Finback Brewery (2018)

If the Lupalin does anything close to what it did on Other Half's DDH Double Mosaic Dream, we are in for a real treat.

 

Anyone at the release now? I'm on my way

 

Yeah its 1:40. There is no seperate can line. There was 10 people online in front of me and ive been here for 25 minutes, not cool. They do have the cans from last release available.

 

I have not been impressed with the customer service there.

 

Here now, This kind of bums me out. Last can release I came to was oscillation 002 and it was really busy. Right now there's about 10 people in line and 10 people having pours

 

6 diff cans avail. Not really a line and it moves fast.

Osc 6
Knoll
Visible Spectrum
Meridian
Procrastination
I feel the universe

 

Their cans stick around for awhile. I'd be surprised if they're not available next week too.

 

I feel like there's no point in going out of your way to make it to Finback for can releases. I'm out in Suffolk and I'm generally able to find all of their cans in bottle shops around my parts about a week after their release at the brewery.

Having said that: looking forward to Oscillation 006.

 

Picked up cans today at open, I will say the line doesn't move very fast, but there were only about 25 people at open. That being said, Oscillation 006 is very tasty. I definitely prefer it to the Mylar Bags cans I grabbed today. Looking forward to cracking Meridian, Knoll, and Visible Spectrum too.

 

I guess if the cans show up at your local joint I might be inclined to agree. However, I really am shocked at the lack of fanfare for yesterday's release. Oscillation is up there with the best NYC has to offer. v6 is no exception, it is a fantastic beer. Also, don't sleep on the Meridian and Knoll. Meridian is a 'leftover' from last release, but man it is great also. Knoll packs a lot of hop flavor in a very crushable format too. As someone who went to both OH and Finback yesterday, Finback was the clear winner. All three mentioned cans were better than anything I grabbed at OH.

One negative though is as was mentioned by someone else, they were unorganized yesterday at FB. They normally have a separate line for cans which snakes to the right of the taproom, and it moves well. Yesterday it was straight to the bar, and they had to run to the cooler for every order. It was slow, but not too terrible considering there weren't a ton of people and the quality of the beers more than makes up for it.

 

This is great for people out in LI but I have to say, it still a mystery to me why cans hit LI and Boston (!?) but don't show up in they city. I've seen a few shops get cans of their IPA and occasionally oscillation. If the cans are sitting at the brewery for weeks why not distribute the rest?

 

There was a few people today at 230 picking up cans. Still plenty left.

 

Went today around 4 and picked up two 4 packs of oscillation, two 4 packs of visible spectrum, and a 4 pack of Knoll and Meridian. Visible is underrated. I know it's a trek to get there, but Finback is making some good stuff.

 

Visible is amazing! Stopped in today they had 5 diff cans available. Had some samples and grabbed several cans to spread the love. They are putting out some great beers right now.

 

Finback may be making some good stuff but they need to separate from herd like they did with Smooth Beats. I think I've had every one of their beers and Smooth is really the only standout that another brewery in NYC isn't doing better.

 

I had Meridian on tap two weeks ago, incredible stuff, and really unique among NYC IPA's being made right now. I do wish their cans distro'd around the city because I can never get to the damn brewery...even driving there from where I live in BK takes damn near an hour in typical traffic. On the plus side, its usually easy to find their beers on tap for pints or growlers.

 

Not sure what else they can do to separate from the herd. They have a better IPA than Other Half, Single Cut, Grimm, etc. So if Oscillation does not stand out, not sure what you are looking for as an eye opener.

 

That's definitely an opinion. Oscillation is good. Does it stand out? For me, not at all.

 

No one is saying Oscillation is terrible, just that it's not as good as the very best offerings from the other local breweries. Which I agree with (and most people would).

With that said, the convenience of being able to show up whenever and grab 4pks of a great IPA is something I really like. I do agree that I would rather stroll into Finback whenever for a couple 4 packs then have to make the trek to OH by 8-8:30 for a big can release.

 

call me lazy but id rather not have this beer buying thing be such a labor
NP getting up early or have 45 min of driving or 20min in a line...
but running around for 2 cans...interstate trips or 2hrs in line on a day off???
im too old for that shit...some +4 ipa's and an occasional smooth beat is fine by me