New to the beer collections sold by Costco this winter was the European Beer Collection curated by Webster Barnes.
Side view of the Costco European Beer Collection.
According to the European Beer Collection website, the collection is available only in Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, DC, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Nevada: Las Vegas, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia.
The box contains ten half-liter (16.9 ounces) cans of beer with three beers from French brewery Brasserie De Sutter, two beers from Brnovar Brewery in Czechia, two beers from Privatbrauerei Eichbaum in Germany, two beers from Browar Rotmistrz in Poland, and one beer from Pivovar Steiger in Slovakia. In addition to the beers, there is a 12-page glossy booklet that contains a picture of each beer can, the name and type of beer; the brewery and country of origin, and the Alcohol by Volume (ABV). Each beer also has a brief description of its Appearance, Taste, Aroma, and information ‘About this Beer’. All of the information in the booklet can be found on the European Beer Collection website by clicking on each beer can shown. It should be noted that the back cover of the booklet states “Beers are only available in this variety pack. Not sold separately.” To me, this means that these are likely not to be beers that are for sale as individual brands in the United States – and maybe not even in their home countries. Essentially, these could be beers produced exclusively for this collection and not for sale elsewhere.
Additionally, a Webster Barnes sponsored article can be found at the Craft Beer and Brewing website, which goes into a little more detail about the breweries than on the European Beer Collection website or within the booklet.
Let’s look into the breweries and the beers in a little more detail.
Brasserie de Sutter
Brasserie de Sutter is located in Gisors, Normandie France, which is located about 50 miles northwest from the center of Paris. At the time of this writing according to Untappd, it is a microbrewery with 80 different beers listed, including the three in this collection. It’s Facebook page shows over 9,000 followers, and a post from March 7, 2024 indicates that the Folle Furieuz (which translates to ‘Full of Fury’) Triple Pale Ale included in the collection won a gold medal in the French Triple Blonde category at the 2023 World Beer Awards. The brewers website is in French, and I couldn’t get the ‘EN’ button to translate it to English. Their website shows that the three beers included in the collection are part of their regular ‘Foiles’ line of beers (translated by Google):
Follies The emblematic range of Brasserie De Sutter This is the first range of beers designed by Brasserie De Sutter from 2008. The Norman cow is its emblem. It is presented in an illustrated manner for each reference. A range with a colorful and humorous spirit, to share with friends, depending on each person’s level of madness. Nine permanent recipes make up the FOLIES, to which are added limited editions. This range was developed so that wine merchants and beer bars have quality products available for a very wide range of consumers. In order to preserve all their flavors, FOLIES are not pasteurized. Yeast therefore plays an important role in the balance of aromas and in the preservation of beer. Aging refines the taste and reduces cloudiness. As for refermentation in bottles, it ensures a fine and natural sparkle, as well as a light and persistent foam.
So at least these three Brasserie de Sutter beers appear to be for sale as the same branded beer in their own country.
Brnovar Brewery
According to Untappd, Brnovar Brewery is located in Studnice u Vyškova, in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Also according to Untappd, Brnovar is a contract brewery with a total of four beers attributed to it, including the Tup and Vltavan lagers. The other two beers, Staroměstské Pivo 11 and Alco Power, have 54 and nine ratings between them at the time of writing, but only the Tup, Vltavan, and Alco Power beers are shown on the ‘Our Beers’ page (the English translation button on the Brnovar website does work!). There is a page providing very brief information about the history of the Vltavan brand.
The website contact address brings up a location that looks like apartments not far from the Brno train station, while Studnice u Vyškova is located about 30 miles northeast of the center of Brno by car. According to Wikipedia, Studnice is 17 miles northeast of Brno and 121 miles southeast of Prague and has a population of 500 people. Brnovar Brewery doesn’t turn up in a search of nearby breweries. Its actual location is not clear. The town of Kralupy nad Vltavou is mentioned as the original location of the Vltavan lager on the history page. According to Wikipedia, this town has 19,000 inhabitants and is located about 10 miles north of Prague. There is no Brnovar Brewery in that area either. There wasn’t much information about the brewery elsewhere except for a few sites.
Privatbrauerei Eichbaum
Privatbrauerei Eichbaum is located in Mannheim, Germany. It is the largest of the breweries with beers featured in this collection, with Untappd crediting them with 239 different beers under the brewery listing. Their Facebook page has 16,000 followers. Wikipedia states the brewery was founded in 1679. Wikipedia also has this fascinating bit of information:
In Mannheim, the beer is sometimes lovingly called corpse water. The brewery is located next to a graveyard and the brewing water is directly pumped from the earth. However, this has no impact on the water quality, because several waterproof clays protect the fountain water against impurities.
