Yes Virginia, We Still Have Avery

Just a couple of weeks ago I reported that parts of Virginia were losing Great Divide beers. Then I saw the headline, "Avery plans to pull out of 8 states and 7 partial markets" over at the Two Beer Guys blog. I was almost afraid to read the article. However, in this case, Virginia is safe.

Arizona, Connecticut, Indiana, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Rhode Island and Tennessee are getting cut. Also parts of Northern California (Bay Area and Sacramento), Eastern Arkansas, Upstate New York (outside of New York City), Central Florida (Orlando area) and Wisconsin are affected.

Next to Great Divide, Avery Brewing is probably my next favorite Colorado brewery, the IPA and Maharaja are frequent residents in our beer fridge. At least for now, those supplies are still coming. As with Great Divide, these changes are a mixed blessing. The beers are popular and the demand for them is great. However, the breweries cannot meet that demand. Rather than spread themselves too thin, or risk quality control issues, the breweries make the tough, but correct, decision.