We’ve always had the vision that the Two Roads beer can serve the Metro North markets: Boston, New York and Philly.” “Stratford is closer to the Boston Metro market than it is to Warren, VT. But, it turns out, geography is actually in their favor. Yes, they’re trusting a new distribution company to handle their precious good. This, it turns out, is part of the key behind Lawson’s decision to expand south of the border. Once distribution leaves the family, how do you know for certain that’s what’s happening? Big IPAs like Sip, which depend on massive amounts of hops notorious for a short shelf life, are canned cold, shipped cold and should be served cold. Serving your beer out of your own taproom and self-distributing to select accounts gives brewers ultimate control over their product. ![]() More and more, new craft breweries are adopting this mentality. Untappd's All-Time Top-Rated Quadruple IPAs Love you some Sip but live in New Hampshire? Excellent now come and get some. They appeal to the local core of drinkers, the ones who have been coming to the source and buying there since day one. If they can pump their products into another, neighboring state and sell out quickly, why wouldn’t they?īecause craft breweries with a cult following like Lawson’s don’t do that. Contract brewing at a large outfit like Two Roads helps them brew at a capacity and rate to meet surging demand. It might seem obvious, then, why Lawson’s chose to expand its distribution. Signs started popping up on liquor store windows and doors - much like those you’ll find in Vermont on the hunt for Heady Topper. Some stores, I’m told, were limiting customers to a single can per visit. Fort Point Market, recognized widely as one of the state’s best purveyors of craft beer, sold through eight cases in less than 20 minutes in the middle of the afternoon. 31 and it’s safe to say the majority of cans to hit local shelves were gone within a day, if not minutes. The impact in Massachusetts has been immediate. But so have the residents of Massachusetts, a fact not lost on the husband and wife behind the brand. In other words, Vermonters have long been loyal customers of Lawson’s. Massachusetts and the Greater Boston market are huge for Vermont.” And that’s why we’re here,” Lawson told me over the phone, adding, “Vermont is a very tourist-driven state. “Massachusetts is such a huge market for Lawson’s. Just like that, Massachusetts became a Sip of Sunshine state. Not on a limited, trial basis, but in perpetuity. ![]() So it was with surprise and elation that the beer-loving residents of Massachusetts learned this month that Sean Lawson, founder of Lawson’s Finest with his wife Karen, had signed on with a local distribution company and would start pushing his liquid sunshine out across the state. At best, you get to drive to Vermont and hope you find some. ![]() You don’t get to walk to the liquor store and pick up a four-pack of Sip (unless you live in Vermont). Many who have had both more than once, including me, actually prefer it.īeers of this caliber are not typically delivered to your figurative doorstep. Though it was first brewed in 2014, it’s often spoken of in whispered tones in the same sentence as The Alchemist’s revered Heady Topper. It rates a solid 100 RateBeer and BeerAdvocate, representing a balance of flavors and technique surprising for its 8 percent ABV. Sip, as it’s sometimes known, is objectively one of the world’s greatest beers. And as of this moment, it’s the first time it’s been widely distributed anywhere outside of Vermont and Connecticut. The beer is Sip of Sunshine, a double IPA most notable in this context because it’s not brewed in Massachusetts rather, it’s the flagship IPA of Vermont’s Lawson’s Finest Liquids, a little outfit based in Warren, VT, that contract brews the bulk of its beer at Two Roads Brewing Co. The bright yellow can is hard to miss see it in the wild and you’ll pounce. The ones that do will have it for a matter of hours, or minutes, before it’s gone. Right now, there’s one beer flying off shelves in Massachusetts faster than anything else.
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