There's been plenty blogged about the financial difficulties affecting Liefmans, and the will-they-won't-they bankruptcy takeover saga. I wrote just before Christmas of finding Bacchus beers in my local Sainsbury's in their stead, and those two beers remain on the shelf today.
I have though regularly spotted Liefmans beers around, both bottled and draught since then, but it appears supplies are definitely on a downward spiral.
My local has sold both the Kriek and Frambozen on draught throughout these turbulent times, but now they have disappeared. The fruit beer drinkers now have a choice of Bacchus Kriek or Timmermans Strawberry, which coincidentally I can find no reference to anywhere on the web.
Liefmans loss is definitely other breweries' gain, especially Van Honsebrouck and the risk is even if Liefmans beers come back on a larger scale than they are currently available (and in my opinion they are superior products to their replacements), that the contracts with wholesalers will not be resurrected and drinkers will have to settle for a lesser product.
Time will tell obviously, but I really hope Leifmans beers come back as strong as ever.
3 comments:
James Clay have substituted Bacchus for Liefmans in their catalogue, and have contacted their wholesale and retail customers to announce this. So you may be right.
I really don't see what all the fuss is about Liefmans - their beers are sweetened pasteurised beers with fancy paper-wrapped bottles. They're not that good...
Gazza, I don't like the beers as much as when I first tried them umpteen years ago, but I think they are one of the better sweeter fruit beers from Belgium. It's ridiculous the unsweetened version isn't (wasn't) more widely available as that was delicious, when I had it at The Kulminator.
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