I had heard this morning that Allagash was pulling out of both Washington and Texas. This contracting thing is getting chic. Pretty soon everyone will want to do it. So I wasn’t too concerned about it, because afterall I live in Idaho, and what the heck if Allagash pulls out of Washington, well boo hoo for a few million Washingtonians, but us good guys here in Idaho, we’re safe…right? WRONG!
I had forgotten that Rick over at Brewforia, Boise’s premiere bottle shop, had a pipeline into the Gem state (Idaho, for those of you back east). See if no distributer carried a particular beer here in Idaho, Rick was free to go out of state to get some and “import” it to Idaho. I’m not completely clear on all the legal particulars, but suffice it to say there are several goodies we get here in the treasure valley through Ricks slight of hand with local distributors.
That said, all the Allagash offerings we had here in Boise were through this exploited loophole. Just glad I got a chance to try White before they pulled out for good. Nothing left to say here. Wow, another One bites the dust!
Beer & Whiskey Brothers 
You know Allagash and Ommegang aren’t the same thing, right?
Sorry, you are correct I got them confused.
I had to double check when I read that as well. Have you started drinking already?
I did shoot Rick a text to see what he had available. Just a couple bottles of white and a dubbel. Not much worth getting excited about.
Way to edit the post and make my comment above nonsensical!
Seems odd to me how these breweries that are expanding into all the new markets seem to be ignoring what’s going on with the breweries that are pulling out of states.
While I’m glad to see Stone in Minnesota, I’m wondering what makes them think they can make it here after pulling out of Wisconsin just weeks ago.
Maybe they caught wind of my drinking habits and figured it was a no brainer to make it here.
Cheers guys.
That is odd Mikey. Why would Stone pull out of WI and go into MN. Perhaps a higher class of drunk? 😉 It is interesting though, you bring up a good point. While Allagash is contracting we are getting Portsmith out here as a new brewery available in Idaho. Just seems to be little sense to the whole thing.
What’s all this talk of pulling out?
Rumor has it we’re losing Founders (again) in SC.
Wow, that would blow Daniel, and not in the good way! I’m not crying too much for you however, you still have a great selection of heavy hitters.
I had honestly never even really noticed that Allagash had a presence here in Washington. But if Ommegang pulled out, I’d be very depressed.
Apparently you are in the majority, Evan. Why else would they be leaving? And I agree that Ommegang would be a far bigger loss. I hope we can hang onto them!
Weird stuff. From a business standpoint, not necessarily the consumer who is losing the beer standpoint, I suppose its better that way because its just as bad to overextend prematurely.
Gem State indeed.
I think it shows that the craft beer industry has NO IDEA what’s around the corner. So many top-tier breweries are having to pull out of markets to satisfy burgeoning demand in key places they didn’t anticipate. It’s a problem, but a healthy one.
Indeed Scott.
Seems ALLAGASH is ALL-A-GONE!