Tired Hands (March 2017)

So with no release today and the roads still slightly iffy, think I'm safe to assume I don't need a reservation for dinner at the ferm tonight? I imagine without the release crowds, it will be fairly slow...right?

 

if you are planning to go why not just make one, you can always call and cancel it if things changed? that's just me though

 

I agree, I'm just not certain what time we we're going to make it there so was trying to avoid locking myself into a time constraint.

 

What was wrong with the last batch of Pineal?

 

Double Birth, Oblivex, Drone Standard, Technicolor Splendor, Vaporizer...

 

Oh boy, that is not a good record.

I do not drink Tired Hands canned beers on a regular basis so I feel uncomfortable making my own assessment here.

I mostly drink Tired Hands on draft at my local beer bar(s). I have gotten into the practice of requesting a sample taste prior to ordering a pint. Unfortunately I have not ordered a fair number of pints after tasting the samples. I have not kept detailed notes here so I won't mention a number (e.g., percentage) on how often this occurs other than to say too often.

Cheers!

 

not sure for certain what causes what, it's more complex then any one or two or three things.. it's just like many other things.... you have this nice cool thing going and people dig it.. then you have so many people into it that it's becomes a burden because it's too big for the original design.. so what choice do you have.. you make it bigger so that more people can enjoy it and in doing so it's a growth process with a shit ton of stuf to iron out so that what you once had you have again in a larger form.. except to me.. TH never really had a period where it's slowed, they kind of have been ironing out things as it moves.. maybe things are starting to slow a bit now so they can iron out more things but then their is the general store/the dispensary/heavygem or whatever.. i get it though.. so many damn breweries now that if you aren't staying on the edge or the game you'll get lapped and fall to the middle or the back of the pack... the landscape has changed so much and in a major metro area like TH or in the full global scale that it's hard to stay on that edge without some detriment occurring to various business operations.

Hill Farm kind of had this happen too.. it got so big for such a small operation.. it had to grow to ease the pains on Hill Farm and on patrons... they have the benefit of being far enough out there however that it's a destination for most.. so they maybe go 1 time a year or 1 time every few years.. or for more regular visiting people a few times a year.. only a few hundred probably can say they go to hill farm 12+ times a year, while for TH you have probably like 500+ that visit 12+ times a year.. Hill suffered early on too when they expanded.. their IPA's were far below what they used to be for a bit.. but it got dialed in quickly and has remained dialed in.. they also don't have the food operation going to the extent TH does... TH has a lot of moving parts.. it must be a bear to manage/run all of it, I applaud all that they do, it must be exhausting.. they really are a great place but to me the product has been different since things have scaled up back in later winter/spring 2015

TH isn't Hill Farm and i don't want them to be, but consistency is needed to an extent and TH never seemed to slow down once the Ferm opened to get large form consistency.. at least imo.. maybe it'll come but the writing on the wall doesn't really appear to be there as they seem focused on the growth aspect.. which is their choice and with so many employees and people counting on you it becomes another thing you have to wrestle with.. I think sometimes you want something then when you have it you realize how much you maybe want something like you used to have and now can't without a huge change.. maybe i'm wrong.. some people just want it all.. what started as a small simple idea has morphed into something bigger then your wildest dreams

idk it's all a lot of my ramblings here.. it's like Nugget Nectar for example over the years.. Nugget Nectar doesn't taste the same.. you know the ramblings.. you hear them each year.. or celebration ale from sierra nevada or whatever you drink year after year after year... maybe it's just me.. but it seems others have similar concerns.. maybe it's just all of us and the changing atmosphere of beer and what we project onto TH that fuels it moving forward yet can't direct into any direction we wish to see it move in... It sure is interesting to follow however, certainly the biggest/popular spot in our surrounding area... can't think of too many places/operations like Tired Hands to compare them too.. certainly unique and have kept that going for them #dreambeer right?

