[YoungBlade]

Drinking a Belhaven right now.

[YoungBlade]

Found your favorite brewery Suits. Tastes like your home, I bet.

[jordypip23]

(03-03-2016 08:52 AM)YoungBlade Wrote:  

This is fantastic to drink in the summer after a long hike, or out on the water:

Ahh one of the old favorites. I had a long phase with craft beer stretching from about the year 2011 to late 2017. I have been to the Bell's Brewery in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Also hit up the Founders Festival several years ago (maybe 2011 or so?) out in Grand Rapids (Michigan) in the summertime. I live near Detroit now, and I used to be out by Chicago so I was never too far of a drive from these iconic microbreweries.

I have cut back on my drinking in general & have largely reverted to vodka with club soda when I'm out at a club / bar. In another interesting coincidence, the industry might have reached its saturation point now. I think some of the weaker players will end up closing shop.

When it comes to craft brews though, nothing beats the taste of having one at the source (at the brewery).

[Suits]

(06-28-2018 07:05 PM)jordypip23 Wrote:  

Also hit up the Founders Festival several years ago.

Founders was a weekly routine in my last year of university when I was studying in GR.

Impressively, they are now being imported into China. I can find their beer at a nearby convenience store. Beijing has changed a lot. That would have been unthinkable 10 years ago.

[jordypip23]

(06-28-2018 09:13 PM)Suits Wrote:  

(06-28-2018 07:05 PM)jordypip23 Wrote:  

Also hit up the Founders Festival several years ago.

Founders was a weekly routine in my last year of university when I was studying in GR.

Impressively, they are now being imported into China. I can find their beer at a nearby convenience store. Beijing has changed a lot. That would have been unthinkable 10 years ago.

That is quite unbelievable. I don't think I ever would have envisioned that when I drank my first Founders Dirty Bastard beer years ago hahah.

[Suits]

(06-28-2018 09:15 PM)jordypip23 Wrote:  

(06-28-2018 09:13 PM)Suits Wrote:  

(06-28-2018 07:05 PM)jordypip23 Wrote:  

Also hit up the Founders Festival several years ago.

Founders was a weekly routine in my last year of university when I was studying in GR.

Impressively, they are now being imported into China. I can find their beer at a nearby convenience store. Beijing has changed a lot. That would have been unthinkable 10 years ago.

That is quite unbelievable. I don't think I ever would have envisioned that when I drank my first Founders Dirty Bastard beer years ago hahah.

I'm not sure what the economics of it are or how long it will last. A wide variety of imported beers have been available at import speciality stores and high-end supermarkets for a most of the last decade. Microbreweries have become commonplace in major Chinese cities and they are showing up in places like Qingdao too.

When some Founder's beer showed up at a microbrewery location in Beijing that has close to 100 selections, including a significant import collection, I was a little shocked to see it, but it felt easily inside the range of possibility. Everything at that location costs $5USD+ with a lot of it being more than $10, even the locally produced beer.

But I'm not sure who is buying $10 bottled beers from the US at the local convenience store (other than me). My neighbourhood is a mix of some rich with mostly low to middle class residents. A lot of people who take public transport everywhere because they cannot afford a car.

High end mass produced local beer in China costs well under $2 USD, typically $1 for a 500ml can. So I'm not sure if stocking such beer is an experiment or if it is here to stay. I wonder what their turn over is. I've been meaning to ask.

[jordypip23]

(06-28-2018 09:25 PM)Suits Wrote:  

(06-28-2018 09:15 PM)jordypip23 Wrote:  

(06-28-2018 09:13 PM)Suits Wrote:  

(06-28-2018 07:05 PM)jordypip23 Wrote:  

Also hit up the Founders Festival several years ago.

Founders was a weekly routine in my last year of university when I was studying in GR.

Impressively, they are now being imported into China. I can find their beer at a nearby convenience store. Beijing has changed a lot. That would have been unthinkable 10 years ago.

That is quite unbelievable. I don't think I ever would have envisioned that when I drank my first Founders Dirty Bastard beer years ago hahah.

I'm not sure what the economics of it are or how long it will last. A wide variety of imported beers have been available at import speciality stores and high-end supermarkets for a most of the last decade. Microbreweries have become commonplace in major Chinese cities and they are showing up in places like Qingdao too.

When some Founder's beer showed up at a microbrewery location in Beijing that has close to 100 selections, including a significant import collection, I was a little shocked to see it, but it felt easily inside the range of possibility. Everything at that location costs $5USD+ with a lot of it being more than $10, even the locally produced beer.

But I'm not sure who is buying $10 bottled beers from the US at the local convenience store (other than me). My neighbourhood is a mix of some rich with mostly low to middle class residents. A lot of people who take public transport everywhere because they cannot afford a car.

High end mass produced local beer in China costs well under $2 USD, typically $1 for a 500ml can. So I'm not sure if stocking such beer is an experiment or if it is here to stay. I wonder what their turn over is. I've been meaning to ask.

Some guy (maybe the Founders owner himself) with an Excel spreadsheet in front of him in Grand Rapids may know the answer to your question.

You ever been to the Hopcat brew pub in Grand Rapids? I once saw the Hopcat founder give a speech at Michigan State maybe a little over 4 years ago. Hopcat has expanded like wildfire throughout the Midwest. They are now found in all of the major Michigan cities as well as Indianapolis & Chicago.

[Suits]

(06-28-2018 09:30 PM)jordypip23 Wrote:  

(06-28-2018 09:25 PM)Suits Wrote:  

(06-28-2018 09:15 PM)jordypip23 Wrote:  

(06-28-2018 09:13 PM)Suits Wrote:  

(06-28-2018 07:05 PM)jordypip23 Wrote:  

Also hit up the Founders Festival several years ago.

