Crooked Stave 2014 Cellar Reserve

Self imposed but then everyone would then tilt all their Cellar Reserve bitching (err...dissatisfaction?) to "Crooked Stave isn't releasing beers often enough." Just unneeded stress when you're no longer starving for capital IMO.

If anything Cellar Reserve was a proving grounds for reserve societies and resulted in many usable lessons learned that other clubs have adopted.

 

FIFY

I was a CR member from day one. Let's not pretend that any rumblings from CR members had any influence over any decisions CS made, it is insulting to everyone. It is a brewery that is in business to make money, they make business decisions. They seem to be successful, i seriously doubt that 8 people on an internet forum influence their business model and decision thinking. I'm happy that the Petite sours are $8 a bottle now but at the same time I feel a little played for paying the premium for them for the last 3 years. As long as they keep making good beers I will get over it. I'll say this for em also, of all the guys I know and have met that work there, they have some of the nicest most genuine people in the world working there. That has to say something for them.

 

CS=the local kid that made it big.

About which everyone has opinions. (In modern parlance: "Haters gonna hate.").

They make some great beers, e.g., Raspberry Dark Origins, and some stupid ones, e.g., the Kombucha/Happy Leaf crap.

Anyway, the last few beers they released have been above average, IMO.

*Sips an Origins...contemplates typing more nonsense on BA*

 

What are they, Exxon Mobil?

I dunno man, the level of butt hurt portrayed in this thread alone gives a glimpse that cellar reserve was no longer worth the hassle.

Blah, blah, blah Cellar Reserve beers are now widely available in Denver, cheaper and have been pretty good thus far. I consider that a win for anyone who is a local and a patron.

 

It's too bad that people feel played now that, as McNazz said, the beers are cheaper and available to everyone within a decent liquor store a month after they've been released. As someone who's never been a member, I couldn't be happier. I no longer have to win a lottery or trade away Casey and Avery brewery releases just to get a bottle of a good CS sour. Woe is my wallet tho...

And a growler fill of Surette and Veille only (at this point) is embarrassing IMO. Although I suppose that means that when a friend shows up at a tasting with a fancy CS growler now there might actually be beer in it instead of water.

 

I'm cautiously optimistic about this development. The growler, while cool, has been collecting dust since many breweries won't fill growlers that don't have the government warning on them.

However, I will consider this another "slap in the face" if this growler program is used to simply offload beers that aren't selling. Autumn Surrette? Spring just started.

 

Where in CO won't fill the growler? Pretty sure I've filled many growlers in CO that didn't have the Gov warning on them

 

This is the only aspect that bugs me. Autumn Surette and Vielle? That's pretty weak.

 

Comrade Brewing for one: http://www.comradebrewing.com/faq/

 

I've since seen the exact same 40oz. growler being sold at other breweries around town

 

If it's any consolation the drop in price has zero to do with Cellar Reserve and I'd imagine all to do with CS being able to brew at home. It's nothing more than an unfortunate yet timely coincidence. I'd imagine the cost of brewing at Epic and elsewhere was not cheap. Plus, if I'm remembering what was said at the Young Guns dinner correctly Crooked Stave's new brewhouse was a gift from Jeppe (the Evilest of Twins) so that's paid off. I for one applaud Crooked Stave for deciding to drop prices as a result of reduced overhead costs. The greedy thing would have been to keep the prices the same.

 

I've had no problems filling my CS reserve growler at Comrade. They were nice enough to put a government warning sticker on it and fill it with their awesome beer.

 

While certainly not anyone's primary business motivator, I think you might be surprised how many breweries (especially the geeky ones) pay at least some level of attention to these forums. At this point everyone knows how to wade through the default internet negativity and get legitimate feedback. Chad and the crew aren't letting this forum tell them what to do, but I guarantee they pay some level of attention to what is being said. We are their primary audience. I'd put money that more than 1/2/of the reserve members and regular customers are here or on RB. Probably more than that.

 

Actually I think the higher price of the CS beers had more to do with the amount of time & overhead for storage space of all the CS beer than it has to do with brewing on their own system. If I had to speculate, the new Petite Sours and Serenata were brewed elsewhere (contract brewed)... those beers had to sit in a barrel I'm assuming 3-6 months at minimum and they moved their system no more than 3 months ago right? That would be an incredibly fast turn around.

 

You're right. Probably 95% (maybe more, who knows) of everything sitting in barrels and foudres at Crooked Stave, at the moment, was brewed off-site. Purely speculation here but when they had the daily (weekly?) cost of business of brewing off-site relinquished maybe they just decided to immediately pass on that savings to lowering prices. There's probably a lot more going on with their business strategy but that seems to be the most evident reason.

 

I also think it has to do with not having the automatic sellout with the members buying all the allocations. The bottles that used to sell out fast like Origins were still sitting at the brewery a couple weeks ago (think they are finally sold out there) and they were $12. I just don't see a ton of people just walking into the brewery and buying a case of $15 bottles like the members did with the allocations. Especially when they don't taste it first like they can now. With them pumping out new beers like they are they had to be priced lower.

 

It was a pretty cool thing to be a part of for a few years, we got a bunch of good beers, had some fun parties/bottle shares, and it helped the brewery get to where they are now. Sure there were a few hiccups here and there, and not everything that was planned got followed through on, but I don't get why people are not happy overall with having been members.

 

We will throw stickers on actual beer growlers, if they don't have the government warning.

On a side note, the government warning is not a requirement in Colorado, this is a company policy.

People have walked in with plastic bottles that aren't beer growlers wanting to get them filled and we won't, citing the lack of government warning.