The Bruery: explain how they've done it.

OK, just curious. I happened to like it but couldn't drink more than 12 ounces of it.

 

Yah, sours are one of my favorite styles, and Mother Funker (along with Oui Oui, SitR, and a couple others recently produced) were downright terrible. I think the Bruery hit their peak with sours when they were producing BW XII, Wanderer, etc. Those were fantastic beers, but lately their sours are all taking on a Heinz vinegar taste that just doesn't do it for me.

 

Huh, I loved Oui Oui. I'm also not really sure that Wanderer is better than, say, Jacobins Rouge (or either of ISO:FT or Marron Acidife).

 

Feel free to send all of your unwanted Mother Funkers to Warren, OH.

It does seem to be a very polarizing beer, but I have loved it each time I tried it (about 4 or 5 times now). My teeth might disagree with me, though.

 

ISO:FT and Marron Acidife were only slightly better than Mother Funker. Very slightly.

I am immediately turned off from a beer as soon as I smell acetobacter, and I have a pretty good nose when it comes to detecting it.

 

Mother Funker might as well be labeled as vinegar. That said, I liked it, but it wasn't a very good sour beer overall.

 

I don't know that they're all that much more successful than any number of other small, quality brewers, are they? They're doing well, sure. They were in the right place (Orange County, which like most of the greater L.A. areas was a craft beer desert till a couple years ago), with the right product (sours and other unique beers) at the right time (in the midst of the second (or maybe third) wave of the craft beer boom, at a time when the DIPAs and stouts that drove growth for some of the earlier brewers were becoming old hat and people were seeking out new flavors from sours etc). But I dunno if their story is really much different than a couple dozen others: brewery makes good beer, people buy, brewery expands.

 

Making some of the most reliably best beer. Every single Bruery beer ive had have been better than good. Its really that simple. When your making some of the better beer in CA, youre bound to expand insanely quickly. They probably sold over some great people (like Mother Earth sent their lineup to the Bros here at BA, and have gotten some attention).

 

Well, that's kind of why I put the question mark at the end of my sentence: "I don't know that they're all that much more successful, are they?" The question mark means that I'm asking you to provide info.

Since you're the one asserting that they are so much more successful than everyone else, maybe you can provide some points of comparison. Are we talking sales? Awards? Production capacity? Market penetration? What?

Once we know what your criteria are, maybe we can look at where Stone, Firestone, Lagunitas, Russian River, Alpine, Ballast Point, 21st Amendment, Drakes and some of the others who've started up in California in the last couple decades where in their fourth or fifth year.

 

hmm, different tastes and all that jazz but I agree with Stupac for the most part. Though I didn't care for Mother Funker (I want to try it again, I had it during a nice breakfast the first time), I feel Marron Acidifie is better than ISO:FT and wanderer. Oui Oui I thought was great. SitR is decent, IIRC it need more carb. Otoise is decent, and Sans Pagaie is amazing (my favorite sour I have had of theirs, haven't had BW XII).

 

You're suppose to take a firm, uninformed, ANGRY stance on the matter! Haven't you learned anything on BA? This is serious business!

 

I tried their "White Oak" and all in all it was pretty good... but, for $16.99 a bottle it left a very bad taste in my mouth................

 

2 Words. BLACK TUESDAY They were an exciting start up, approachable, knowledgable, and they were in, well... a brewing wasteland. But BT put them seriously on the map. And to all the haters, BT is still one of my top 3 drinking experiences in my life. Better than Dark Lord, Darkness, Founders IS, Imp St Trooper BA Rasputin, Black Ops, and many others. And if you get a chance at a fresh barrel of the Chocolate Rain version of BT--ahhh, oops, I think I'm chubbin'. Anyway, the BUZZ really started there.

Then the genius move of the RS. Just like Costco (and Price Club before), once you get a customer to buy a membership, there is a subconcious inclination to purchase there first. It reinforces customer loyalty. And the company gets an interest free infusion of cash--thus expand your operations, including barrel aging capacity. More barrel aging, higher price beers. It is genius. Now I am not a fan of everything they do, but they are adventurous, atre constantly seeking collaborations, and they really specialize in Belgians & sours. There has been big growth in this sector of Beer Geekdom. So they are positioning them selves really well for continued growth over the next few years.

 

I agree, as a fan of the Bruery, many of their beers seem overpriced to me too.

 

I smell a dance off to prove who is right and who is wrong!!

 

Classic!!! Cut 'im Yam!!!

 

I've actually only had one of their sours that I really loved, which was Tart of Darkness. Wanderer and Marron are both good but no better than lots of shelf Belgians. Sans Pagaie is OK, but it was put to shame by every other cherry sour I had at a big tasting yesterday, including Cisco's Monomoy Kriek.