Use it or lose it.

So, for those of you living in a cave, Oskar Blues has pulled out of Idaho. This was mainly due to the fact that they cannot keep up with demand in their bigger markets, and decided to go where the money is. Honestly, I cannot blame them...well cannot totally blame them. I still feel jolted, like a 17 year old stood up waiting for her prom date to show up.

For the last 3 years that they have been in our market I helped sell their beer every chance I got. Hell when working at the Front Door, we were the first to get their new releases in this market. The brewer's would come down, have a brewers night to push their product and then we'd go drinking. All I ever heard was how much they loved Boise and how glad they were to be a part of this market, as we would appreciate their hard work. Well, so much for that.

No more Mama's Lil' Yella Pils; no more Ten Fidy; no more Old Chub; no more Gordon. (RIP Mr. Knight) We had it and we lost it. Now, I was the first on the bandwagon to blame the distributors. If you know me, you know how much I despise the 3 tier system. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-tier_(alcohol_distribution) I think we are slaves to the system, if a distributor doesn't want to carry a product we are S.O.L. If they carry it so no one else can but will never push it, S.O.L. again. So, I immediately looked to the distributor for not pushing it. In someways there is some blame there, but I have changed how I feel about why it happened.

It comes back to us, the beer drinkers. We are always looking for the BBD, the biggest bang for our buck. What's new, whats the seasonal, etc... Yet, these wondrous little cans always sat on the shelf, waiting, hoping that we'd take them home and love them. Yet we never did, we took the Imp. IPA of the season, or the Barleywine, or the newest Imp. Stout. And now, well...now we are without, because we took them for granted. No more Lil' Yella Pils for when mowing the lawn. No more Gordon. to celebrate with. No more Ten Fidy to keep us warm on cold dark snowy nights, and it sucks.

So, the next time you are out looking over the beer aisle at your favourite establishment, or pouring over the tap selection, go with the Amber you've always loved but haven't had in a couple years. Or, the Pale Ale that got you into craft beer. Or even just get whatever is on from your favourite brewery that you'd like to support. Whatever you do, just make sure we do not lose another great brewery due to our complacency towards the "normal" beers that we see everyday. Because when that happens, we'll get left waiting on the doorstep once again.

Until next time, keep evolving.