group, got his start there, as did Rachel Michael Murray, general manager at Atlas Ivy City. Nahem Simon, who ran the beer program at Jack Rose, did as well. And of course many of us had our first <insert beer name/style here> there.
There’s a grim irony at play here: Alexander did as much for imported and craft beer as anyone yet his passing comes at a time when the availability of imported beer is temporarily under threat in the District; much of this is the result of the dissolution of Legends Distributing. The Saison Dupont on your Thanksgiving table was brewed last winter or spring; fresher batches aren’t currently available in DC. Here’s why.
Non-Mexican imported beer isn’t doing well in the United States. Blame your local craft brewery; the promiscuous American craft beer drinker who moved from Chimay to IPAs to imperial stouts to Czech-style lagers (I wish!); and all of us chasing what’s new. Or blame Allagash, which makes a witbier and a tripel much closer to home, nevermind Blue Moon is in your grocery store or likely in your CVS if you live in Virginia.
Many consumers “embraced the ultra-hazy IPAs, candy bar stouts, and fruit smoothie sours as if that’s where the market is and will be for the foreseeable future. Sometimes I can’t find a Dubbel if my life depended on it. There’s a place for those styles, but not at the expense of beers that taste like beer,” notes Hop, Cask, and Barrel’s general manager Jared Praeger. “I’ve watched both chain stores and small craft-focused shops ditch the imported classics, or domestic brands producing classic styles for that matter.”
The District was, for a time, somewhat immune to the decline of imports. DC is an international city, with people, and their beers, coming from all over the world, and we got a late start on a homegrown beer industry compared to Baltimore, Richmond, and Philadelphia. I can tell you where to buy beer from just about any country that exports to the US, ask away! We have more beer professionals in Belgium’s Knighthood of the Brewers’ Mash Staff than any other city in the States, which includes the late Dave Alexander. In addition to gone-but-not-forgotten Brickskeller, Belga Cafe, Brasserie Beck, Pizzeria Paradiso, and now The Sovereign carry the torch for Trappist ales, European lagers, and other imported beers, especially those from Belgium and Germany.
Over the summer, the Sheehan family that owned and operated Legends dissolved the Maryland-based beer distributor, presumably for financial reasons, though we also can’t rule out the internal dynamics and politics at play in the Sheehan Family Companies. It’s a tremendous loss for Maryland and the District, as Legends was one of the most craft-friendly beer distribution companies in the area. “There’s a reason that Legends always topped the list when I had breweries call asking which distributors I’d recommend,” wrote Erika Goedrich, owner of DC’s Craft Beer Cellar, in July. “Legends was so important to me as a buyer because they struck a balance. I could rely on them to provide local, national, and most importantly many specialty imported brands,” said Praeger when asked for comment.
The good news is that Chesapeake Beverage has taken on most of the Legends portfolio, and even some of the Legends staff. The bad news is that this has come at significant cost to both smaller breweries and better beer stores. Chesapeake did not pick up the rights to distribute Graft Cider or Brewer’s Art, among others. After several months of searching, Graft signed a distribution deal with Capital Eagle and is back on shelves in DC. Brewer’s Art hasn’t been as fortunate.
“Starting in the mid-2000s, Legends had the rights to distribute Brewer’s Art products in Western Maryland, the Eastern Shore and in Washington, D.C. And now the brand will have no representation at all in those areas,” noted The Baltimore Banner in an August article that should be required reading for area beer fans. Even what’s in stock or available via special orders can be hard to get. “I’m still waiting to receive a case of Ettaler Helles Lager that I special-ordered which was checked into their warehouse over two weeks ago. They [Chesapeake] don’t stock that item, so just the one case I requested was brought in and marked for me. Even still, it takes this long to find the box and stick it on a truck,” says Praeger.
“Regrettably, there is a disconnect at various levels of the supply chain and management which has left everyone with half of the information they need at best. My orders get mixed up, I can’t get complete lists of brands that have been added or dropped, and there’s no light at the end of the tunnel to suggest when the ride will get less bumpy,” he said.
Goedrich expressed similar frustrations, writing: “Losing Legends as a distributor in DC was a huge blow for us. Aside from being a distributor that was very much about the relationships, they carried boutique brands… ones that weren’t necessarily fast movers but that I wanted on the shelf. Some of those brands have not found a new distribution home. Some have, but one brand went to one distributor and another brand went to another distributor. Some of those distributors have smaller portfolios but larger minimums to order. For example, I’d now need to order 8 cases of Zywiec Porter to meet the minimum as I’m not interested in the other products this distributor sells. I barely sold 8 cases of Zywiec in all of 2022.” Goedrich cites an interesting tidbit with minimums. They are essentially the least you can buy from a distributor to ensure you still get the product(s) you want for your store. For a Polish porter that comes 20 bottles to a case and clocks in at 9.5% alcohol by volume, 160 bottles may sound like a lot. And it is.
