The Alementary (Hackensack, NJ)

I would think these breweries have soft openings. Don't advertise on Insta or Twitter, but start opening your doors to friends and family and word of mouth etc. Then have a grand opening when you know what you are good at and what you need to work on. I am hoping to pop in to Alementary this week, but maybe I should wait. I stopped by Brix City early in their run, was thoroughly disappointed and haven't been back.

 

Funny you say that, I saw the same when I noticed their can plans. Probably won't actually fill any til the 1 year mark or so, but I was wondering if anyone has been lately and seen an improvement. I have only tried 1 beer (El Dorado single hop) at the Chubby Pickle and it was so unbelievably bad that I haven't been to the taproom yet. I was hoping somebody might say they have made improvements and attempted to dial in their recipes. Shame that Little Dog can release a perfect representation of a less-sexy style and get no love, and yet these breweries can shit out 10 IPA variants within a year of opening.

 

A restaurant has more than one piece to the puzzle. It's not JUST the ovens.
There's a hiring process, there's staff, there's a menu to figure out, what beers/wine, pricing, how do we work the kitchen, expediting...etc. A good restaurant isn't just going to open after a week of doing all of that or they'd fail. And like someone else mentioned... soft openings. Just get friends/family over, maybe a few BA's that you've met on the forums. It's not like anyone who opens a brewery doesn't know a group of people who are into it enough to give honest critique.

More often than not lately I find myself going to openings for breweries and hearing passion about the beer but also apologies for it not being 100% up to their standards. I'm not expecting a Tree House or a Trillium or a Carton or a Kane, but at least get your stuff together. Don't try to reinvent the wheel with 8 to 10 beers on an opening when you are already conscious that you don't know your equipment well enough. I'd rather see passion and heart in 4-6 beers of which you can at least be proud of rather than trying to shoot for the moon when you know it's going to be a slow and steady process.

But that's just me.

 

I did not go, but a friend did. Said parking is tough and beers were average.

Since I'm moving to Bergen County next week, plan on stopping by sometime soon. Agree with most on here that a soft launch with 3-4 beers is best. If I ever opened a brewery, which will never happen, I'd have family and all BA's over for an initial tasting event. Then tweak a bit and have a 2nd tasting event. Then open with vastly improved beer.

But it is also a business and they need to make money. Will keep an eye on them.

 

Giving breweries time to develop is a joke. You should have at least a couple stand out beers on opening. Not mind blowing but will keep you intrigued and coming back. Breweries all of the sudden don't become that much better over time. I've never heard anyone say that treehouse, trillium, toppling Goliath, cigar city etc were mediocre in the beginning and then got magically better. They just built a following based off their initial quality and improved on top of it.

Look at Kane, carton, ramstein. Ramstein is one of Jerseys oldest breweries. While German and not everyone's go to beer, they have put out quality German styles since day one. Never dips in their products or a terrible start.

Kane and carton started out with a few beers that drew people in and expanded with more as time went on. But their initial quality is what drew people in. I know magnify divides people on here. But their IPA and search saison were above average for starter beers and made me want to come back and try their other stuff as they grew.

We should not hold out and give them time. If their beer is mediocre now, unless a change of Brewer happens is going to become average at best over time. I know of 4 close associates I know who went to Alementary this weekend and all said the same thing. It's average at best. Time won't help these guys. Learn how to brew before you open a brewery. Period

 

I wish people would've given up on Kane after their 2013 release of ANTEAD. It was a straight up mess. Boozy, thin, barely a stout. Maybe on a good day a 3.5 of 5.

No one should've given it a chance the next year when this was the scene:

 

You go to a restaurant for the food (for the most part) and you go to a brewery for the beer (again for the most part), my only point is that it takes longer to get things dialed in at brewery due to the fact it takes longer to make the product. I admitted that it shouldn't be 6 months, but to compare a brewery to a restaurant is not a fair comparison.

 

I've said this in another thread, but it is not my job to support a brewery while they "figure it out". If the beer is bad I will go somewhere else. If a business does not have the capital to figure things out before they open than maybe they shouldnt have opened in the first place.

 

Yes but they had a group of good beers already. Every brewery will make a couple bombs. I haven't seen a brewery that makes every beer spot on to my tastes. But it's overall quality. If you start out and all your beer is garbage what incentive is there to believe it's going to get tons better. Where as u have made 4 of 5 quality beers to start out and brew a turd, I'm going to give you he benefit of the doubt and go back

 

I had my first experience with Alementary this past weekend, with a growler of A Game IPA. The beer was very light bodied, almost too thin for me. The nose and flavors were there, but just subtle. Pine, resin, grapefruit, and some sweeter citrus fruit, with a dry, crackery, moderately bitter finish. This is the base for a phenomenal IPA. It was clean and crisp and clearly a well crafted beer. Subtlety is not necessarily a bad thing, but I just want more body and complexitity to an IPA. This drank like a very good session IPA.

Anyone been back or tried their beers lately?

 

There is much truth in what you have to say, but you are comparing them against treehouse, trillium, toppling Goliath, cigar city. They have had less then a month, were your examples even on anyones radar at that time? Doubt it. Let's give them time.

 

What made those breweries great was from day 1 they were spot on. Adjustment period to fine tune and get better? Yes but you knew you had something special from the first day you had them. Telling me I need to wait on something that is showing no promise from the beginning, what incentive is there for me to go back?

 

If a restaurant opens and their four main dishes are just "okay"... will I go back in 6 months to see if they have figured it out?

Doubtful. Sometimes we're a little too lenient on breweries upon opening and this is what's causing this mass explosion of mediocrity.

 

I doubt many people tried or ever heard of Trillium, Hill Farmstead, Tree House, etc the first couple of weeks they were open.

 

Has anybody been here recently?
Curious if the beer has improved at all
Have they been busy?

 

Went back there a couple of weekends ago, first time since opening weekend, to try the new DIPA "Sketchbook: Hops & Dreams". This beer is a major step in the right direction. Much better than their original offerings. Hopefully they will keep adjusting and improving

 

I heard great things about their DIPA, as well. If that continues, it'd warrant a visit for me.

 

On the list of breweries to visit!

 

Just saw cans of A-Game (12oz 6-pack for $12) and Hops and Dreams (16oz 4-pack for $15) pop up at a local store. Anyone have any input on these beers and whether or not it's worth a purchase?

 

I thought the A-Game was a pretty solid IPA. 6 pack for $12 is hard to beat.