Comment: [Matt Kirkegaard]

So Stone beers are set to land in Australia, legitimately for the first time. The commercial grey market importing beers is one of the most divisive that we have covered at Brews News, eliciting even more passion that the definition of craft beer. We have previously spoken with Stone’s Greg Koch who made a passionate plea for Australians not to but grey market Stone.

It’s interesting that Greg is now willing to send his beers across the Pacific. He has been courted by just about every Australian importer and has finally agreed to release his beers to ExperienceIT. Whether it’s Stone’s expanding capacity, he sees a maturing of the domestic market, or improvements in the quality of distributors and shipping practices.

Anyway, it’s going to be interested to see what happens with the grey market in Stone now…

Media Release

Experienceit Beverages New Distribution agreement with Stone Brewing of San Diego

After almost 2 years of hard work we are delighted to finally announce that Experienceit have been awarded exclusive distribution rights for America’s leading craft brewer and there range of fantastic beers for the Australian market.

Given the huge domestic demand, Stone traditionally have not focused on export, so we feel very privileged and excited that they have shown the confidence in our model and approach to entrust their highly sort after beers to us.

Unfortunately for Stone their products have been available on a semi regular basis through the grey beer market in Australia (parallel importing). Beer sourced through channels not supported or sanctioned by the brewers themselves. While most drinkers don’t understand why this is not good to support, it essentially means old product landing into Australia in less than perfect conditions, with short out of date codes, then resulting in consumers tasting these beers and not getting the full pleasure or tasting the beers as the brewer intended.

Our focus is to finally deliver Stone to Australian drinkers fresh and as Greg Koch intended. We will then aim to grow the Stone brand establishing it as one of our core beers in our US portfolio.

As always the product is sourced direct and fresh each shipment, taken from current batches and treated with the respect it deserves at every point in the supply chain, using refrigerated transport from the brewers to Australia. Expect to see the first product landing within the coming months. Full details will be available via our website www.experienceitbeverages.com.au and we will send out mailers to all customers with details of the first shipment. We are also working to source both packaged and keg product direct.

If you interested in ranging Stone or any of our other great range of beers please drop us a line at info@experienceitbeverages.com.au or give one of your local representatives a call.

NSW: Jack – 0408 658 061, Mitch – 0421 258 904
VIC/SA/TAS: Joseph – 0456 053 741
QLD: Daniel – 040 773 6663
WA: Rob – 040 773 6663

Johnny
Chief Beer Fridge Stacker / Beer Boss
Experienceit Premium Wines and Craft Beer