Night Shift Brewing

You’ve provided nothing to this thread. We’re now dumber for having read your post. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.

 

Back on topic - Did anyone attend the 1st session of the Night Shift Barrel Society Party this weekend? How was it? I'm planning on attending the session this Friday. Looking forward to it!

 

This wasn't directed at me, but when I said both your tap room and Aeronaut's are a "nightmare" I was referring to the lines on weekends that I've encountered. Nightshift used to be like this, but has seemed to have improved in the last 3 - 6 months or so. My apologies, I should have specified.

That being said, I agree with @dwmetsfan13. A clear and obvious (and separate) space to order drinks woul be nice.

I was at Idle Hands yesterday and they have a bar, but also have a separate spot in the middle for ordering drinks. I believe Mystic does this as well. And both of their tap rooms are as small as Lamplighter's.

Nightshift is a bit better, but still can be quite hectic trying to find a good spot to order from when it's busy.

Is this something Lamplighter could/would set up in the future?

 

Yah I got a 4-pack over the weekend- no bueno. But with as many beers as NS puts out there are bound to be clunkers - seemingly more in recent memory with the myriad OHTT/Morph series.

 

I had a can last night of the Amarillo and it was fine. I presume they are all canned on the same date but mine was canned on the third of January. I haven't loved the last few Morph's but the Amarillo was up to quality. The can does say include both Everett and the Hampton/Smutty location as potential breweries. I bought mine at Westford Craft Beer Cellar.

Now all that being said I wonder what the auction of Smutty is going to do to NS's ability to keep up with demand.

 

Had it on draft in the taproom and I liked it a lot. Haven't tried a can though, so I imagine there could be a variation there...

 

Grabbed a 4pk last week. Was fine.tasty

 

Is the DESTIHL collar (Ain't Nothin Normal) to be found in MA? It's not on the website, and I haven't been to NS recently.

 

A big thumbs up to Night Shift for this weekend's end-of-year barrel society party. I believe they are doing three sessions in total. The space was not crowded at all, easy to get tasters or pours of all of the 2017 society beers. For extras they had one of last-year's society beers (Elbrus) on tap and one of the throw-back beers from summer 2017 (Rose). Good music and good food from the Munch Mobile truck.

It's my fourth year as a member. in the past, the society beers have been pretty hit or miss for me, but I felt the 2017 society beers (four in total) were consistently very good to excellent. The King Lear brett double-IPA aged in Sauvignon Blanc barrels was the stand out for me. Hazy as all get-out with tons of juicy citrus and pineapple and prominent white wine characteristics.

 

Add another can here that tasted fine. Granted I didn't have the whole can, just tried a sip of my roomate's.

It tasted different, but not bad. Probably because I can't think of another time I've had a single hop IPA with Amarillo.

 

Fluffy is back and is so much better than the last batch. Butterscotch flavor is gone and it's back to a nice pithy orange taste. Very nice

 

But a facility that big brewing the same base beer with only the hops changing should be very consistent.

 

Night Shift is partnering with the Isle Brewers Guild in Pawtucket, RI:

https://bottlescansclaphands.wordpress.com/2018/02/05/night-shift-joins-the-isle-brewers-guild/

 

saw that. Pretty sweet. I wonder if that means they'll also have a permanent presence on their taps? Went there a couple months ago with my buddy who just moved to Pawtucket, it's a very cool space. Devil's Purse, Great North, and Newburyport were there at the time.

 

Permanent presence is likely: "Products produced at the Pawtucket facility will not only be available in Night Shift’s current markets – Massachusetts, Maine, and New York – but also at The Guild in cans and on draft. This will mark the first time Night Shift Brewing’s beer can be purchased in the state of Rhode Island."

 

I wonder if this is due to the uncertainty of the future of Smuttynose, where they are currently contracting.

 

Yup. According to this article, that's the case:
https://www.brewbound.com/news/night-shift-moves-production-isle-brewers-guild

Also, only because NS originally made the distinction (I had never considered the difference), I wonder if they are contract or gypsy brewing.

 

They specifically say NS cited the future of Smuttynose as the reason for the move. I wonder though whether NS didn't at least have some idea that Smutty was headed towards auction. Smutty had already been told they had violated the terms of their loan by the time NS started using them, though perhaps at that point they were still trying to work with the bank to avoid auction. NS also originally stated that Smutty was a short term solution until they figured out their own expansion plans. The planned usage at Smutty was 5K bbl whereas they are planning on 10K with Isle Brewers. The way they talk about Isle also seems to indicate this is a bit longer term until they can feel comfortable with their growth and the industry. Anyhow we'll likely never know what NS did and did not know. Perhaps they were even considering buying Smutty at one point and the usage was a test run. At this point they at least seem to (smartly) be conservative and not leverage their future.

They mention increasing their production of Whirlpool which I hope means they will start offering that in kegs for home purchase. As of the last time I purchased a keg (in January) they were only offering Santilli. I love Santilli but I've already had 2 kegs of it and I'd like to have something different on tap without moving away from NS. I was psyched when they started offering kegs through distribution so I could finally buy their tap handle which I've been eyeing for a year or so.

 

Don't know much about night shift sadly. I happened to stop by a package store after a tree house run and grabbed a four pack of awake. That stuff is fantastic. How is the availability on awake? Is it a year round brew? I'm going to have to buy more of this stuff.

MA has some killer shelfies apparently.