Monkish Brewing

I've missed out on all of them, but I got a chance to drink FTF and Foggy Window. Both were solid and I'd gladly make their IPAs a staple in my fridge if I didn't have to wait in line for them. Makes me glad that I'm moving up The Bay in a few months where I'll get to fill growlers at Cellarmaker and Fieldwork without any fuss.

 

You're essentially contradicting yourself. You don't want a secondary market, but willing to pay more online...?

I don't want to pay extra money if all I have to do is wait in line... might work for you, but not for others. I really don't think there is anything wrong with how Monkish handles these releases right now. Show up at 8A and be in the first 20-30, fine, you're so cool. You'll still probably be ok if you show up by 11A. A buddy showed up at 11:30 and still got a couple 4packs.

It might make things easier on some, but I don't see the point to going online... To please people that don't want to wait in line? Why? What's the point? The beer will sell out in 1-3 hours and all he has to do is post on IG a day or two before, move some pallets to the door and it's basically done... Why bog down the tasting room with some BPT list? Why change anything?

 

Help me out here, but the fees charged by BPT amounts to at most a couple extra dollars doesn't it? What you're essentially saying is that the service BPT provides is the equivalent to the arbitrary price increase by a profiteer. That's just plain silly.

 

It's all capitalism in the end... BPT is a couple extra bucks per "ticket" providing a service to make it easier for breweries to get their product out. A "profiteer" is just capitalizing on a demand for a product by providing easier access to a product for a premium. Anyway... i'm not really arguing that point.

My real point, anyone saying they should use BPT is just asking for special treatment. Monkish is entitled to release their beers however they want. If you want cans for yourself, stand in line. Get there early enough to guarantee it. End of story. These releases have been pretty seamless/painless/well-handled. They use online options for their bottles and those releases are very well handled as well.

Anything outside of the process, the transaction, and the beer can't be controlled by Monkish. I said it a few pages back, you can't be mad at them for making a product people want... But you can keep coming up with excuses why they're not worth waiting in line for...

 

How do the hazy NE breweries sell their non IPA releases? Online?

 

Other Half and Treehouse do it like Monkish with cans being sold on premises and lines starting well before opening. Only difference is Monkish customers don't have to wait in 30 degree weather.

 

Plus Treehouse brews enough beer where it doesn't always sell out in one day (or hours). So while TH may also have a line like Monkish, the line fluctuates throughout the day and sometimes people can get their cans within 20 minutes or less. While I'm not necessarily stoked on waiting 3 hours for beer, it's good beer and Monkish is managing each release better and better. I think they will have a structured system here pretty soon like TH.

As a side note, this Supa Dupa Fly I'm having is the beez kneez, cheers.

 

BPT man F*#k lines.

 

the simple matter is that even with a window that is 24 hours, that's still more effort than the 45 to an hour of work that they currently do to move all of the product and swipe the credit cards/take the cash from the happy customers. Enough of these cans come out in a short time that it's not that bad to miss a release before another happens.

 

TH limits also blow man, it's great you can get growler fills but they drop limits to under 8 cans, green/haze as they run out they out at 2 cans per person.

3 hour wait in cold weather for a max of 6 cans? Rough life.

 

Back to the beer:

Supa dupa is solid.

The session is the real winner though, surprised how damn good it is. So much flavor.

 

ISO: C.R.E.A.M. Ale

 

The session was a surprising hit. Would hardly lump it together with other session-y ipas. Lots of pineapple notes and pretty full bodied. This was my first monkish release and i gotta say im pretty happy they are filling in this niche. Im a big west coast ipa guy so i never found a real reason to trade for NE ipas, nor did i think it was really worth it for me bevause of shipping expenses. But i do enjoy changing things up once in a while, and its really awesome these guys are pumping out these beers so close to home.

 

I'm pretty sure we will start to see other breweries jump on the hype train soon. Sixpoint Puff may be an example of one of the first hazy IPA's to be produced and distributed without being a brewery only release so I think it's only a matter of time.

 

Speaking of Fruited beers: Soul Foudre w/Fruit is coming this Wednesday for sale via Eventbright.

From Monkish:
|| SOUL FOUDRE: FRUIT EDITION ||
Remember Soul Foudre (a mixed-fermentation biere de garde aged in an oak foudre for 16 mos)?? Well, when we packaged the beer a few months ago, we took a portion of it and aged in smaller wine barrels with four different fruits! After bottle conditioning for 2-3 months, they are now ready for sale:

Soul Foudre w/ BOYSENBERRY (8.4% ABV)
Soul Foudre w/ CHERRY (8.4% ABV)
Soul Foudre w/ BLUEBERRY (8.4% ABV)
Soul Foudre w/ PEACH (8.4% ABV)

 

Couldn't make it to the can release saturday morning, but I did crack open a Foggy Window on Saturday night (i'm down to 2 cans, smh).
That is a beer that I would constantly have in my fridge if it was readily available. Delicious. 3 weeks old and it seems to have gotten better...

 

Or if you're one of the cool kids, just buy them today

 

Curious how many 'cool kids' there are?

 

Assuming number's at or below whatever the Fruit Cart bottle number was. Was it 100?

 

Must be below - I was able to grab a bottle of Fruit Cart (I think it was a bottle count of 100) when it went on sale to the non-cool kid public last time