Lord Hobo Brewing is expanding

I just want to know why Consolation Prize—their best beer by far and a damn good beer in general—is the hardest to find! I hope that changes in the future.

 

That LH is expanding is a perfect example of how non-representative this place is of the craft beer world as a whole lol

 

Agree. I am sure legions of people just buy local, or based on name, articles saying LH is a top beer bar and must make good beer, or they like the can design, etc......then they taste it, and it works for them and they keep buying it and telling friends about it. They cant tell the percentage of citra, galaxy, or owner arrogance in the recipe, or do they care. That buyer is the majority, the BA forum crew is definitely a minority that exists only in the forums.

 

If enough people feel the same way as you that might be why it's the hardest to find.

 

Ha! That's probably right...

 

I had no idea their beer was so mediocre until visiting last week. I had received a couple as extras previously and wrote them off either old, or a bad batch...but a visit to their brewpub/bar or whatever that is over there confirmed it for me.

 

There's still no shortage of LH beers at any beer store I frequent and they generally tend not to be super fresh so I wonder if the expansion has more to do with increasing their footprint than it does with being unable to keep up with local demand. **

As for Consolation Prize, unless it's slipping in and out of stores literally overnight I simply don't think it gets much distribution. I only ever see BS, STC and the session. Yes, I go to the liquor store more often than I probably should

** ETA: or maybe they plan to add some additional styles to their rotation. In which case I'd be interested to see what they offer.

 

I think Hobo Life is pretty good for a hoppy low gravity beer.

 

I like Hobo Life too, but $13 6 packs are too pricey - especially as comp'd to Founders All Day 15 packs for $16.

 

Agree, can throw in Two Roads Lil heaven as well. Best session IPA that I have had and a hell of a lot cheaper then hobo life and also super session...

 

From a price-per-can aspect I agree, and I also tend to buy All Day 15-packs more often, although I prefer the flavor of Hobo Life.

 

Does the brewery typically have a wide selection of *fresh* offerings?

 

Even so, it doesn't seem like they're doing THAT well. Yes, they are expanding, but they're in a giant building with a 50 barrel (I think?) brewhouse. It's not like Night Shift where they started small and their expansion has been driven by demand. Hobo was built to be big right from the start. I don't think they ever had the option not to expand, and they've had to rapidly increase their distribution footprint to accommodate that expansion.

Short term, they'll be fine, because they make decent IPAs and people like drinking decent IPAs. Long term... they don't make great beer, they don't really make more than one kind of beer, they don't seem to be building a tremendous reputation, they've got lots of strong competitors with more entering the market every day, and we all know that at some point some of these breweries are going to start to get squeezed.

Something else that just occurred to me: the whole point of Hobo was to bring these beers to market in decent formats/price points, which is commendable. But it seems problematic to me that they're only doing pretty well having already conceded high price points. For example, if people stop buying $7.99 bottles of Peeper (can't believe it hasn't happened already), MBC finally buys that damn canning line and sales pick up, right? Ditto Trillium. Evil Twin appears to be making that adjustment right now in fact. In other words, it seems better to start from a position of high quality and high prices, because it's simple to lower prices. If you're starting from average quality and low margins, increasing quality is a tricker proposition...

Anyway, I hate to be so down on this brewery, because whatever you might say about the tone of their initial self-promotion, the goal of making top quality beers at large scale and good prices right from the jump was an admirable one, and it would have made the NE beer world a better place. But right now it seems like they're just another average-ish option clogging up the shelves, which is exactly what we don't need.

 

fwiw those 10%+ abv cans from evil twin don't stand up to a simple harpoon ipa or lord hobo for that matter for me. If I wanted that tadte, I'd just add a shot of caldwells to my mediocre ipa.

 

How many people from the original Lord Hobo brew team are still employed there a year later? I know he head brewer left and LinkedIn tells me others have ended up at places like Castle Island. Has to be odd to be a brewer at a new, giant brewery and have the owner (that doesn't brew) come out firing the way he did at/before launch.

 

Just look at Ballast Point. The market came to them on premium pricing and they got bought for $1 billion. Alpine is apparently trying the same kinda crap (new to MA, and those prices are nuts). Give me Revolution instead.

 

I was thinking of the impy stouts they've recently moved to 16oz x 4 can format.

 

I don't think they achieved their aim of decent prices.....they seem higher priced for the quality, and already lowered prices from where they started....

 

They seem to be doing just fine in CT. Their beer is never more than a few weeks old on shelves