Gun Hill Brewing Co.

Nope, you're just a fellow beer enthusiast. These others are a different breed, and unfortunately the market is responding to them now. Hopefully this is where the shakeout occurs, when they move on to the next trend.

 

If you find a commercially brewed Tmavý Ležák please let me know; I have not found any of these beers (yet).

Cheers!

 

Michael, you might think less of me for saying this but: I do not blame the 'new' craft breweries for responding to them. These beer consumers are willing to drop some serious coin on a very regular basis. I sometimes wonder where they get all of this money!?!

For example the least expensive beer that Tired Hand sells in cans is HopHands where the price is $84 for a case (16 oz. cans). They limit the sale to one case per customer at their can beer releases and they sell out in a matter of hours. If they raised the limit I am 100% confident that some (most?) of their customers would purchase multiple cases of these beers.

When was the last time you paid $84 for a case of beer?

Cheers!

 

Following the thought... The chatter here is all about the change in direction at the brewery and other "big picture" notions. It's perhaps telling that there's very few people posting about the beer. If Gun Hill wants to increase it's presence in the mind of geeks here, the change there might be for the better towards that goal.

 

It's not what you asked for, but maybe it'll scratch an itch. Check out the Fest Beer:
http://www.fullsailbrewing.com/session-series.cfm

 

It's a funny coincidence that at work I just encountered a marketing case study related to spirits. The overabundance of variant products brought category growth to a halt. No longer able to rely on new products to achieve growth, they had to figure out how to better sell what they already brought to market.

 

If that's who Tired Hands is, it's in their DNA, then it's cool with me.

But the larger dynamic, where other places begin to change their own DNA in order to chase the buck, or pander, or even survive just strikes me as being 180 degrees from what this is all about.

 

Chris,

I am not a Marketing & Sales person so please bear with me here. I have a 'theory' that where craft beer can continue to grow is via the "drink local" movement. The Brewers Association states that every day 1-2 new craft breweries open. I highly suspect that the vast majority of new craft breweries have business plans that cater to the "drink local" beer market either by being brewpubs or smaller breweries that will have tasting rooms and provide beer to local beer accounts (e.g., within the same area code). These new craft breweries try to market themselves as being the 'hometown' brewery and as being an integral part of the local community. I strongly suspect that there are plenty of folks who 'respond' to these concepts and will (or currently are) spend their money on their local brewery.

For the beer geek portion of the local beer market there will likely be demands for lots of variety and for economic reasons the local craft breweries should respond to those customer demands.

Cheers!

 

Yes. Gun Hill does this throughout. (I removed your emphasis to avoid any confusion) They are named after the battle site/road that they are near, they have ties to local producers, and they emphasize NYC's brewing history.

I'm guessing that growth will be in this local segment, but also with the alliances and buyouts that happen on a large scale. Hopefully the independent mid-sized places will remain healthy down the road.

 

When I had Void of Light on draft, I found it very ashy for a foreign export stout. FES shouldnt be ashy. Disappointed because it's a style I like and not really seen at least locally.

 

To get that beer geek chatter going they'll have to focus on tons of variants of the big 3 styles like what other half and Grimm do.
If the craft market continues like this soon we'll only be able to buy a DIPA, BA stout or sour from a local brewery.

 

Gun Hill posted a pic of some "Grundy tanks" on their way to being installed at the brewery. Apparently, these tanks will allow for some small batch stuff.

 

With all due courtesy and respect, I feel like some of the beers just aren't that great. I had 13 star after buying a bottle at a NYC bottle shop and was pretty let down. I bought it super fresh and regretted every ounce of it.

I'm super eager to ride that 2 up to an especially local and avoid crowds, but I've not found that it's worth it. I'm all for trying some different style, but I'd love to see Gun Hill dial in 3-4 beers incredibly well and then expand.

 

Not sure why you quoted me, I haven't made any comments about particularly liking or disliking any of their beers.
Funny coincidence though - since the last time I posted in this thread, I've had one of their new beers, Booby Trap. I am assuming that this one is from the new brewer. As a saison, I didn't care for it, but if I knew the design of the beer ahead of time, I wouldn't have expected to like it. It's a citra dry-hopped saison.

 

That sounds terrible - or exactly like something OH/Grimm would can and get people lining up/chasing around town before even tasting a drop.

 

Nice, glad to see another straight up cream ale from a local. Hope it makes it out to bars.

 

What exactly is wrong with hopping a Saison with Citra?