Founders was a weekly routine in my last year of university when I was studying in GR.

Impressively, they are now being imported into China. I can find their beer at a nearby convenience store. Beijing has changed a lot. That would have been unthinkable 10 years ago.

That is quite unbelievable. I don't think I ever would have envisioned that when I drank my first Founders Dirty Bastard beer years ago hahah.

I'm not sure what the economics of it are or how long it will last. A wide variety of imported beers have been available at import speciality stores and high-end supermarkets for a most of the last decade. Microbreweries have become commonplace in major Chinese cities and they are showing up in places like Qingdao too.

When some Founder's beer showed up at a microbrewery location in Beijing that has close to 100 selections, including a significant import collection, I was a little shocked to see it, but it felt easily inside the range of possibility. Everything at that location costs $5USD+ with a lot of it being more than $10, even the locally produced beer.

But I'm not sure who is buying $10 bottled beers from the US at the local convenience store (other than me). My neighbourhood is a mix of some rich with mostly low to middle class residents. A lot of people who take public transport everywhere because they cannot afford a car.

High end mass produced local beer in China costs well under $2 USD, typically $1 for a 500ml can. So I'm not sure if stocking such beer is an experiment or if it is here to stay. I wonder what their turn over is. I've been meaning to ask.

Some guy (maybe the Founders owner himself) with an Excel spreadsheet in front of him in Grand Rapids may know the answer to your question.

I'm guessing distribution in China is handled entirely by a third-party that is probably not the best communicator about real market realities.

(06-28-2018 09:30 PM)jordypip23 Wrote:  

You ever been to the Hopcat brew pub in Grand Rapids?

Fairly sure I went there once. But there was always a strong preference for the Founder's brand among the students at my university.

[jordypip23]

(06-28-2018 09:44 PM)Suits Wrote:  

(06-28-2018 09:30 PM)jordypip23 Wrote:  

(06-28-2018 09:25 PM)Suits Wrote:  

(06-28-2018 09:15 PM)jordypip23 Wrote:  

(06-28-2018 09:13 PM)Suits Wrote:  

Founders was a weekly routine in my last year of university when I was studying in GR.

Impressively, they are now being imported into China. I can find their beer at a nearby convenience store. Beijing has changed a lot. That would have been unthinkable 10 years ago.

That is quite unbelievable. I don't think I ever would have envisioned that when I drank my first Founders Dirty Bastard beer years ago hahah.

I'm not sure what the economics of it are or how long it will last. A wide variety of imported beers have been available at import speciality stores and high-end supermarkets for a most of the last decade. Microbreweries have become commonplace in major Chinese cities and they are showing up in places like Qingdao too.

When some Founder's beer showed up at a microbrewery location in Beijing that has close to 100 selections, including a significant import collection, I was a little shocked to see it, but it felt easily inside the range of possibility. Everything at that location costs $5USD+ with a lot of it being more than $10, even the locally produced beer.

But I'm not sure who is buying $10 bottled beers from the US at the local convenience store (other than me). My neighbourhood is a mix of some rich with mostly low to middle class residents. A lot of people who take public transport everywhere because they cannot afford a car.

High end mass produced local beer in China costs well under $2 USD, typically $1 for a 500ml can. So I'm not sure if stocking such beer is an experiment or if it is here to stay. I wonder what their turn over is. I've been meaning to ask.

Some guy (maybe the Founders owner himself) with an Excel spreadsheet in front of him in Grand Rapids may know the answer to your question.

I'm guessing distribution in China is handled entirely by a third-party that is probably not the best communicator about real market realities.

(06-28-2018 09:30 PM)jordypip23 Wrote:  

You ever been to the Hopcat brew pub in Grand Rapids?

Fairly sure I went there once. But there was always a strong preference for the Founder's brand among the students at my university.

These are great points. I guess the moral of the story is that the Americas & the West have an immense business opportunity in the present day exporting products & culture into China's growing luxury market. For years China has been flooding America with cheap goods, so the irony is kind of funny. Out of curiosity, are you fluent in Mandarin or any other Chinese languages?

[Suits]

(06-28-2018 09:51 PM)jordypip23 Wrote:  

Out of curiosity, are you fluent in Mandarin or any other Chinese languages?

To say that I am fluent would be a stretch, but I'm functional.

[jordypip23]

(06-28-2018 09:58 PM)Suits Wrote:  

(06-28-2018 09:51 PM)jordypip23 Wrote:  

Out of curiosity, are you fluent in Mandarin or any other Chinese languages?

To say that I am fluent would be a stretch, but I'm functional.

Cool! Well you have your two feet on the ground there which gives you a unique advantage over many other independent hustler Westerners that would like to do business with the Chinese lol.

[Suits]

(06-28-2018 10:52 PM)jordypip23 Wrote:  

(06-28-2018 09:58 PM)Suits Wrote:  

(06-28-2018 09:51 PM)jordypip23 Wrote:  

Out of curiosity, are you fluent in Mandarin or any other Chinese languages?

To say that I am fluent would be a stretch, but I'm functional.

Cool! Well you have your two feet on the ground there which gives you a unique advantage over many other independent hustler Westerners that would like to do business with the Chinese lol.

Not necessarily. Your ability to leverage China's potential as either a manufacturer or a consumer market is based on what type of assets you have.

If you have a product that is selling well in the US and manufacturing in China can bring your costs down, you stand to earn a larger profit. If you have a product that there is demand for in China, you might make money selling it there.

If you have no product and have boots on the ground, you're an English teacher.