The Central Texas Source for Craft Beer News

Wicked Weed Brewing from West Asheville, North Carolina expands distribution to Texas: Spring 2016.

Evan Crutchfield, the sales manager from Wicked Weed Brewing, told Craft Beer Austin they will be expanding distribution to Texas.

Below is our Q & A with Evan from Wicked Weed:

Why Texas and why now?

We have chosen Texas at this time mostly because we have a great relationship with Jester King and plan to brew multiple collaborations with them in the future. Our first collaboration with them called “Parking Lot” which is a Grisette. Wicked Weed Owner/Head Blender Walt Dickinson will be at Jester King the afternoon of this Saturday, March 12th to celebrate the release.(Walt sent Jester King some of his beers to celebrate the occasion and free samples will be available starting at Noon until supplies run out. Bottles of The Parking Lot Grissette will be available for purchase at Jester King at a later date once the beer has label approval from the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission.)  It is a limited distribution and maybe just available at Jester King. We have chosen Texas now to release this beer and to sell a few other limited beers in conjunction with this release.

Have you had any influence from other local breweries in Texas?

Jester King has been a great partner and friend for us from our start and they are part of the main reason we are deciding to sell beer in Texas.

Jester King Founder, Jeffrey Stuffings had this to say:

I’ve really gotten to know Wicked Weed and the people behind it well over the last few years. I can’t think of a finer, more well-run, professional organization, brewing truly exceptional beer, and headed by some of the most talented and friendly people I’ve encountered in the beer industry. I’m thrilled their beer is coming to Texas, honored to have worked with them, and happy to call them friends.

Distribution Footprint for Texas?

We will be using Flood Distribution in Texas so we will distribute as far as they go. The amount of beer we are selling will be so small, that many places will not get it and we apologize in advance for any places that do not get our beer. We plan on sending more beer in the future but that won’t be for quite sometime.

What beers are coming first to Austin?

The Jester King collaboration “Parking Lot” will be the main first beer we send with the largest amounts. We are not sure on the other beers we will be sending but they will be in very small amounts and mostly sold at Jester King.

Approximate time frame of launching?

We don’t have an official time frame for launch at this time because we are waiting for state approvals and licenses to go through but right now we are thinking early April.

Editors Note: Jester King and Wicked Weed are having a Beer Dinner at Apis on Thursday, March 10th. 

Will there be bottles and draft?

There will be bottles and draft, but we will mostly be focusing on sour and brett farmhouse bottles. The limited amount of draft will be very very small and infrequent.

What has been going on in Wicked Weed?

In three years Wicked Weed had seen phenomenal growth and we have been creating new beers and trying to be more and more innovative everyday. We started with our small brewpub downtown and it quickly became one of the busiest breweries and restaurants in the Asheville area. A year and a half later we opened our new barrel house downtown named the Funkatorium, where we focus on our sour and brett beers and smaller plates. Then another year later we opened our new production facility with a 50 bbl 4 vessel brewhouse and multiple 100 bbl and 200 bbl tanks and a new bottling line. Since then we have been packaging our IPAs and clean beer and opening new markets in select areas in NC and nationwide. Our plans for 2016 are to expand our distribution footprint and increase production along with opening another new facility. This new facility will be a 57,000 sq ft sour and brett beer production brewery with multiple foeders and over 2,000-3,000 barrels for aging.

Anything else that you may want to add?

We are very excited about being in the state of Texas and letting the lone star state have a chance to try our beers. We are also very excited to work with Jester King on making many collaboration beers in the future! Thank you CraftbeerAustin.com for your interest in our brewery and thank you Texas for the warm welcome!