Destihl Brewery, based in Bloomington, Ill., and Quail Distributing, of Phoenix, will join forces to distribute Destihl’s craft beer brands throughout the State of Arizona.
“The agreement with Quail represents an exciting opportunity for Destihl beers to be available outside the Midwest for the first time and in a market that we love and that has been pursuing our beers for quite some time,” said Destihl Founder, Brewmaster and Chief Executive Officer Matt Potts. “It also allows us to work alongside a distribution partner, who has the utmost respect of the best independent retailers and chef-driven restaurants in Arizona that seek out unique beer styles like ours. This is an exciting opportunity for us to work with Quail and grow substantially together.”
In the near term, Destihl will focus first on the Arizona on-premise, draft beer market and in the brewery’s typical fashion, it will release several beer brands, including its Belgian-style lineup such as Abbey’s Single, Tripel, Ambassador Am-Belgo Double Pale Ale, Clarice Belgian Dark Strong Ale, Nit Wit and its coveted and renowned, multi-award winning Saint Dekkera Reserve Sour Ales, which are spontaneously fermented and long-term barrel-aged sour ales. The brewery will also release other fan favorites such as Strawberry Blonde Ale (its Spring-Summer seasonal and the bronze medal winner in the fruit beer category at the 2012 Great American Beer Festival), DeadHead Double Red Ale, Hoperation Overload Double IPA, Black Angel Stout, Downstate Pale Ale, Vertex IPA, Tenebrous Black RyePA, Altercation, 120 Shilling Scotch Ale and its wood-aged Antiquity Rye Wine, with many more to come.
The brewery will also release, for the first time ever and just in time for the Arizona launch, the first beer in its Wild Sour Series: A Berliner-style Weisse appropriately named Counter ClockWeisse since its Wild Sours are reverse engineered by starting with the wild/spontaneous dregs from its Saint Dekkera Reserve Sour barrels to naturally sour the beers in this series.
The brewery is also planning to begin canning its Abbey’s Single, Hoperation Overload Double IPA and Strawberry Blonde Ale in 12-ounce cans by the end of the first quarter of 2014, with bottles of special release beers arriving by or before next summer.
Scott Hendrix, Beer and Spirits manager for Quail, said “We are excited to partner with Matt and his team at Destihl. This is a great fit for the brewery and for Quail since we are hand sellers and champions for brands that stand out and have a purpose, and Destihl certainly stands out as being unique and different than anyone else that we encounter. This is what we do as a company. Also, Arizona is a melting pot of people like me from the Midwest, and we are always looking for ties to our roots.”
Destihl’s keg rollout in Arizona will begin this month in mid-December.
