The Veil Brewing - Richmond

You don't brew for Alchemist, Cantillon and Hill Farmstead and not know what you're doing. Hype is justified imo and I'd imagine they will live up to the hype.

 

While I do eventually think the Veil will be a good/great/etc, the hype already is a bit silly when no one has even had a single one of their beers. I even saw an ISO post already. haha.

 

he worked at HF and spent some time learning/interning at Cantillon (and also worked at Alchemist, Portsmouth and O'Connor here in VA). don't think he "brewed" at HF/Cantillon... though I'm 100% positive he learned valuable knowledge at those breweries.

 

I know Virginians and those nearby like to speak ill of the Richmond Hype Machine™; and while I think complaints about the areas beer fans are a little overstated, I hope this doesn't get too blown out of proportion. Personally, I love the idea of a weekly can release place with the same sort of ethos as Tree House or Tired Hands etc. but places like that only exist with high quality beer. If The Veil turns into something along those lines it would be amazing to have such great beer nearby -- but I hope it would happen organically as opposed to having beer fans desperate for trade fodder and hype forcing the idea of it.

 

It will shake itself out one way or the other before too long.

 

yeah, unfortunately RVA definitely has some hype morons

 

I mean... everywhere does to a degree. I think it's just more palpable there because RVA has a really active, passionate beer community without a brewery that has the same reputation that other large, active, passionate beer markets have (nothing against Hardywood, Lickinghole, The Answer, etc).

 

Seriously? Ask the guys on the New England Tree House thread if they genuinely like what the model and release days scene look like there. Kudos to the gang at Tree House as they are certainly doing everything within the realm of possibility to appease the masses but their loyal faithful have got to be wondering what happened to the good old days. AnyWho... I certainly wish the guys at Veil all the success in the world if they are willing to pay the price it takes to repeatedly put forward a solid product and take care of their customers to the best of their ability. But, let there be no mistake that wild success, especially with small breweries that have limited self distribution, will breed another host of problems.

 

I was speaking in terms of the brewery's mentality (new cans out often with a few mainstays, sticking to a few well-done styles, relatively cost-efficient, etc), not the consumers'.

 

Should have posted this update yesterday for those who did not see (and are interested) but Veil is changing up the 4pks that will be available in the hopes to spread the product to more people. They will not be selling individual 4pks of Crucial Taunt and Master Shredder. They will be just one split 4pk (2 each) for $13 and then the Mixed 4pk of all 4.

 

I read that differently. I see it as they will have 4 packs of both Crucial Taunt and Master Shredder for $13, not split in any way. Then they will have 1 split 4-pack with each of the 4 beers.

 

Having visited TH now a bit, honestly, its a great model. You get exactly just enough to come back next week and maybe a can or two to share with your buddies. The waits are not that bad and the people are very nice. If Veil has the same model, I would be happy with it, just not able to get it very often as its a long ass drive to RVA for me.

 

Now I got-cha.

Sure seems like the scene @ the Veil this Saturday is shaping up to be similar to that found in Monson, Ma from Wed - Sat... sans the country scenery.

@c64person , I'm with ya. Generally well behaved crowds at TH. However, as anyone who has been there a number of times can attest, it can turn into a real sh^t show depending on the beer being released and especially around a holiday. In turn, that limits can allotments per customer which, in the case of TH given its remote location, makes you wonder if the time and effort was worth it in the end. Maybe it's just me but I'm starting to see a similar can allocation theme in this thread.

 

that's what was initially said but then changed yesterday to the new mixed packs

 

They made a edit to that yesterday. Below is the exact update they provided.

"The second 4-pack option will be a split 4-pack of our flagship wheat IPA Master Shredder and our flagship double IPA Crucial Taunt.

The decision to make these variety packs was made to be able to spread the wealth to as many people as possible...."

 

Got it. Thanks guys

 

Does anyone know the capacity of Treehouse and/or the capacity of The Veil? There is a lot of money behind The Veil, I wouldn't be surprised to find out they have more capacity than TH (although I am purely speculating).

 

Okay, so don't yell at me if I should know this but aside from this thread I don't see it covered on FB and their website is out of date.

Where has their model been described? I get that the release they'll have beers on tap for on site consumption and are doing a ticket release for 4 pack of cans. But they're definitely, not ever, planning on doing any kind of distribution?

 

From what I've heard, they are planning to distribute their cans regularly. Don't know how far from Richmond at this point. I'm sure their sours will mostly be sold at the brewery in bottles and draft, at least initially.
The comment you saw was regarding growlers - that's not something they'll ever do, they said.

 

They will be distributing not only their beer, but Ocelot's too in Richmond. I don't know if that includes cans or not though. Given their no-growler policy and the things they said about keeping the cans cold, I wouldn't be surprised if they wanted to keep control of can sales.