O'so/Funk Factory 4/4 release

Drinking Fox and Grapes now for the Badger game and loving it!

Fuck Em' Bucky!!!!

 

FFS, again? These guys can't seem to win. Well, it'll take some time to iron it out probably. This batch has been in the works for a while haven't they?

 

My impression was same as above: Goldilocks was surprisingly good, Coconut was more than a bit of a sour twang, Fox was excellent. I guess I was being somewhat passive aggressive asking if it was sour. ;-) I didn't get to try the other two bottles. I'll probably open a bottle of the Coconut soon to give it a whirl but I'm hoping they offer some sort of make good. There's no way they released that bottle without knowing there was an issue.

Problem I have with that even if they do offer a make good is it's a sneaky way to get some revenue from a bad bottle. Say you sell a thousand - how many will be consumed and how many folks either won't know there's a refund or won't bother.

 

that might be the worst business model i have ever heard

"this product sucks, let's roll it out anyways"

they aren't big enough to absorb the hit to their bottom line nor to absorb the pr beating from something like this happening again. no way they would purposefully do it.

or i'm a country rube and they are evil geniuses.

JERRY: Hey, so where's my sneakers?

KRAMER: That's what I wanna know.

JERRY: What do you mean?

KRAMER: Well, I saw Mom and Pop this morning, but when I went by the store on my way home? The place was empty. Everything is gone. Mom and Pop - vrooop - vanished.

JERRY: So all my sneakers are gone?

KRAMER: I'm afraid so. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. I've been asking around - they didn't even have any kids.

JERRY: Mom and Pop aren't even a Mom and Pop?!

KRAMER: It was all an act, Jerry. They conned us, and they scored, big time.

ELAINE (amused): So. Mom and Pop's plan was to move into the neighborhood...establish trust...for 48 years. And then, run off with Jerry's sneakers.

KRAMER: Apparently.

ELAINE: Alright, that's enough of this.

 

Hypothetically that makes sense. But let's look at facts.

1. This is not the first infected bottle they've released. Or the second. Or the ... you get the point. Yet it happened again. If you're contending they didn't know each time then, ok, maybe they're not doing it intentionally - they're just oblivious and not bothering to try the bottles before releasing them. So is gross negligence any better or more forgivable?
2. There was a line to pick up bottles and the tap room was packed. Releasing bad bottles hasn't hurt them horribly ... so, maybe they're thinking "people keep buying them - if it ain't (totally completely) broken, don't fix it."
3. The only other brewery nearby is central waters ... and then it's a VERY long way to other breweries. People are willing to take a chance on their local product and when they don't have a lot of options to trade over to, you can get away with shady practices.
4. They've partnered with Funk Factory to make some really excellent beers. It's not unreasonable to think that folks - like me, doh - may think "hey, I'm picking up the funk factory bottles ... might as well grab one or two of each of the others and see how they turned out." When I'm driving all that way I'm willing to take a chance. That doesn't mean I don't still expect better.

I bet if you look at what sold and what didn't you / they will see that the Funk Factory stuff sold much better than the non-Funk Factory. It will be interesting to see how the Funk Factory relationship develops when he starts collaborating with other breweries (I think I saw a Penrose thing).

In short, I think they're taking a short term approach to the business rather than a long term ... and assuming that they'll get some forgiveness while they work out issues. I get it ... I'd bet it's not malicious, probably closer to a financial necessity. But to assume they didn't know would be to assume they are oblivious / don't care; you don't release infected bottles in the past and then just assume everything will be good in the future. You work dilligently to improve, you observe, test, etc. In the PNW, Block 15 is a good example. They release some amazing bottles but have had infection issues as well. They address infection and testing up front on every relevant bottle release.

I hope they work it out because they're capable of making really great stuff.

Cheers!

 

Has anyone had a chance to crack Cassis yet?

 

Has there actually been any proof of infected bottles? The three BA night train bottles they released were all uncarbonated, but lab tests never showed infections present. A couple people said they tasted off-flavors, which O'so said was most likely due to the a particular batch of old barrels they used. But again, the fact is that no infection was present.

This isn't to say that they haven't completely fixed their issue with barrel aging and proper yeast usage, but it's not fair to say they have been selling infected beers, because that's false.

 

Seems we're still talking about one bottle of Coconut opened at the release party. Would like to hear from some others about this before piling on. There were a lot of bottles going out the door, anyone open one (I only bought FF stuff)?

 

Pending more news about the Coconut- whether it's off flavoured or uncarbonated or infected or something else, O'so seems to be batting 1.000 with their porter/stout variant releases so far. Intentional or not, you can't deny that there seems to be strange air around this brewery. I won't beat a dead horse here as I've made my opinion well known and I know that it's just that- an opinion, albeit one that prevents me from dropping $100's on potentially low quality beer until I can be reassurred that QC is a priority. So I'd say I'm better off for it. And perhaps some people are starting realize that they might be too. There are so many other great breweries out there.

 

If they are batting 1.000 as you claim then explain why does the BA Convenient Distratction taste on par with the version they had on tap? I guess this is where we differ, I tend to actually try a beer myself before making derogatory comments.

 

Agree that I was jumping to an extreme; apologies for that. I'll wait and see how the bottle I open is and what others report. The concerns about QC do not seem unfounded though; I tried several of the previous night train variants from the bottle - poblano and blackberry - and they were godawful. The greatness of Dweller, Framrood, Door Kriek pulled me back in.

