Something significant has been brewing over the last six months, as the craft beer biz disrupter Craft Collective Beerworks has acquired Vancouver’s Postmark Brewing.
An Oct. 15 press release announced Craft Collective has officially acquired the brand, and revealed plans for the next steps in its growing beer empire.
The acquisition, says Postmark, will allow the brewer to “increase production, sales and distribution ultimately creating a new nationally focused trajectory for the established West Coast brand.”
If you’re worried this means Postmark will be packing up its Railtown facility and moving out of the Dunlevy Building, fear not: Postmark is staying put, with its founding partners — Steve Thorp, Nate Rayment and Reuben Major — in place as owner/operators and brand managers of the brewery site, tasting room, and retail store.
The acquisition by Craft Collective will, however, “free up production space at the Railtown brewery, allowing the building to pivot into the ‘Postmark Innovation Facility.’ This new focus will highlight experimental beers, small batch collaborations, a barrel aging program and increased Postmark cider production all to be enjoyed on site and sold out of the cellar door,” notes Postmark in a media release.
We can expect to see the end results of the new arrangement as soon as Spring 2019.
Craft Collective is considered a disrupter in the craft brew business because it contract brews beers for everyone from existing breweries such as Doan’s Craft Brewing and Faculty Brewing to contract brands such as Slow Hand Beer Company. That means it gets more beer to market from breweries that may or may not even currently have commercial space.
In fact, contract brewing has led to a battle over beer pricing in British Columbia, with some pushing to mark-up the contract more so than its traditionally brewed counterparts.
To get more into it, Stephen Smysnuik, former editor of and founder of The Growler and current marketing director of Craft Collective, and Evan Doan of Doan’s Craft Brewing sat down with V.I.A. for an interview on the podcast in late August, and break down a bit more about what is happening with them and the craft beer biz in Vancouver.
