Hey, seems I am not the only Canada who loves upstate New York craft brewing. One of my favorites has been bought up:
Montreal’s ICBS Ltd. said Wednesday it is buying New York`s Lake Placid Craft Brewing Co. The 10-year-old Lake Placid Craft Brewing Co. has created a market demand for their Craft beers, such as UBU and Frostbite ales, ICBS said in a statement.
More here. Here are my reviews of their 46’er, Ubu and Frostbite. I think I also had a brown of theirs at Clark’s last October. Lake Placid Craft Brewing has some of the best branding of a strong beer line up that I know of and their pervasive placement in North Country grocery stores is likely the envy of many micros. You’ll want to hug (or perhaps lick) the screen when you see their flash intro page to their website. [Flash intro pages are usually a nightmare but this one works.]
Lake Placid joins a very southern NY brewer, Ramapo Valley Brewery just bought in June, in the ICBS Ltd portfolio. Last week ICBS bought a lab that works in the beer industry. Hmm…is someone somewhere sitting behind a desk, rubbing their hands and saying “bwa-ha-ha”?
Update: I added the excellent photo above from the excellent Maltblog maintained by Jim of Cazenovia, New York. The photo is from the trip Jim took to Lake Placid’s brewpub last fall and it is excellent.
[Original comments…]
Bartzilla – August 30, 2006 2:48 PM
http://bartzilla.org
I certainly hope this doesn’t mean any shift in technique, formula, etc. Naturally one must assume this buyout isn’t because the investment firm wants to run a brewpub in upstate NY but rather begin a marketing campaign which also leads to fears that in the long run production and quality may take a hit in the name of the suits counting the pennies.
I’ve never been there, nor been fortunate enough to try their ales, but have heard nothing but good things about them. Hopefully this isn’t a case of “If you can’t beat em, buy em.” by some macro diguised as an investment firm.
Chris Ericson – September 14, 2006 12:26 PM
Hello – Chris Ericson here, owner of Lake Placid Craft Brewing Company and the Lake Placid Pub & Brewery. Lots going on so excuse my brevity but here are some clarifications for everyone out there.
First, the Lake Placid Pub & Brewery (brewpub) in Lake Placid and The Lake Placid Craft Brewing company in Plattsburgh (microbrewery) are two separate companies, both owned by me. The potential transaction with ICBS only involves the Plattsburgh company. The Lake Placid brewpub is not at all affected or changed in any way whatsoever.
Second, we have signed a non-binding letter of intent with ICBS and are in the process of completeing due dilligence on the possible transaction. There has been no official closing of the deal, but we anticipate a closing within the month if we choose to go to closing. A closing would then involve a capital infusion into the company allowing us to expand our capacity in Plattsburgh to the 25-40,000 barrel a year level. The facility would continue to be operated by me and my entire staff, plus additional help of course.
Third, an expansion of the Plattsburgh facility would allow us to fill the orders we currently are recieving from our distributors as well as expand our terriroty. Right now we are filling less than 40% of the orders we receive and have had to let our marketing person go as we have no inventory to market.
SO – in summary, this MAY happen. If it does, it is a great way for us to grow our brand and to improve our product in every sense. If it doesn’t we will continue to seek out new capacity to grow the business. And in any event, the brewpub will continue completely as is.
Thanks for your continued support of the Lake Placid beers.
Cheers,
Chris
Alan – September 14, 2006 1:47 PM
Fantastic input, Chris, and thanks for taking the time. If you could get Ubu and 46er even closer to me that would be great. I get your beer at the Watertown Hannifords (1 hour and 15 minutes plus the border) so if this means I can get it in Alex Bay (45 minutes plus the border) I say – WAHOOO!