Aslin Beer Co. (2019)

Weren't the bottles like $90 or so at the pop-up in DC? I'd imagine they are no less than $60.

edit: Looking at the old thread, they were in the $65-75 range (plus tax and tip)

 

Their approach makes sense. There are bound to be a few hiccups here and there as they get the taproom running. I'm sure they'd prefer to work out any issues at a time when they're not slammed with customers. That's why they did the public opening on a Monday rather than a weekend, and that's why they're not screaming "EVERYBODY COME PARTY NOW!!!" on social media.

 

This is 100% accurate lol

 

Would love to hear everyone’s first impressions of the new taproom.

 

I get that they don’t want a huge crowd on day 1 but I’m referring to the IG post which just gives the address and no other info. You’d think they would at least mention food, hours, growler fills, can sales, etc in the very first post about the new tap room’s opening.

 

I went to the new taproom today. Decent place, pretty big seating area but a small bar. When you walk in there's an area to the right that leads to the upstairs that's empty so I imagine they will do something with that space. They had 2 basketball games and a pacman arcade game. For food they had deviled eggs, a spicy chicken sandwich a roast pork sandwich and something else I'm blanking on right now. They said they will be selling cans later this week. No growler fills yet. They also had some older bottles for sale if you asked, but I just stuck with drafts.

 

Get ready to take a hit to the pocketbook if you go the older bottle route. They're only available for on-site consumption, and they're charging $100 for some of them.

They also said they haven't started brewing on the new equipment yet, and they don't expect any new system releases to start until mid-August.

 

Was the food from a food truck? Order at the bar? Servers?

 

Thanks for the info on the bottles! I don't like any of their stouts enough to spend even close to $100 on them.

I ordered food at the bar and they give me one of the numbered signs. An employee bought it over a few minutes after I order the pork sandwich. It came from a food truck but I didn't see the name of the truck.

 

Thanks, probably their food truck (it's orange/red with no name/logo) if Aslin employees are handling to orders and serving.

 

How was the parking?

 

I'm wondering if they'll have more for sale in Herndon once they get up and running in Alexandria. Are they keeping the two separate? Brewing in Herndon for sales in Herndon only?

 

Some more info. And Aslin may be coming to VB in the future.
https://brightestyoungthings.com/articles/aslin-alexandria

 

I've heard rumors that Richard is no longer involved, and the fact that his name wasn't mentioned once in that Brightest Young Things article, when Drew and Kai were named repeatedly, seems pretty glaring. If this is true, it would be an unwelcome development from my perspective. The thing I love most about Aslin is their adjunct-loaded, super boozy stouts, and my general understanding is that Richard was the primary driver for the success of their stout program. The fact that some of their more recent non-barrel-aged stouts (e.g., Cidiots, Interlopers) were not as well received as the OGs (e.g., Buku Mocha, Bale) might confirm that his stout tastes and talents have left the building.

 

Around New Year's Day, they announced they were changing practices to have the website serve as the single posting spot for public info. It must have gotten annoying to have to list a bunch of detail on the website, and on Facebook, and on Instagram, and on Twitter.

 

In general, when businesses take on too much expansion at once, they're at a huge risk of getting in over their head and failing spectacularly. I hope that's not what's going to happen with Aslin, but, as has been noted repeatedly in this thread, their business acumen is not nearly at on same level as their brewing talent. Some of Drew's comments in that article came off as arrogant, overconfident, and headstrong, suggesting some degree of blindness to their own fallibility.

 

While I appreciate it when a brewery can do multiple things well, I for one wouldn't miss those overly sweet, syrupy, highly caloric messes they call stouts one bit. Especially on days like these.

 

Again, I was referring to the post about the opening of the tap room. I understand not wanting to post daily a list of what’s available but for a ‘grand opening’ announcement, I’d expect some level of detail.

 

This was much longer than I expected. I think that ambition is good and that breweries should aspire to make the best of each style that they make. I will say that the article made Kelley sound extremely self absorbed, which, since I don't know him personally, I don't know how he is in real life. I'd also add that he might want to work on using "we" versus "I" when referring to Aslin.

Regardless, I'm excited that they are open and look forward to checking out their spot. I think that location-wise, it should help them a lot. When I head to the Dulles area, I would go to Ocelot regardless of what mood I am in (hops or not). In Alexandria, I now have choices (and maybe I won't once these Top 3 in the world lagers start getting released!).