Monkish Brewing (January 2017)

I have no idea what point you are driving at, actually.

 

BA wild ales, Stouts, and IPA's will sell, especially when made in small batches and sold in the manner that Monkish (and others) sells beer (online sales, lines, etc.) Beer is a very much a commodity for many. But with that said, it's rare that people will line up for anything other than the styles listed above. That's all I was getting at.

That's why I call these styles "safe".

 

I'm pretty happy with their direction, they weren't even worth a visit before the tart saisons hit IMO. There are plenty of world class Belgians sitting on shelves in the rare event that I feel like drinking one.

Besides, I'd argue that the coolship fermented beers and tart saisons are still Belgian inspired

 

Even if they're "Safe" sales, creating them is not as easy or safe. Wild ales, especially in the setting where you're brewing IPAs and stouts can easily backfire on you and I wouldn't call it safe at all. Look at how Phantom Carriage took that "safe" sales approach and fucked up that BA Stout. Look at how Bruery has had to dig their name out of the mud because of infections.

Monkish is still cranking out those Belgians, so even if they're knocking it out with "safe" styles, there's plenty of examples where even making "safe" styles doesn't mean shit if you can't produce them well enough.

To say Monkish lost some of its soul because it jumped in to the realm of IPA's, specifically hazy ones, is foolish to say, because not only did they do it, but they're actually elevating the style by doing it so well.

 

Well it's not foolish because it's an opinion. And if Monkish can expand to the point where they produce 10-15k+ BBL's annually and they're able to produce both clean and sour beer without issue, I'll be very impressed.

Not even worth a visit? Seriously? But now they are?

 

Yeah. I had had enough Monkish beer that I did not enjoy on tap at various local bars that I had no desire to go. If I was going somewhere in the area it would have been Smog City.

 

I guess to each their own.

 

FWIW, they brewed the quad as part of a series of beers in the Select Monk line. The first was a single, then a dubbel (Select Monk 2), a tripel (Select Monk 3), and then a quad. It'll be interesting to see what they do for their fifth anniversary

 

Yeah I've asked Wes to see what was next but he wasn't sure.

 

Quick question for the group -- flying cross-country and landing at LAX tmrw at 11a. Have the entire day free after that. What time does Monkish normally announce can releases? If there is no release should I still line up a bit early for the chance at a growler fill? Also hoping to hit up smog and phantom.

Sorry if this was covered somewhere in the thread already -- mobile search wasn't showing me anything helpful.

 

They normally post around 2pm on Instagram. There are currently no IPAs for growler fill either though.

 

I'm actually here now if anyone would like to argue minutiae and or semantics

 

It's becoming more and more difficult to remember the days when I thought BA was interesting, worth a visit from time to time.

 

And yet, here you are posting an irrelevant thought, wasting even more time. thanks.

 

So close to me meeting the black rider. so close

 

I love the beer, but this is getting out of hand.

For the record, I have no problem dropping $100 on a 4 pack of excellent beer. I regularly spend more than that on wine. The losers that have nothing better to do than stand around in the parking lot drive me nuts though.

 

Would have been a pleasure Loc

 

I suppose I still don't know what your overall point is - that people will tend to line up for beers that are more popular with more beer drinkers than other styles that may not be as popular with as many beer drinkers?

Perhaps the decision to bottle a style is based on taproom sales - if the turnover of the IPA, saison and fruited sour kegs is notably quicker than the quad keg, you know the demand is there. If the quad keg sits around and few are getting growlers of it, why would you choose to bottle?

 

After several pages worth of garbage and whining and b.s., you have accurately identified my one post (now two) as the real issue. Kudos.

 

^ agreed everything said here.

The whole point of brewing is experimentation. So they began brewing a style that was growing in popularity... they still are executing at a level above most. Holding that against them seems silly to me.