NightShift Taproom open for business

Thanks for the word.

I haven't tried other Night Shift weisses, no, but per your characterization of Night Shift's berliner weisses being "dramatically more sour" than the norm I'll assume that it was a healthy bottle. The vinegar aspect was pronounced but I might be more sensitive to that than I realize.

I'll hold off on trying any of their other berliners until I can get a sample at the brewery.

 

had some on draft at the fest this weekend. i'm a huge fan of everweisse, and thought i'd had somer before, but i taken aback by what seemed like hot alcohol hitting my nose, and a flavor somewhere between windex and lemonade. it was beyond astringent, and i otherwise like having my tooth enamel stripped....

 

It's possible - but I also think I'm a lot less sensitive to it than others - if you look at Somer Weisse reviews, people do mention it. But the "very sour" thing holds true.

 

It could be the other ingredients. I've always found Somer weisse to be polarizing since the first batch. Somewhat chemical-like and doesn't really sit with my tastes.

 

I didn't try it at NOTF, but several people I talked to said Somer Weisse was "off" and vinegarish compared to previous pours of it. Whether that's a recipe change, a bad keg, or what have you, remains to be seen. I had a sample at the brewery a couple weeks back and while it was more sour than I remembered it (which was the first batch I believe), I didn't taste any off flavors.

 

I'll echo what's been said. I have found Somer to be intensly sour this year, but not an "off" sour at all. Just extremely sour.
I've noticed that certain batch #s are a bit more tame. 11 seems to be more sour than 13, but those are the only batch #s I've had so far.
I actually melted some trappist boysenberry jam into the last batch #11 bottle I opened. It was fantastic.

 

I concur: Somer was VERY sour, but I didn't detect any off tastes or hot alcohol.

 

Either I don't understand what you are saying here, or you did your math wrong. 32oz is almost 1000ml, not 500, so the growler (draft) is understandably cheaper due to the bottle's packaging costs. Maybe this will get you to buy more growlers?

 

Combination of both - yes - that should be 1000 mL. When a 1000 mL growler is 10 bucks and a 750 bottle is 12 bucks, I'm not sure the price difference is large enough to convince me to buy a growler, which is more complex to handle, doesn't store as well, etc.

This really isn't a Night Shift problem, I'm just spoiled by $5 32 ozers of NEBCO - but my main point still stands, which is why do you charge 2/3 of the price of a 64 oz growler for a 32 oz? That just doesn't make very much sense to me. Obviously, it takes some of the staff's time to handle the additional containers, but the price differential is pretty stupid to me. Cut the 64 oz price in half, and add a dollar for the possible additional fills you now have to do, or something, if you must. They're charging a significant premium for buying their beer in smaller containers - pretty weird, because it's only going to improve people's perception of quality to drink the smaller growlers.

Maybe this is a totally standard business practice (I don't buy growlers many places - HF (which does the same thing as Night Shift, except by reducing volume, not increasing price), Jack's Abby (64 oz only, best prices anywhere), Idle Hands (haven't been since they started offering 32oz fills), NEBCO, and Night Shift pretty much cover it), and again, I'm just spoiled by NEBCO - but I just don't understand it.

 

What the what! I really need to get down there...