Redhook Brewery Now Official Craft Beer for Seattle Sounders
by Dave Clark on Apr 18, 2011 5:52 PM PDT
in Sounders: MLS Regular Season
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PrintLocal, legacy craft brewery Redhook has partnered with the Seattle Sounders as the official craft brewery. This according to a press release at www.BrewClick.com. The extent of the relationship will still be discovered, but with Redhook celebrating their 30th anniversary it is a strong sign for the team and the brewery to have a partnership.
"Partnering with our home team, the Seattle Sounders, seemed the perfect way to celebrate our 30th birthday as Seattle’s original craft brewer," said Robert Rentsch, brand manager for Redhook Ale Brewery. "We are psyched about the opportunity to give soccer fans the chance to root for their favorite team while drinking a great beer. We all know you can’t give your full 90 with a parched throat."
While this is small news to me it is an advancement. The Sounders get a craft beer partner (money) and get better beer into Qwest/CenturyLink Field. One should expect Redhook ESB, LongHammer IPA, Copperhook and probably some beer inspired by the team, because why not?
Sure there are smaller, craftier brews locally. But could they have afforded a sponsorship and navigated the legal issues with InBev's relationship with MLS through Anheuser-Busch? InBev has a distribution relationship with Redhook.
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InBev owns Redhook
But could they have afforded a sponsorship and navigated the legal issues with InBev’s relationship with MLS through Anheuser-Busch?
I think InBev owns a Controlling stake in Redhook through their aquisition of Anheuser-Busch. I’m also pretty sure Sheinhardt Wigs is involved in there somehow.
Pretty sure Redhook is still independently owned
I think they may be distributed by Anheuser/inBev but not owned by them
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by Jeremiah Oshan on Apr 18, 2011 6:04 PM PDT up reply actions
Independently owned
InBev has distribution rights, but the Craft Brewers Alliance (trades under HOOK) owns Redhook, Widmer (Timbers official craft beer) and Kona brewing.
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I now
Prefer Redhook to Widmer. Before it was a push (I liked both).
Redhook = good. Widmer = of the devil. The green & white, own-goal celebrating, chain-saw obsessed devil.
by Orothar on Apr 18, 2011 7:08 PM PDT up reply actions 2 recs
Meh
Essentially the same company due to the distribution rights. RedHook even lists Portland as one of its distribution centers on its bottle (along with Portsmouth, NH, and Woodinville).
If I recall correctly, Bud/InBev owns a 49% share of RH.
by magistermilitum on Apr 18, 2011 10:29 PM PDT up reply actions
It's less than 49%, 35.6% according to Wikipedia
And due to the structure of the Craft Brewers Alliance, the partner Brewers now craft their beers at whichever facility makes the most sense. Widmer has the largest batch sizes (from what they said in the Redhook tour a couple weeks ago) so they tend to make Kona Lager, Longhammer, ESB, etc. that are the volumn sales leaders. Redhook has the ability to make smaller batches, so they make some of the more niche offerings for all 3 brewers.
That's why
I’ll be smuggling in my own bottles. Copperhook is delicious.
by Philip Mueller on Apr 18, 2011 6:25 PM PDT up reply actions
Imported?
I like how on many golf courses and at sporting events, Red Hook is sold at “imported” beer prices rather than “domestic”. Is Woodinville in another country now? :P
Beersploitation.
by ABTsportsline on Apr 19, 2011 9:28 AM PDT up reply actions
I picked up two cases of the Blond for $10 a couple weeks ago at the brewery.
And it’s often on sale at the grocery stores for $10-$12 per case.
Oh I know
Just laughing at how thirst holes mark it up as if it were imported
by ABTsportsline on Apr 20, 2011 11:42 AM PDT up reply actions
I guess I don’t mind a conglomerate that also owns the timber’s “official craft brew” from being the SSFC “official craft brew”, but this better not get in the way of Big Al’s having Brougham Bitter available (especially as a non-profit fundraiser!) in RBP.
by Nick_in_Seattle on Apr 18, 2011 6:40 PM PDT reply actions
I didn't read anything about exclusivity
I am not a Supporter | I am not a Fan | I am a Sounder
Sounder At Heart
Actually I did, and ignored it
It would ae to lose Brougham Bitter
I am not a Supporter | I am not a Fan | I am a Sounder
Sounder At Heart
Red Hook isn't THAT bad
There are better beers, to be sure. But it isn’t PBR or… gag… Coors.
by Orothar on Apr 18, 2011 7:09 PM PDT up reply actions 1 recs
Honestly, I'd rather drink cheap lager than Red Hook.