 

What didn't you like about the poblano and blackberry? Besides being completely flat, I thought they both tasted really good. I didn't taste any off-flavors which a couple others reported. Just a flat thick flavored stout with plenty of bourbon. I bought some carbonation drops from a local homebrew store and put them in a bottle of poblano, so we'll see how that turns out. If I remember, I'll open it tonight and see how well it carbed up.

 

I tried a Coconut bottle....my best guess is that it's an off flavor from the ancient barrels since I assume this is all from the same base batch and that they used the same mix of barrels for everything. Plus it seems that the coconut has fallen off some, it's still a really strong coconut flavor but not nearly as strong as I remember when I had it on tap a few months back which leads me to believe it's from the same batch. Carbonation was fine. I bought 2 bottles....not sure whether to subject my coconut loving trading buddy to it or not.

I don't think it's bad per se, but I won't be buying any more bottles if it hits distro either.

 

here's what i don't understand.. why do people drop "hundreds" on ANY beer sight unseen?

i'm pretty optimistic about some beer releases. styles that tickle my fancy generally, by breweries that are consistently good to excellent and there's just no way in hell i'm driving hours out of my way to drop "hundreds" on beer i've never tasted before.

i dunno, beer geeks tend to think they're the center of the universe and we're single-handedly keeping companies afloat by buying their 500 bottle releases but it's the flagship beers that sell by the pallet to regular folks at neighborhood bars that make the difference.

O'so (and others) may have failed experiments (and, really, expecting perfection from EVERY brewery just because they make a product we like is foolish) here and there but those one-offs that attract the hardest core nerds just aren't important to 90% of their audience.

many here, but on many other beer-centric sites, love to pimp "support local businesses" but then flat don't. it's more "support local businesses that make rare beers i can tick/trade/brag about and if you don't make beers i can swing around in the trade forums then you make utter shit and i hope your business closes because X new brewery in Minneapolis is so much better".

i support places like O'so, Central Waters, Badger State, etc. because they make beer i like (not all of them) and the owners are good people.

it's like picking your friends based solely on the awesome things they can do for you (i can trade this barrel aged grapefruit gose for a Prop!) instead of riding the ups and downs because you truly enjoy their company (the regular lineup, the pub, the atmosphere, etc.)

 

It's ok to support local businesses although I could go on and on about the locavore tendency in Madison. But with the money I make being quite so limited and having experienced a lot of beers being brewed nationwide, I would rather put the limited amount of money to the best use. I get it, you want to support local businesses and people, drink local beer. It's not like I'm trying to trade all of the local beers I get, but I would expect more because I tend to have higher standards. That's where we seem to differ, I think, and that's fine. I prefer to give my business based on merit rather than "it's local so it deserves my support". Call me a beer nerd/geek, but I simply expect that beers I buy should not be flat or infected or not living up to what is intended. How unreasonable is it for me to expect that?

That being said, Fox and the Grapes was very good and Cassis blows the other FFG beers produced to date out of the water. Wow.

 

The ones I had were more or less flat

The ones I had were flat and distinctly sour. Seems like there's some serious bottle variation based on Untappd / BA.

 

I'll take the bait, though I think I answered this above. I spend hundreds sight unseen because I've had a few spectacular beers - Dweller, Framrood, Door Kriek - and if I'm going to drive almost 4 hours, I might as well grab a few of the non-lambic beers. I'm fortunate enough that if I spend $60 or so dollars on off beer, I'm not going to suffer. Mini beercations are fun and I like to support small breweries that are trying to do ambitious stuff. I enjoyed most of the beers I had on tap - about 12 sample sized pours ... and some were really excellent. I don't buy to trade, though I do share stuff that is great with regular trade partners. And if it was just about ticking, believe me, the money could be spent in more "impressive" ways on *.com purchasing old bottles of Framboos and such.

As for the friend analogy ... maybe. What if you had a friend that was pretty cool when you hung out at your place but half of the time you went out in public he turned into a complete jerk? Regularly releasing "off" bottles is kind of like that. I'm not saying that's the case with O'so - draw your own conclusions - but to tell people they are fair weather friends because they don't like being regularly sold bad bottles seems a bit odd. I mean, we pay for these bottles with money - it's not just about "friendship."

 

I'm glad you're taking the bait so that I don't have to. Cheers! See you at DLD.

 

If you are so worried about beers not being up to your standards then you should drink Budweiser or Miller. Their product is consistent and seems to taste the same all time . Then you never have to worry about "wasting your limited money" anymore.

 

I opened a bottle of Poblano that I tried to carb with fizz drops (from Northern Brewer), and it didn't work too well. I put 2 drops in the bottle (per the instructions) and it wasn't enough. It fizzed a bit when I poured the bottle, but since the body of this beer is pretty thick, I don't think it mixed in too well. I'll try another bottle with 4-6 drops and see what happens.

Regarding the flavor, it had a good amount of peppery heat and bourbon, and there was a little bit of an interesting flavor that I picked up. It was a bit sweet and very faintly tart, but it's hard to say because it was hidden behind the pepper flavor. An infection would have soured the whole bottle by now, so I still firmly believe this isn't the case. I've had an infected Peruvian Morning and it's not drinkable at all. This Poblano bottle was completely drinkable and all 3 of us enjoyed it. Hard for me to say if it was due to the barrels or the peppers, but it gave it an interesting character.

Today I'm getting a stash of bottles from last week's release, so I can give my thoughts on the new stuff in the near future.