Flying Dog Ales has sold the Wild Goose brand for an undisclosed amount, the company announced today.
The buyer is the DC-based Logan Shaw Brewing Company.
Flying Dog, which inherited the popular 21-year-old Wild Goose brand in 2006 when it purchased its Frederick brewery, discontinued the line earlier this year as it made more room at the brewery for Flying Dog product.
Ben Savage, vice president of marketing, said in November there was no room at the brewery to produce both brands.
"The bottom line is we only have so much capacity here at the brewery and the market is demanding Flying Dog as our main push," he said. "There's no room to produce Wild Goose anymore."
Savage said then the company was looking into ways of keeping the brand alive somehow, and would even consider reviving it if there was a demand.
But it won't have to. Today it convinced start-up brewery Logan Shaw Brewing Company to purchase the brand.
It's not clear how much Logan paid, but it couldn't have been much. The start-up doesn't even describe itself as a microbrewery, but as a "nano-brewery."
In October, it was still looking to find a home somewhere in the Logan Circle or Shaw neighborhoods in DC. It is now based in the suburbs of DC, according to the release. The company is owned by Jeff Harrison, the former owner DC liquor store Modern Liquors, and his partners Ed Anderson, Dan Forsyth, and Loren Leroy.
According to the press release Wild Goose will be paired with the company's flagship beers - In Session Pale Ale, the Appropriation Golden Ale, and the Bureaucrat Brown Ale - in mid 2011, though it is not clear when it will begin production or distribution.
The company expects to launch its own product in the next 18 months, according to the release.
"As a resident of the Chesapeake Bay Area, I jumped at the chance to buy the Wild Goose brand," said in the press release Loren Leroy, Logan's head of production. "It has always been one of my favorite beers, and it's exciting to have the opportunity to grow such an iconic craft beer brand."
Savage hasn't responded to follow-up questions, and Logan Shaw's website is inactive.