But I’m a weirdo.
by Aaron Campeau on Apr 18, 2011 7:10 PM PDT via mobile up reply actions
Not if you're doing it to avoid chronically over-hopped NW beers
Don’t apologize for drinking lager, you’re just a man of discerning palate.
You will hear us on Brougham, you will hear us on Occidental, you will hear us on King. We are all around you, there is no escape.
I love hoppy beer.
I just don’t think Red Hook’s are very good.
by Aaron Campeau on Apr 19, 2011 10:09 AM PDT up reply actions
That may be the difference
I don’t care much for hoppy beer. I quite enjoy the Mudslinger, Blonde, Copper Hook, and Blackhook (on nitro).
Longhammer IPA is delicious
AND it already has Sounders colors incorporated into its logo. Looks like I’ll have to drink more of it when watching from home.
by MicahRowe18 on Apr 18, 2011 8:46 PM PDT via mobile reply actions
Ballard Bitter was better
But less marketable to the masses. Pity…
by magistermilitum on Apr 18, 2011 10:30 PM PDT up reply actions
I think I'll have to look for this.
Here in Missouri, it’s pretty much New Belgium and Boulevard for Craft Beers.
Not that I’ll ever slam New Belgium, mind you.
by Shawn Gillogly on Apr 18, 2011 11:36 PM PDT reply actions
Copperhook is my favorite RedHook brew
But I won’t hold my breath for Qwest to have that on tap. I’ll expect to see ESB & probably an IPA like Long Hammer…
Redhook and "Craft beer"
is the funniest link I’ve read on this site in a long time. Seriously, they’re not considered a craft brewery by the Brewer’s Association. Palates vary, so I’m not criticizing their beer, nor the strategic value of the partnership to the Sounders, but it’s disingenuous to call themselves a craft brewery at their production levels.
You will hear us on Brougham, you will hear us on Occidental, you will hear us on King. We are all around you, there is no escape.
It's only because InBev has too large a stake
They’re production puts them well within the new guidelines (for production levels) and still comfortably within the old ones.
by B Money on Apr 19, 2011 11:03 AM PDT via mobile up reply actions
Also
This is better than fizzy yellow crap, but Mac and Jacks (as far as Seattle area breweries go) could have handled the quantity and dollars needed to do this. Redhook is average, but they lack any passion or creativity that breweries like Rogue and Deschuttes have with similar production levels.
by B Money on Apr 19, 2011 11:07 AM PDT via mobile up reply actions
Redhook is so mainsteam, man
Personally I only drink beer brewed one pint at a time by blind Austrian monks
by Philip Mueller on Apr 19, 2011 12:03 PM PDT up reply actions 3 recs
No really
I wasn’t talking about quality. There are great brews made by large corporations (I enjoy Newcastle Brown, product of the Heineken Corp.) and wee micros (Schooner Exact’s Nut Brown comes to mind). But, due to that unavoidable InBev presence, Redhook’s no longer a craft brewer. When I can walk up to a tent at the Washington Brewer’s Festival and talk to the guy who toasted the barley and boiled the wort, that’s a craft brewer. It doesn’t necessarily make it better (plenty of guys are making shi##y piss water in their garage), just different.
You will hear us on Brougham, you will hear us on Occidental, you will hear us on King. We are all around you, there is no escape.
by 108Ultra on Apr 19, 2011 2:05 PM PDT up reply actions 1 recs
If it doesn't correlate with quality then why worry about it?
On the other hand I don’t like it when companies are disingenuous in their marketing, so I guess I agree with you there. Redhook sits in the big gray area between a hobbyist in his garage and an industrial-scale beer empire. But it’s tasty, so I’m inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt. : )
by Philip Mueller on Apr 19, 2011 2:29 PM PDT up reply actions
Hales is another local outfit
that could probably handle the sponsorship levels required; and their beer is much tastier IMO. But I also understand this isn’t “suggestion hour” on which local breweries could fill said role…
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