Brooklyn Brewery Expanding To Asia
Photo: Daniel Lobo
When a brewery becomes very successful, it seems like they can only go one of three routes. (1) The founders can categorically decide to keep things as they always were and stay small á la The Alchemist. (2) Said founders can decide to grow the company themselves. Or (3) they can hand the reigns over to a company better equipped to handle the arduous process. We’ve seen local examples of the latter two happen this year with the Anheuser-Busch acquisition of Long Island’s Blue Point Brewing while Brooklyn Brewery has recently expanded to Sweden and the Culinary Institute of America. For the 26-year-old brewery, that self-guided growth continues with the news that the company is now eyeing Asia for a new project.
According to Beer Pulse, Brooklyn Brewery co-founder, Steve Hindy, dropped the globetrotting bombshell during a panel at the New York Public Library back in April. His exact words were, “[Brooklyn Brewery] will be announcing an Asia project in the next few weeks but I can’t do it tonight.” He continued, “We have been selling beer in Asia for quite some time and it’s very difficult to get it there in good condition because of the Panama Canal, shipping and Customs; it is very difficult to get it there fresh.” Noted.
Now, we don’t want to jump to too many conclusions, but if this an issue of freshness, then the next best thing would be to open a brewery or some kind of manufacturing facility in Asia and cut out those charlatans at the Panama Canal, right?
And if you’ll allow us to conjecture a bit more: where would they open Brooklyn Brewery Asia? If they’re willing to compete, we’re thinking Tokyo or Hong Kong. Like Stockholm, both are international cities with rapidly growing craft beer scenes.
But enough of that. We’ll just have to wait for the announcement, which if the timing is right, should come any day now. In the meantime, feel free to watch the words come straight from the horse’s mouth here.
Follow Nikita Richardson on Twitter @nikitarbk
