Founders Brewing- Juicy News Bits from Live Reddit Chat with CEO Mike

Founder’s Brewing CEO Mike Steven’s did a live Q & A this afternoon on Reddit. Here are some highlighted questions and answers. You can find the link to the entire thread below, as well as what reddit users submitted these questions. Cheers

Why not long neck bottles?

“No real fancy answer other than 16 years ago when we started the company we wanted to be different. At the time, everyone was using long neck. We went another direction, simply to be unique.”

I love the brewpub, and most of Founder’s products. One of my favorites is KBS, which I have been unable to get the past 2 years due to limited supply. Any plans to increase production?

“We will increase production annually, but the one thing about KBS is that it is not scale-able.”

Any new brews currently in the works that will be widely distributed?

“Rubeaus will be back this year and two more unknowns for the Backstage Series. We just dropped in a R&D brewhouse which will allow Jeremy to play a lot more than he has been able to in the past.”

Do you ever worry that there is a craft brewing bubble (forgive the pun) and that the marketplace isn’t going to be able to continue to support the vast number of craft brewers that are growing in leaps in bounds?

“I believe a bit of burst is heading our way but I also know that the growth for this industry is not slowing. Those breweries focused on quality and not bottom line will be okay.”

What prompted the decision to move Red’s Rye from a year-round to a seasonal?

“It’s one of our favorite beers here at the brewery. However, we struggled with it’s shelf life. if we are going to sell a beer year round, throughout the country we need to be confident that it’s going to be great for our consumer. We needed to reduce it’s availability to ensure it’s sell rate would be quick enough so that when you drink it, it’s awesome. this was a tough one for us at the brewery, but it needed to be done to ensure our quality.”

Mike – it feels like Founders is more concerned with expansion into new markets (Florida, Texas, Canada, UK) than taking care of the home market that really kept it afloat all these years (i.e. Michigan)

Us Michiganders are feeling slighted by Founders lately. KBS was harder to get than ever before (despite supposed triple production) and the taproom almost never has anything but your standard offerings.

What do you have against Michigan?

“We first focus on our existing markets. last year our existing markets were up 68%, the year before 57%. By far most of the companies growth comes from existing markets, this is where we put the majority of our efforts. Michigan did in fact see far more KBS than previous year. I know we’ve talked international a bit but honestly that volume is tiny, represent less than 5% of our total annual volume. I know at times it might seem like our focus is elsewhere but I assure you MI receives the bulk of our attention and volume.”

Any new collaboration beers coming up soon?

“we tend to move cautiously on collabs”

Will Black Biscuit ever be brewed again? And if so, could it ever be a Backstage Series Beer?

“Never say never. Backstage is a creation that only a select few of us at the brewery even know what will be.”

Read the entire session by following this link: http://www.reddit.com/r/beer/comments/1cp1k7/founders_brewing_co_ama_with_mike_stevens/