The Beer Thread • Page 175

I think I might have like a 6 year old bottle of Peche Mortel. I should find that.

 

anyone in/near Cincinnati get to try out Fifty West Brewery's Christmas Cookie seasonal beer? I listen to the Bengals podcast and the Brewery is a sponsor and they apparently can't keep the stuff in stock. Sounds kinda gross, but just curious to see if anyone here is from that area.

 

IIRC it's like $16-18 for their small bottles, which I think are less than 12 oz. That's a worse margin than Cascade. I'd rather go in on a $30 bottle of Cascade with a friend than buy these Almanac beers.

That's fine with me. I love super tart sours.

There's a brewery in Michigan that is garbage and no one likes their beers really, but they've made a KILLING doing contract brews for various smaller breweries. They have a 3 BBL system that is perfect size for that, but also contract out their big system. They often send reps into various bars to pitch the idea of bringing up the retail account to personally help make a beer just for that account. It's done wonders for them and probably saved their business, to be honest.

Yeah, I don't mind paying a pretty penny for sours, but Almanac is above my threshold. I very much enjoy super sour beers though haha.

What a classic. Very good.

 

I certainly have seen these prices before, and for certain ones, but my local bottle shops are pretty consistently at $10 for the Farm to Barrell series sours, I think they're good enough to justify it

 

Sell it and put towards the Chorus Dot FM purchase of Smuttynose fund

 

$10 is absolutely reasonable.

 

Contract brewing seems like it’s almost always a win-win situation for both parties involved. I’ve thought about looking into it for starting up on my own since it reduces the capital needed drastically. But that’s still a pipe dream for the future now.

 

Speciation Artisan Ales in Grand Rapids, Mich. do sour brews and they got a ton of hype for only being open for one year (and I think they're alright but overrated) but they don't brew at all. They only contract the wort out and then sour it on their own in their warehouse. So starting in that manner is definitely plausible and something I've thought about, too. I don't know the legalities but I'd love to start some sort of LLC and then have someone brew the beers for me. The main problem is storage space and whatnot.

 

Is Treehouse still not distributing? Gonna be in Boston in a couple weeks.

 

Fermentery Form just did the same thing here in Philly. they've only been open for about a half a year. St. Benjamin Brewing in Philly, which is frankly mediocre at best, brews for them (based on Form's recipes I think) and they will transport the wort over to Fermentery Form where they have a wall of barrels and the fermenting takes place there. their beer has been pretty solid and consistent, everything has a sour tinge to it, and all of their beer touches a barrel at some point. they do an interview here.

on a separate note, I'm doing another beer share tonight that I'm stoked about, some beers I haven't tried yet and some favorites: Omnipollo's DIPA Nebuchadnezzer; Omnipollo's IPA Shoutao; Omnipollo's IPA Schploing!!!; Omnipollo's DIPA Lustro; The Answer's Cody Austin Joose; Evil Twin's Even More Coco Jesus; Evil Twin's TIPA Molotov Cocktail, Avery's Tweak, and a 2016 bourbon county.

 

wish I saw this earlier to avoid a double post, but no, they're not distributing yet. although, based on what I've seen in the last month or so, you're walking out with a minimum of a case if you go. highly recommend you try to make your way out there. check their twitter for updates.

 

Ah. Unfortunately I'm only gonna have like 48 hours so doubtful I can make it.

 

ah, that's rough. I would recommend you stop at Trillium at least. they're a lot closer to the city with their tasting room in Canton. their place that's in city limits doesn't allow pours, I believe. I would also recommend Bukowski's Tavern which someone either in this thread or the Boston thread recommended.

 

Yeah I've done the Canton Trillium facility which was great. Have done a few others in the area on past trips as well. Looking at Lamplighter and Aeronuat

 

Some more Omnipollo dropped in Philly. Shoutao Peach Slush and the NOA Pecan Mud Stout. Also grabbed the new Lagunitas Lil Sumpin Easy and Sierra Nevada Hazy

 

That guy is super active in Milk the Funk and was just on The Sour Hour recently. Sounds like they're doing some pretty cool stuff.

I've half jokingly/half seriously talked about this with a buddy of mine a bunch. We actually have pretty good relationships with two local breweries who already brew for another gypsy brewery in the state, so it would make it even easier to get started.

Still no distro, but their limits are getting pretty insane compared to what they used to be, so it's definitely worth the trip if you can squeeze it in. People going there today can buy 3 and a half cases. Bit more than the like 5 cans I got the first time I ever went to Treehouse, lol.

 

I've only been a few times so I don't have a ton of experience, but I hope you have fun!

Had NOA Pecan Mud Stout last summer in New York and it was incredible.

 

Yeah Mitch is a great dude. At summer beer fest which is a two day festival they brought basically four cases of 750’s to pour from and sold out in like two hours each day. But I wandered up and even though they had a long line, Mitch talked with me for like 15 minutes and never once gave me a “I’m busy let’s end this” vibe. I want them to succeed, but I also tend to be down on their brewery slightly for a couple reasons: 1) I grade sours harder because everyone rates a sour at like 4+ out of 5, the scale is skewed on them and 2) I tend to push back on hyped breweries and subconsciously go into it really harshly haha. But their fruited sours I’ve had in the fall were very good. Keep your eyes open whenever I send you a return package for some ;)

Gypsy brewing is 100% about contacts, so that’s a great start for you man. Do it. My buddy just graduated from a brewing ops one year course and got a job as an assistant brewer with chance to move to sales when they start distro in 2018 and his ideals and mine line up pretty well so I keep pushing the issue of thinking let’s do something sooner than later. I don’t want to look back in 10 years and be like “damn why didn’t I try it out?” And I just wont ever be fully happy working for other people.

 

Never been to Lamplighter but Aeronaut is a pretty cool place. If you’re driving there the parking situation sucks though. There’s no lot you can use and it’s just street parking if you can find a spot.

 

Shoutao is a goodie

 

Has my first Belma hopper beer (to my knowledge at least) and holy fuck what a hop.

 

I’m in luck then since my friend lives just down the street!

 

The new Cigar City can designs are a huge improvement. They look so clean.

 

This better result in our two breweries doing a collaboration within the next like 5 years.

This happened to me with Calista. Had never had it and then one random night at Tired Hands they had like 3 different beers all showcasing it and I was absolutely blown away by how great it was.

 

Oh, yeah, collab for sure.

Belma had a touch of Galaxy but I had it side by side with an all galaxy hopped IPA that was a similar recipe to the Belma IPA I was having and was blown away. Belma was just so much ripe melon/strawberry and at 6% but drinking like it was 5%, it was a beer that I told the owner screams mid-summer IPA. Then looked up Belma prices and they're like $10 a pound, which is far less than I was anticipating.