Flying Bison, We Hardly Knew Ye

In April, Flying Bison was supposed to be open for business again brewing beer for the thirsty loyalists in WNY.  Yesterday, the Buffalo News reported that not only is FBBC not brewing there is no indication it will be brewing any time soon.  According to rumors on the interweb, the new Peace Bridge will be completed in advance of any brewing.

If you're looking for a bad guy in all this one could easily point to Phil Internicola and Wes Froebel would make for a good evil sidekick.  This would be an overly simplistic view.  Yes, both are looking, in some way, for a return on their investment.  However, they are hardly the only players with fault in this soap opera.  Tim Herzog is the Master Brewer, one of the founders, the face of FBBC, etc. and is one of the few (or only) who stands to gain from the sale to FX Matt Brewing Company.  Then there is the Board.  According to the News article management was not Herzog's strength and he took steps to correct for that but what could or should the Board have done?  What exactly is the Board's role in all this?

At the end of the day it's the beer drinkers who get the short end of this stick.  We're already 6 weeks delayed in getting FBBC back on the shelves.  If this carries on, the NFTA transit lines will reach the southtowns before beer is brewed in Buffalo again.  You read it here first - the renaissance is over.  Brewing beer in Buffalo has been set back years.

Tim, Phil, Wes, and the other stakeholders consider this our official plea to sit around the same table and fix this so the rest of us can drink some FBBC beer soon.  Lay out all the cards and have a real, frank conversation.  It sounds like you were all once friends (or family even).  So, pretend you get along and clean up this mess.