A check of Google Maps confirms the location.
The German Wikipedia site has this information (translated by Google):
There are three deep wells (133 m, 118 m, 103 m) on the Eichbaum private brewery’s own premises. Due to the depth of these wells, the water is isolated from the upper layers by several barriers in the ground. Contamination of the groundwater used is therefore unlikely. Potentially harmful water components, such as: B. heavy metals and nitrate are also not present or only present in trace amounts.
The well water of the Eichbaum breweries is recognized as natural mineral water.
Miscellaneous
In Mannheim, the Eichbaum beer brand is also nicknamed “Leichenwasser”, “Urleich”, “Friedhofsbräu” or “Leichbaum” because the brewery is located right next to the Mannheim main cemetery and the brewing water is drawn from three wells on the company premises.
It appears that the Löwe Vom Rhein wheat beer and the Schaumstoffherz lager were produced exclusively for this collection.
Browar Rotmistrz
The European Beer Collection website refers to area where this brewery is located as near Połczyn-Zdrój and that Browar Rotmistrz was established in 1825. Wikipedia states Połczyn had 8,371 inhabitants in 2010. There doesn’t appear to be a Browar Rotmistrz in the area, but there is a Browar Połczyn located near the city center. Whether this brewery is creating the Rotmistrz beers is not clear. The Untappd entry for Browar Rotmistrz doesn’t clarify things. It only lists one beer (the India Pale Ale/Lager). The entry from the Rotmistrz Pilsner shows it is produced by Malcolm S.A., which is listed as a Contract Brewery located in Czerwionka-Leszczyny, Województwo Śląskie Poland. There is also an Untappd listing from the Rotmistrz Indi Pale Ale/Lager under Malcolm S.A. It appears the two beers in the European Beer Collection are the only beers made by this Contract Brewery.
Malcolm S.A. also does not have a website or a Facebook page. Czerwionka-Leszczyny is on the opposite end of Poland, separated by about a 350 mile drive from Połczyn. Using some low-level Google-fu, I was able to find the location of Malcolm S.A. in Czerwionka-Leszczyny. I was able to find this profile for Malcolm S.A., which states it was established in 2011, had five employees in 2015, had a net sales increase of 156% in 2022 but with a 201% decline in their net profit margin.
Another place where I found this beer attributed is at Browarka Browar Rzemieślniczy in Warka but I think this is a misattribution. There are several other Rotmistrz beers, which is not surprising as the word translates to ‘Captain’ in English.
It appears both of these beers have been produced exclusively for this calendar.
Pivovar Steiger
Pivovar Steiger makes the Pokojný Medved’ (Peaceful Bear) lager included in the European Beer Collection. Untappd shows that Pivovar Steiger is a Regional Brewery with 60 beers listed, with Pokojný Medved’ having the fourth highest number of check-ins following Steiger Gold, Steiger Tmavý, and Steiger 10% Pilsner. The brewery is located in Vyhne in the Banská Bystrica Region of Slovakia . Vyhne has a population of 1,130 people in 2021 and is located about 100 miles east of Bratislava.
The European Beer Collection website says that Pivovar Steiger is the oldest Slovak brewery in historic records, having been started in 1473 by the Knights Templar (according to Wikipedia), celebrating its 550th anniversary in 2023.
Webster Barnes
The company behind this collection is Webster Barnes. They are a company based in France with the contact address located in the country side about 16 miles southeast of Bordeaux. Based on what Google Maps returns, the address looks to be a private home or maybe a winery or bed and breakfast. The US contact address is located in what looks to be a condominium on the Intercoastal Waterway in Boynton Beach, Florida.
The company lists nine staff members and highlights their “more than 50 years collective experience in the adult beverage field”, The website is very focused on wines and I was not able to find any information about this beer collection or any other beer products. Based on their description of services, I’m inferring that they may engage in repackaging wines into new packages for distribution.
