Why does The Alchemist only brew one beer?

Because they can. And that's the choice they made. It appears to have worked out pretty good.

 

This thread is pretty long and I apologize if this was addressed elsewhere, but at the beginning of the thread a couple of people immediately chimed in simply stating that the Alchemist's original brewery was flooded, which if the OP was already unaware of the event, may read as something less significant, as a mater main blowing. I want to make sure that the OP is aware that the Alchemist was wiped out in the floods of Hurricane Irene in 2011. Because discussing a business as a "one trick pony" in the context of trying to survive and again grow after a natural disaster comes off a little insensitive and I am not sure that just reading that they had a flood really gets the point across as to what happened:

http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/food/blogs/99bottles/2011/08/the_alchemist_2003-2011_1.html?camp=pm

Many businesses that become the victims of natural disasters don't usually even have that one trick to get them straight again and in my eyes, the Alchemist ride that pony for as long as they want. They earned it the hard way.

 

well find it for sale ever outside the monastery lol

 

name a good gluten free beer

 

In one night, their entire business plan got flipped on its head. They had the brewpub making money and then they invested in the cannery to make HT (their most popular beer). So they had debt, but the brewpub was continuing to make money and combined with the sales of canned HT would drive down that debt. Maybe they would expand the cannery, when the debt was lower/eliminated. Then Irene destroyed the brewpub, eliminating a profit center to reduce their debt. So they had to rely on the cannery to reduce their debt, which wasn't their intent when they built it. Remember the cannery opened within days of the hurricane.

Fast forward two years and the cannery is obviously a huge success and they have installed a growler station to start selling other beers.

Food for thought, think about the risks with expanding a business (the cannery), pretty big risk. Then think about a natural disaster almost destroying your entire business. Would you be throwing money around to expand again quickly?

 

When you have lines of people from all over the country knocking on your front door to buy out your stock I don't think you have anything else to prove, as far as being an accomplished professional brewer goes.

 

Not sure if anyone posted this but related read

http://beerstreetjournal.com/award-winning-gluten-free-recipe-sold/

 

Also, the perfect business model. Essentially making one the most popular styles of beer, better than anyone else.

 

Which would be a good idea, because if you started wasting your time on geegaws (even great ones), and somebody didn't get their widget they'd be all "Fuck Hanzo screwing around with his geegaws when I can't even get my widgets".

 

Omission Lager is very good Citra hopped lager. I would drink it any day.

 

In N Out has nearly the same menu for 40+ years with no innovation. For some reason there is always a line there...

 

So their intent was to have both the brewpub and keep producing multiple good beers there while opening the canning line exclusively for HT and have a two pronged force to maximize profits. Unfortunately Irene changed their plans. Now they have a simple business model that makes sense: make one thing better than almost everyone else and make just enough of it so there's always demand for it and it's being turned over as soon as it's being produced.
If I were to start a brewery I'd follow their 'happy accident' business model and try to perfect one beer and not attempt to perfect another one until the 'buzz' for the first started to lull. Though I'd be awfully tempted to make both an IPA and a Stout.
So many breweries try and make a beer for every category/style without their first offerings being quality.

 

I have. Several times in fact. Not sure why you are laughing though. Where at are you in Florida? I could let you try it, but not sure you would respect it.

 

Yes, and they sell every drop they make, and they keep upping production, and they keep selling out. As long as they do that they don't have to do another thing, the perfect business I agree. If they wanted they could easily push kegs out and around, but it's not necessary as long as you have a line at your door.

 

Nice monologue.

 

They did not look bored to me ... slammed is what I saw. Brewing longer than the sun is shines and the canner runs for ~10 hours a day. Completely focused on brewing a consistent product.

As some of my older relatives say, "Only boring people get bored". ;-)

 

TG will soon have that following. Mark. My. Words.

 

Serving a mass of people on one day sounds more like packaging a product rather than actually brewing it. The brewing was finished by the time you were there.

 

They still had one more batch to knock out when I showed up ... I believe they brew four batches to eventually go into one tank.

 

If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Alchemist is doing just fine.