Why Victory St. Victorious Doppelbock bottles never arrived
Q: I haven’t been able to find cases of St. Victorious this year? What gives? I’m having favorite beer withdrawal.
– Brad
A: Unfortunately, related to the capacity issues, and production puzzle we’ve talk about in the past, we had to make the difficult decision to skip bottling the saints this year. They haven’t been martyred completely though; you can find St. Victorious now on draft in a few locations and St. Boisterous on draft in just a few weeks.
via Victory blog.
Breweries: Victory Brewing
Have to say, between first Old Horizontal, now these two being limited draft only, this sucks much.
All of this for increased production of Headwaters Pale Ale?
Does Victory have any expansion plans in the near future? This is a good example of the reality many craft brewers are facing as they grow in popularity. Obviously this Headwaters Pale has been a hit for them, and if the revenue it generates can fuel an eventual expansion that brings back some of the beers that had to be shelved, then I would support that decision. The only other options are to pull out of markets, and that’s never favorable, and it still doesn’t deal with the fact that they just don’t have room to make everything. Careful, measured growth is clearly the best way forward, but with this “boom” period that we’re in, I bet we’ll see plenty of brewers stretch themselves too far chasing money, especially brewers with significant outside investments and the pressure to perform that would come with it. I’m not saying that’s what’s happening here. I think this is just a case of a brewer getting way too popular to keep up with demand. According to their website, they are available in 27 states plus Puerto Rico and three other countries. That’s crazy! By comparison, Bell’s is only in 18 states plus D.C. and has at least twice the current capacity and will be up to 500,000 barrels after expansion. I wish Victory the best because I like their beer, but it looks like they are at a crossroads.