Webster Barnes appears to have been involved in the Costco Wine Advent Calendars that have been on sale for the past few years. The website on one box I have (www.wineadvent-ure.com) leads to this website that leads to Flying Blue Imports which is established in 2016 and lists Bordeaux and Boonville as locations. However, there is no other contact information on that website. The Flying Blue Facebook page has fewer than 200 followers. The Webster Barnes Facebook page has 243 followers and includes posts about the Costco Wine Advent Calendars. In contrast, the Kalea Beer Advent Calendar Facebook page has 5,300 followers, while the Kalea Facebook page has 3,900 followers. The Craft Beer and Brewing Facebook page has been pushing the European Beer Collection occasionally, but without much notice or many responses. I suspect that since there was a sponsored post on their website, they also purchased placement on their Facebook page.
Reaction to the European Beer Collection
I first noticed the European Beer Collection on a Reddit post in mid-January 2024 when it first appeared for sale at a Costco in California. The typical reaction on Reddit in the Costco subreddit is negative (not a surprise – it seems like most people on Reddit are unhappy whiners and complainers about a product they won’t buy) with the general tenor of the comments being that these are all fake beer brands, contract-brewed, and low-quality.
Not that I’m an expert on beer importing and distribution (nor do I pretend to be) but it is amazing that people seem to think that getting collections of beers from various breweries approved and into stores is easy. One Reddit person (named ‘whoreadsthisshitanyw’) replied with the following, which I thought was sensible and maybe pretty accurate:
“So here’s the scoop. All of the beer in here is made by legitimate brick-and-mortar brewers that have rebranded some of their beer under an exclusive name for Costco to be imported by a single company. It’s all a matter of compliance. You want to see familiar brands mixed in but typically each household name brand has a different company in charge of their distribution rights. That makes it near impossible to try and create something with true variety without trying to play diplomat between 10 different producers and 10 different importers who all have contracts with different distributors in each state.”
I haven’t surveyed much in terms of YouTube videos reacting to the beers because even people with hundreds or even thousands (!) of posts about beer really seem to be horribly misinformed about what they say and make no effort to research the content they produce. This guy, for example. Plus, I don’t really like to listen to other people drone on about their opinion on the beer they are drinking at the moment.
I picked up the collection in early February for $29.99 – $3.00 per can. The Kalea Advent Calendar was $69.99 for 24 beers, which comes $2.92 per can. So the price point isn’t that different. The Advent Calendar (where I live) has nearly all beers are made as part of the regular product line from actual breweries (though occasionally a relabeled beer or unique beer made by Egerer sneaks in).
At the time of writing, I have tried seven of the ten beers in the collection. The Brasserie de Sutter La Folle Furieuz was the best I had so far. I wasn’t pleased with either Eichbaum offering. I’m hoping that the three I have left (Brin de Folie, Rotmistrz Pilsner, Pokojný Medved’) are going to be better than I expected. The Browar Rotmistrz and Brnovar Brewery beers seem to be exclusive to this calendar, and the lack of information available for these breweries on the internet doesn’t seem that they are long-term sources of beer for future products.
At my visit to Costco yesterday, there was still a nearly full pallet of these beer collections waiting to be sold. I’m not sure these are selling as well as the Advent Calendars.
So what does this all mean? I suspect with this beer collection from Webster Barnes that Costco is testing the waters to make a move towards an alternative source of European beers collections. What that means for the Kalea Advent Calendar at this point isn’t clear, but the packaging of the European Beer Collection is much simpler (and the booklet is a nice addition) and I suspect (but have no evidence) that the cost of the beers in this European Beer Collection may be cheaper than the cost of beer from those small Bavarian breweries that are in the Kalea Advent Calendar. The move made a couple years ago by Aldi to have Octopi produce the entire contents of their beer advent calendar and with Sam’s Club using Minhas Craft brewing for their advent calendar may be encouraging Costco to move to cheaper, contract-brewed collections (but still charge $3 per can).
I am a little befuddled why Costco is making this commitment to Webster Barnes when they haven’t really handled beer much (at least based on the information on their website). Maybe the Advent Wine Calendars (which are actually a pretty nice collection of 375 ml glass bottles of corked wine – though I’m not a wine drinker so I can’t speak to their quality) are making Costco more money and they can make a few more dollars.
It may also be that the European Beer Collection is easier to get to comply with the various individual state regulations. For example, I have read that the Texas regulations require beers in assortment packs all have to originate at the same brewery, which is why the content of the Texas Advent Beer Calendar is different from other states, with relabeled beers or ‘one-off’ beers that are produced by Egerer. However, with the limited number of states (21 plus DC) that the European Beer Collection is being sold in, it would appear Costco could be stepping back from selling these types of collections in the same number of states that the Advent Calendar are sold in.
Time will tell.
Daj Mi Pivo 