International beer, wine and spirits producer, Constellation Brands - which controls Corona, Pacifico, Modelo, and more - has stopped distribution of its beer kegs in San Diego and beyond due to quality concerns.
An email sent yesterday by Constellation Brands announced that the company would be implementing halting shipment of all beer kegs due to a potential quality issue impacting various beers. The company claims there is no health or safety risk associated with the sudden halt, rather it merely due to their "rigorous quality standards". We received word that unusually brown Pacifico was coming out of taps at downtown San Diego's Petco Park. We are unsure of the extent of the area affected but believe it extends from San Diego up to Los Angeles.
"As you know, the quality of Constellation's products is of the utmost importance...", reads the email from Constellation Brands. "With that in mind and in an abundance of caution, we are implementing a pause on shipment of all kegs, effective today. This pause will allow us to conduct testing on a potential quality issue impacting select kegs."
Constellation Brands has more than 100 brands in its portfolio. In the U.S., it controls beer brands like Corona, Modelo Especial, Negra Modelo, and Pacífico. In December 2015, Constellation purchased San Diego's beloved Ballast Point Brewing for a record $1 billion but sold the company to to Chicago-based Kings & Convicts Brewing for around $41 million in late 2019.
"We have paused shipments on all CBBD [(Constellation Brands Beer Divisions)] kegs from our distribution centers to distributor warehouses," continues the email. "We ask that you please pause CBBD keg shipment from your warehouse to retail...We recommend any untapped kegs should not be tapped until we can complete testing."
There is no word on when Constellation Brands will resume local distribution of its beer kegs. We reached out to the company for more information and comment but did not receive a response by the time of publishing.
