Casa Agria Specialty Ales

FTFY

 

Good points here guys. At the end of the day it's the question of is the $300 worth the taken risk? For one it may be a lot of money, I could buy 25 cases of Torpedo for that, but for others, it's close to one month of allocations at the Bruery (or even less), so for me it's the question if, keeping in mind all the unknown and all the positive and negative info, if it's worth for me taking the risk. It's kind of like participating in BIFs sometimes, you know you have to spend some money on beer, shipping etc, but it is fun to receive a surprise. Worst case I will just waste those 3 hundred bucks on some Cali-llon condo lambic

 

Well I guess I wasn't that clear.
Signing up for Rate Barrel is like playing craps.
Signing up for these guys is like playing roulette.

Better?

 

HP... started in a garage

APPLE... started in a garage

AMAZON... started in a garage

THE RAMONES... started in a garage

CANTILLON... might have started in a garage

CASA AGRIA... is still in a garage

A RACCOON FAMILY... once lived in your garage

YOUR ESTRANGED BROTHER IN LAW... still lives in your garage




Garages are important.

 

To their credit, these guys have literally come to market out of a garage, all while we've been foolishly waiting for Societe and Hoparazzi sours.

 

I got it the first time. I just don't like playing roulette. Even with other people's money. Craps is a lot of fun though and has the best odds in the business.

 

For a brewery to start asking for money they need a plan, the problem here is only a limited circle have had their beers and everything (assuming here) up to this point has been done on a homebrew set up. They just posted that they are getting their equipment.
For someone to start a membership with no clear business plan (who is your brewer? Qualifications? Who is bank rolling you?) to potential investors smells like a new money hype train cash grab (see what i did there?)

Like mentioned earlier a brewery like green flash is having trouble dialing in recipes that have been brewed for years and they are pros.

I can only imagine myself or any other home brewer rolling up and using stone brewing equipment with my metal spoon and recipe book hoping my first 10 batches taste decent.

Specialty ales take time right? I expect no beer to come out until late 2016.

Unless they will release beer they've already brewed...

 

Myst, was also created in a garage. People tend to forget that one.

 

I also believe that Myst took place in a garage, but I never got to the end to actually figure it out.

 

Is anyone from the brewery aware this thread exists? They need to come in here and do some major damage control. It looks like there are a lot of questions about their credibility that need answered, and other pretty good ones like do they even have a brewery/warehouse space?

 

I knew nothing about the homebrew trading and was solely referring to the fact that nobody can seem to say where they are brewing out of. Hence condo.

 

So much this

 

From http://us10.campaign-archive2.com/?u=55e9dec878eb480f476b9dff3&id=7fa31fd3dd (linked from their Twitter on 3/20)

Hello friends of CASA,
Thank you for subscribing to the Casa Agria Specialty Ales newsletter. We are extremely appreciative of your support and we are excited to bring sour beer to Ventura County! This initial newsletter will help to explain where we are in the process of starting our dream!

We have submitted for TTB licensure and are waiting for approval. We have secured a location, we will be located at 701 Del Norte Blvd, Suite 310, Oxnard, CA 93030. Currently, the space is under construction, but soon a 30bbl foeder will arrive as well as used wine barrels, and a 15bbl fermenter. During our first year, we will be tenant brewing at The Lab Brewing Co, in Agoura Hills. The wort will be transferred to our location where the fermentation and aging process will occur. We plan on having bottle releases at our location, as well as limited draft accounts in the Ventura/LA area.

We will be opening up a Bottle Membership Club in the near future. We are currently working out the production schedule, as well as finalizing membership details. For those not local to Ventura County, we will allow proxy/trustee allocation pickups. We are also working on being able to ship allocations within California. More details about the Bottle Membership Club will be released in early April. For updates please check our website and social media pages [see links below].

We can't express enough appreciation to the craft beer community for their support of CASA.

Thank you!

Ryan, Eric, Mike and Terre

 

Hello fellow BA's. My name is Ryan Exline, I am one of the partners with Casa Agria. Sorry this response has been somewhat delayed, I wasn't aware of this thread until today. There seems to be a lot of questions surrounding CASA, I will do my best to answer them timely. First, I want to address early marketing errors and what actions have been taken. Many have mentioned being turned off by a member of the CASA group attempting to trade homebrew bottles for "Whales." This also turned off many of the CASA partners. The person responsible for doing this is no longer affiliated with the brewery. I apologize that this error in judgment has lead to people questioning our merits. We will not allow this early mistake define our integrity and ask that people give us a chance to show that we are good guys doing our best to make good beer.

For those interested in vetting out the CASA Team, we have 4 partners involved with the project. Eric Drew and Michael Weyandt are responsible for the brewing operations. Eric and Mike have been long time home brewers and have recently been trained using the commercial system at The Lab Brew Co in Agoura Hills. Terre Haff is responsible for Marketing and Sales, and I am responsible for overall operations and financials. This project has been entirely self funded by the partners. We have leased a space in Oxnard, which is where all the beer will ferment and age, the beer will be brewed at The Lab in Agoura Hills. The space in Oxnard will also host a future tasting room that will open during phase 2 of development. To start we will have multiple 30bbl Foeders, a 15bbl fermenter, and enough space for 80-100 used barrels.

The decision to start with a membership club was one that we debated greatly. We fully expected people to be hesitate about signing up for something without trying the beer. We had always anticipated the membership being in year 2 of operations. However, we have received many email requests from customers asking for a membership. We decided to listen to those that were interested and open it up on the front end of the operation. For those that are not interesting in joining, we hope that you will come try our beer at a public release. We will be opening up some CASA beers at the sales event this weekend, so please come join us.

We are committed to making the membership an enjoyable one for those that decide to sign up. We are excited to join the Craft Beer scene. If you have any questions about CASA, please feel free to post to this board. Or you can email me at [email protected].

Thanks,
Ryan Exline

 

Whats the actual price per bottle @Xline9 ?

 

The cost per bottle will vary based on the total cost of making the beer (price of fruit, hops, etc) and also based on fair current market value.

As for the total membership cost, we are also including (2) glasses, a shirt, first right to publically released offerings at a 10% discount, and a very special end of membership surprise that we think people will really enjoy.

 

I really like the first part of this sentence but was also kind of hoping not to see the last part. I appreciate products that are sold at a fair price with a built in profit margin based on original cost. The Bruery can put out perfectly enjoyable $20 750s of sour beer for almost every sour they make. Firestone Walker puts out quality barrel aged offerings at a great price point. Granted, these are two very large breweries and economies of scale should be considered, but it seems like a brewery releasing product for the first time shouldn't simply charge the maximum the market could bear. Smog City has been releasing great barrel aged offerings at an extremely reasonable price from a smaller brewery because they're still making money from it despite what the market could potentially value them at.

 

Fair Market value doesn't mean "maximum the market can bear". Our goal is to be priced according to the cost of production and fair market value for the styles of beer we are releasing. I think the math of our membership is giving the wrong impression that bottles are going to be priced at $30 each. There are other costs and benefits to the membership that should be considered while evaluating the total cost of membership. I am optimistic that the price point of our publically released offerings will be right in line with fair market value.

 

Ok, ok... with the "extras" and the "end of membership surprise" that brings it down to what? $23-26 a bottle for members? That's crazy talk man. Cascade sits on shelves for less.