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| April News From Cape Cod Beer |
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| We've just added about 32 header photos to our website - with some wonderful photos of Cape Cod. Most I took myself, but there are a few that were taken by Paula Hersey of Penguin Digital Design. Enjoy! |
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Greetings!
So much for in like a lion, out like a lamb huh? March is gone and thankfully so!
We are writing today to announce a small retail price change effective next week. Let me first start out by saying that this is NOT an April Fools joke! We have tried to keep our prices as low as possible, but pressures from external forces, namely raw materials are making that difficult.
We've got other great stuff going on too.. including an open house pot luck party (with a cask of Red..) so read on!
Cheers,
Todd, Beth & the Brew Crew
Cape Cod Beer Inc. |
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The Brewer's Association numbers for 2010 were released recently and show that craft brewers saw an 11% volume increase and a 12% increase in retail sales dollars over 2009.
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click graph for detail. |
In 2010, craft brewers represented 4.9 percent of the US beer market volume and 7.6 percent of retail dollars of the total U.S. beer category.
Of the 1,759 breweries in the US at the end of 2010, 1,716 were craft breweries, leaving this staggering fact:
43 (non-craft) breweries brew over 95% of the beer consumed in the US, while the other 1,178 craft breweries brew less than 5%.
Think about that
for a while!
Another staggering fact we heard was that 88% of the beer brewed in the US is done by foreign corporations!
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2011 Retail Prices
Effective 4/3/11
NEW GROWLERS:
$11 plus $2 dep
REFILLS:
$8.00
Specialty beers remain priced as is. |
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State of the Industry
It's a great time to be a craft brewer! | |
When we started our brewery 7 years ago we worried about all the same things that new business owners worry about...and more! We worried that maybe we had "missed the boat" on the craft beer revolution, but what we found out was that there was another boat on its way! Luckily over the last several years the Craft Beer movement has grown, and we're proud to be part of it.
But like every industry, in times of great growth you worry about what's the next thing coming around the corner? Is it something good (meaning prolonged growth) or something bad (meaning a culling of the industry)? In our industry we also worry about things like legislative changes, alcohol tax increases, raw materials price instability or inavailability and more...
In 2010, Cape Cod Beer grew almost 21% to a total barrelage of just shy of 4,000. For those keeping track we did under 500 bbls in our first year, 2004. Our goal for 2011 is about 4,500 bbls, an increase of about 15%. We had two long time employees (Chris Meyer & Scott Ogden) move onto new opportunities at the end of the year, and found some great new people (Ron Cotti & David Meece). We brought in two new 30 bbls tanks at the end of 2010, and are working on making life just a bit easier for the brew crew with implementation of things like a retail POS system, a faster growler filling system, a new box truck, and a few more summer employees. Aside from that, don't expect any MAJOR CHANGES in 2011!
You may have noticed that we have also been putting out a few more specialty beers than in years past. Part of this is because YOU'VE requested more..and part of it is that we did not take on any large projects this winter. We hope you have been enjoying some of our new specialty offerings, including:
- Stargazer Stout (Some Still Avaialble)
- 'Stock Stout (Some Still Avaialble)
- Hot Blonde (Coming in May)
- Vanilla Bean Porter
- Port~O~Vino
- Christmas in July
- Cherry Porter
- Amarillo IPA
As always, we encourage you to reach out to us if there are beers and beer styles you'd like us to consider. |
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2011 Pricing and Why?
50 cent increase on growlers sold at the brewery | |
At the beginning of 2011, we were informed of a 10% increase in grain for 2011. While 10% does not seem like an enormous increase, when you realize that we purchase over 220,000 pounds (or 110 tons) of grain you realize it's real money! We were also hit with a glass price increase of about the same percentage. And of course everyone knows that the cost of "freight in" and "distribution out" is also on the rise. These cost increases, along with other rising costs, such as health insurance, paper, plastic cups and utilities, have led us to where we are.
Please understand that we take these decisions very seriously! But we also want you to know that we put the quality of our product and the well being of our staff before everything, and would never consider reducing the quality of our raw materials to offset rising costs. We are dedicated to bringing you the freshest, best tasting beer you've ever tasted!
As always, if you have questions, comments or concerns about any of this, please do not hesitate to contact us via email or phone. We are always interested to hear what our customers think about what we're doing - good or bad! |
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