 

I like a lot of what TH has done with the Fermentaria and the increase in the size of the batches and more room for barrels etc. but I really miss how Tired Hands was before the Ferm, going to the Cafe for lunch on weekends was my favorite thing. Thankfully I think that the brewing at the Cafe has improved recently, they had a lot of misses there for a while

 

Do you know how beer is managed between the Café and Fermentaria? Do they only serve the beer brewed at the Café at the Café? If not, maybe the issue of “had a lot of misses there for a while” was due to the beer brewed at the Fermentaria vs. Café?

Cheers!

 

From what I know, what is brewed at the cafe stays at the cafe and vice versa... except for hop hands and saisonhands

 

How high were you when you typed all this?

 

I am hesitant to suggest there is a correlation here but within the past year or so Jean hired Ben Potts to be the ‘head’ brewer at the Café. Ben recently left to brew for Second District Brewing (see link below). Maybe Ben got the Café beers ‘back on track’? If so, it will be interesting to see how the Café beers are now that Ben is gone.

I have not had beer at the Café is quite some time (over a year) so I have no personal experience here. All of my visits to Tired Hands in 2016 (and 2017) have been to the Fermentaria.

Cheers!

http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/...d-District-Brewing-in-South-Philadelphia.html

 

I think Ben got the beers back on track for a bit but in the last year maybe it they nose dived and were really off in my opinion. Not sure if it was the end of his time there or when he left... but it seemed like when Jean got back in there behind some of the brewing it felt and tasted like it used to.... not sure of the timing of everything. Do yourself a favor and head back over. They have had some really great stuff lately and the bread is always too notch

 

I typically meet friends when I go to Tired Hands. I will suggest a 'change of venue' for the next get together but I am not confident I will 'win' here.

Thanks for the suggestion!!

Cheers!

 

I usually go with my wife and she is nice enough to go to both locations usually....

 

I try not to think of the cafe right now as my wife and I probably had the worst customer service I have ever been a part of there on the last trip. I do miss the good ol days, friends and I had "our" table upstairs and waiting for Only Void and man that first anny party was rockin, remember when they just randomly gave out a ton of strawberries to everyone? All of that sentiment is nice and is embedded whenever I think about Tired Hands but I haven't had an experience like that in a long time. Love going to the ferm now because children are generally tolerated there unlike the cafe and more of a food selection but yeah. I'm probably at this point just equating "Tired Hands in the beginning" to "my life before kids" lol, or "tired hands when i would wait in line for some saison magic" to "tired hands lines omgwtf". those cafe lines seems quaint now.

 

My wife thinks the Cafe is a nicer (cozier) venue than the Fermentaria so when we used to go to Tired Hands that was the place we went. My wife is no longer a fan of Tired Hands beers for the past year or so due to the QA/QC issues.

Maybe I could entice her via the Bologna Sandwich aspect (for some reason she really loves those Bologna sandwiches). I have little confidence I will be successful here either. Whenever I bring up Tired Hands she frowns and says something like: those beers used to be so good but they lost it.

Cheers!

 

This happened at Hill Farmstead when they expanded. Took them a long time to straighten it out, and they still aren't there on every beer. It will probably happen at Tree House too, once they expand.

 

i was zero high but see others posts after mine... jean and magick man had magick.. magick man alone can't create the magick.. i do know i see magick man busting his ass over at the ferm more often then not... when i saw heavygem announced my first thought was maybe jean let him have a side thing like often happens with some spots to retain somebody so they don't up and leave and start their own spot or whatever other reasons they may have

in so far as ben at cafe.. yeah idk.. shit was kind of off/on/off/on over there during his helm.. doubt it had 100% to do with him and him alone so much as focus wasn't being applied to the cafe.. .for a minute there it seemed jean was back on the old system making some shit happen but it kind of was like a ah... remember when i used to do this? then it stopped haha

is it just me or are a lot of the beers sugary as all hell lately.. maybe let them finish fermenting? How the hell do they pump out so many beers otherwise? just some more of my .02