It's Friday night. Do you know where your beer came from?

A lot of the time when I am telling a story of my experience getting a beer I usually start with walking down the aisle of a liquor store or looking at a tap handle from across a bar. That is the start of that story for me but it is not the start of the story for the beer that I choose. The journey of a beer begins with a brewer combining four basic ingredients in such a way that creates a sweet nectar that inspired men to write their passion. My favorite is when Benjamin Franklin said, "Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy."

Beer is wonderful and I love the variety of flavors the ingredients can bring. But how does the beer get from the brewery to the glass in my hand? The beer is bottled and kegged by the brewery and then what?

Immediately following Prohibition a lot of states enacted laws to enforce a three tier system of producers (brewers), distributors, and retailers. This separation protects consumers and helps small businesses, not to mention local small distribution companies. That being said beer distribution can be a complicated and restrictive to both brewers and retailers. A brewer can't simply sell their craft directly to a consumer, nor can the sell directly to a retailer.

A distributor makes its portfolio of beers, liquors, and wines base on what it feels the market it serves demands. However, if you didn't know a distributor had to be involved, usually you wouldn't know they exist. A lot of the time a brewer has to establish itself with a distributor AND then has to further market its beer to consumers and the partnership with the distributor doesn't help them out. At least this has been my perception. Recently this perception has changed, Central States Beverage has made itself known in a very positive way for a lot of the brands in it's portfolio.

Through social media, partnerships with retailers, brewers, and even sports teams, Central States has really created excitement and awareness for the products distributed by them. Everything from Boulevard, Mother's, Santa Fe, and Stone Brewing to Miller Lite and Coors Light. They have partnered with Sporting KC, Bier Station, 96.5 FM, and many others. Their social media people have created almost cult followings for beers causing people to go on passionate hunts for specific beer. Through give aways, contests, and public engaging rhetoric, Central States has gotten involved with the supply on whole new level. No wonder they have been recently received Craft Beer Distributor Achievement Award in 2013 by the National Beer Wholesalers Association (NBWA) and the Brewers Association (BA). They have aspirations for the higher title of Craft Beer Distributor of the Year Award in 2014, and they can pull it off.

I think Central States Beverage is doing it right.

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