A small piece of Portsmouth, N.H. is headed west.
Smuttynose Brewing today announced new distribution agreements with two of L. Knife & Son Companies craft-focused wholesale operations in California: San Diego-based Craft Beer Guild Distributing of California and Los Angeles area’s El Dorado Distributing.
The Smuttynose brand is already distributed throughout L. Knife & Son’s networks in Massachusetts, Virginia, New York, New Jersey, Kentucky and Wisconsin. In a press release, Smuttynose cited ‘familiarity’ with the distributor group as one reason for the addition of California.
“We’ve shown strong growth in other L. Knife markets and they certainly know our beers,” Smuttynose founder and president Peter Egelston said in the release. “I have faith that we will see similar results in the California market, even though it’s a different landscape because we’re both starting fresh.”
California is the 24th state where beers from the brewery are currently sold. The first shipment will include Smuttynose’s bottled Big Beer Series releases — Homunculus and Rhye IPA — as well as three kegs of Cluster’s Last Stand, the brewery’s collaboration with Stone Brewing Co. Those kegs have been earmarked for Stone Brewing’s headquarters in Escondido, Calif. Additionally, kegs of Smuttynose Finestkind IPA will make their way to the Golden State.
California is third new state that Smuttynose has added this year. The company expanded its reach to Michigan earlier this month and Indiana in June.