Industrial Arts Brewing (2019)

Drinking a Power Tools now, yum!

 

http://www.hvmag.com/Industrial-Art...MOggh90VWXyA95yTn00wqjgGvERfqu2Xg4qyEU4BnY6MM

 

I am very passionate about IAs and Wrench so this will be a long winded post.

I am a huge industrial arts fan and will continue to be one because they make excellent beer but I have some minor problems with Wrench recently.

First let me say that I have acquired and drank many 4-packs of wrench and I have always praised it for being consistently outstanding.

About a month or two ago I got a 4-pack(from store) and just didn't find the beer to pungent, bright or as intense I have known it to be. Still good but it seemed very tamed. It was under a month old at the time. I figured Ill let it go, no big deal really.

Then a couple days ago I found a TWO Day old 4-pack of wrench(at the store)! Was canned 12/28/18! I was astonished! Not only because how fresh it was but because my friend was just at IA(for pocket wrench) and found the freshest wrench to be 12/20/19 right at the source! Off course I bought the 4-pack of Wrench when I saw it.

Thanks to my friend I got my hands on some pocket wrench. That day I had Pocket Wrench first which was awesome then opened Wrench and was a little underwhelmed again. First I noticed the aroma was not really there, pocketwrench had better aroma, and I was shocked because it was so fresh. Then the taste was fine but just like before, it was not to the standards to which I remembered. Like I said before it was just more tamed and not as pungent or intense. I know for sure that something is definitely off with wrench. I have had my fair share of wrench in the past to know pretty much exactly what to expect from the brew and I just am not getting it with theses recent batches acquired at retail stores. Granted most of my wrench drinking in the past was acquired from the source.

Now I am beginning to wonder if the cans of Wrench that make it to distro are somehow different from the ones acquired on site. Like I said my date was 12/28, my friends was 12/20 so we both had different batches for sure. We both bought our beers within two days of each other, him from the source, and mine from the store. He seems to be fine with his batch of Wrench.

I also notice that I see alot more Wrench now then ever before and not hiding in the back either.

Has anyone experienced or herd of any issues with Wrench as of recently?

 

I had a couple cans last night (12/11 batch I think), and they were enjoyable enough, but definitely not as good as most batches I've had.

 

Yeah, I too have noticed a difference and I have picked up cans at shops and at the brewery. I would attribute it to the increase in production... there always seems to be some change resulting from this with just about any brewery I have seen make the move.

The good news is that the beer is still damn good and with time will probably return to what we knew.

One thing about the newer batches, there is a ton more peach flavor than I have ever gotten from an IPA.

 

can't be contract brewing some batches, can they? (12/20 in house, 12/28 contracted outside for distro??)

 

Glad to know I am not alone! I knew for sure Wrench was off. I have to admit that when I saw that the canned on date was a day and a half old in a retail store, I kinda figured somethings up. To good to be true. And while not a bad beer by any means right now it just bothers me that it's off because I know how good it can and is suppose to be.

 

Good question, not sure. I think they just scaled up production.

 

Scaling and associated recipe tweaks, plus a different hop crop, are both reasonable explanations for temporary changes. @DEdesings57 and @ONovoMexicano, please keep drinking Wrench repeatedly in the coming months to see if your experiences return to exultant. For science!

 

I've definitely seen similar comments on the NJ FB group

 

Hops make sense. Isn't wrench citra forward? Kane's Sneakbox is also citra forward and that definitely seems to have changed the last few months too.

 

Anyone try Measure Twice yet?

 

I don’t find the beer any worse, just different, for the record. It’s still very good and I prefer it at its price point over all the NYC IPAs.

 

I had a can from the 12/20 batch and the best way I could describe it is "watered down". Just seemed thinner and less amped .

 

The last Wrench I had was canned on 12/3. I don’t drink it as much as you do, based on your comments, but it was impressed with the beer. It was better than any time I’ve had it on tap and the most memorable can of Wrench I’ve had.

 

I knew I had remembered reading about IAs scaling up and producing alot more wrench. Now we know for sure the difference in quality is in regards to scaling up, no mention of contract brewing.

 

Yep, I enjoyed it. Wasn't extraordinarily different from Torque Wrench, but the spelt brings a variation.

The Ommesake is a great lager. So light and crushable. I will say that $16 for a 4-pack of a rice lager seemed a few bucks high. I'd expect more like $12-13. The margins they are making on their lagers are very impressive.

As far as the Wrench debate, I haven't bought cans since the end of Nov and mine were fine. I had it on draft Thursday and it tasted OG to me. Sorry to hear people are having negative variations. Hope it's an aberration. They are definitely not contract brewing. They are contract brewing for others even.