Ask around and you’ll likely find many retailers who know the high minimums as the “Costco discount.” Odd Provisions doesn’t get the same pricing as the big stores. If you buy 75 to 200 cases you’ll get a deep discount on the product–perhaps in excess of 25 percent–whereas stores with smaller square footage, like essentially every better beer store in the District, can’t stock 75 cases of Allagash White. To wit, a case of this beer cost $33.75 in 2021, and jumped to $35.18 if a store purchased 5 cases–120 cans–or more last year. If a store buys 4 cases or less, the cost is $36.75 per case. Smaller beer stores can either take an additional hit on price, further thinning already thin margins, or raise the price for consumers and risk having people buy the beer at Giant, Safeway, or Harris Teeter for less.
If 100 cases fit on a pallet, who’s got room for two pallets in their store? Some distributors have been known to warehouse the beer for retailers, building goodwill between distro and retail, but it is certainly not the norm in these relationships. The largest quantity discount (QD) is only possible for those retailers buying in the 75 to 200 case size. Grocery stores also work differently, but their margins can be based on corporate deals made by the chains. “When I worked at Trader Joe’s, I wasn’t in charge of pricing but they had the volume and the range,” Wardman Wines’ buyer Eric Kinter told our Michael Stein last year. Because Wardman’s is a single store and Trader Joe’s has more buying power, “I have to price things by what I pay for them.”
In addition to minimums, imported–especially Belgian and German beer–brands are trapped in limbo, because beer distribution companies own the rights to sell beer brands to bars, restaurants, and bottle shops. When Chesapeake acquired much of Legends portfolio of brands, they did so for Denizens, Manor Hill, Union, and other larger local breweries, not for Brewer’s Art or Diamondback, not for breweries further afield like Von Trapp, Oxbow, and Jack’s Abbey, and certainly not for the Belgian-brewed Bavik. The Sheehan family owns, or owned, the rights to many of these remaining brands, and will only allow them to be distributed if another company buys those rights. However, the family’s rights to these brands expired 6 months after the dissolution of Legends, which means that other distribution companies can wait it out and sign breweries to distribution deals in early 2024 without paying Sheehan first. In the meantime, the existing stocks of beer continue to dwindle. Affected brands include those from Total Beverage Solution, which imports Saison Dupont, and Artisanal Imports, which has Andechs, St. Feullien, and Timmermans brands among others.
“Sometimes, even when a portfolio or brand has migrated to another distributor, not all of the products remain available. The Schneider brand of Germany switched to Hop & Wine Distributors,” notes Praeger. “Although I still have access to their Aventinus Weizenbock, they’ve left me without Eisbock for the winter season.”
Indeed, Hop & Wine and Craft Coalition have been able to acquire some of the imports, but getting them back in stock has been a challenge. The former was able to partner with Global Beer Network, which imports Bavik, Schneider, and Gulden Draak. After a pause of a few months, Craft Coalition now distributes Twelve Percent and B. United, which includes Tilquin and Brauerei Heller-Trum/Aecht Schlenkerla’s rauchbiers. As for Zywiec, “I’ve decided not to carry it even though it’s a fantastic beer,” says Goedrich of the strong Polish porter.
Keep in mind that thus far we have written about stores in the District proper. Add Montgomery County’s byzantine alcohol regime into this unfortunate situation for Choice, Downtown Crown, Fenwick, Gilly’s, and Whelan’s. “It’s gotten pretty bleak out there, a lot of consumers have no idea how bad it is,” one Montgomery County shop owner told us. And given the county’s history with alcohol, it takes a lot for someone to say that. We also asked multiple breweries and cideries for comments when writing this; over the last 4 months none of them would give us a quote.
All of this is to say that if you’re interested in any of the import brands mentioned and see them while you’re about and about shopping in DC and Maryland, you should purchase them because it might be a while before they’re back on the shelves–especially if the beers in question are higher in alcohol, not hoppy, and/or are mixed fermentation, all of which can mitigate concerns about freshness. Then raise a glass to Dave Alexander, to Diane Alexander, and the people who owned, managed, and served at The Brickskeller, who are the reason a lot of us got into beer in the first place, as well as why area stores like Craft Beer Cellar; Calvert Woodley; Hop, Cask, and Barrel; Rodman’s; and even Whole Foods stock so many Belgian and German beers. Also raise a glass to Roofers Union and their GM, Dave Delaplaine, who wrap up a beer-centric decade in Adams Morgan. The location was home to The Reef prior to Roofers Union, which sold more glasses of Belgium’s Bolleke De Koninck than any venue in the United States. Here’s hoping that space remains beer-focused in its next iteration, and that the legacy of Dave Alexander carries on.
Mike Stein assisted with this article, but don’t blame him for any errors herein.
