September 11, 2024

Episode #6: What If The Beer Sucks? with Michael Gray (Gather Brewery & Glassworks) + Alexander Chramow (Lovebird Snack Club) | The Business of Beer

2 hours 58 minutes

Independent bottle shops were one of the biggest wins from the pandemic for Ontario craft beer drinkers, and in this latest episode of The Business of Beer, we catch up with two bottle shops x contract breweries that approached it completely differently. Michael of Gather Brewery & Glassworks and Alexander of Lovebird Snack Club joined Cee and Nate to chat about the logistics and challenges of opening a bottle shop in Ontario, why it's so difficult to maneuver around the laws, the benefits and downsides of both approaches (starting a contract brewery then a bottleshop vs starting a bottleshop then a contract brewery), the limitations of contract brewing, working with the LCBO, the bureaucracy of alcohol sales in Ontario, how it works with licensees, and their future plans for their beers. The fellas delivered a killer lineup of crispies for the pod: Lovebird Good Things Rice Lager, Gather Dam Good Lager American Lager, Lovebird x Emmer's Proof Sourdough Helles Lager, and Gather Big Pants Pilsner Czech-style Pilsner. This was fascinating - cheers!

BAOS Podcast

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