Cape May Brewing Company (2020)

I too am bummed that we're discontinuing Lager, but this release calendar is our distribution calendar so there's always a chance we bring it back as a tasting room only release. We put a ton of time, R&D, creative energy, etc into launching Cape May Lager last year, and so the decision to discontinue it wasn't made lightly. It was one of our top sellers throughout the summer, both wholesale and in tasting room, but we do so much variety of beer that there was an endless list of other options we had to move in and out of core, seasonal, or one-off status.
Take Mop Water - internally that brand was done; we planned to just brew one last batch this past fall to give it a nice little encore. Then when we announced that the response on social media, in our tasting room, and at our accounts was so overwhelmingly in favor of it coming back that we reverted course and added it back for 2020.
So Lager might be gone for now, but who knows - we might decide to revert course one day and bring it back, or maybe it makes an encore appearance in the tasting room at some point. The 29 releases planned for 2020 on this calendar are only the NJ distribution beers - there's another 30ish releases scheduled as tasting room only releases that are planned throughout the year. So it's retired for now, but who knows what the future holds.

As for Tan Limes, that was supposed to be just a single batch one-off draft beer as some fun variety in our lineup, but when we tasted the final product for the first time nearly everyone in the company fell in love with it and we fast tracked art work to get a batch in for our anniversary party last year. The reception was so strong on those two releases that we felt the brand had some legs and decided to bring it back as a half-year core brand. So it wasn't some marketing think-tank idea about trying to capture some of the import market or jazzing up some cheap adjunct lager or anything like that, it was rather organic for us to bring it to a larger release. It's a fun beer to drink on the beach, at a BBQ, tailgating, etc, and I'm curious to see what the future holds for it. I love Cape May Lager and still drink it regularly (it'll be on draft for another few weeks in the tasting room and cans should be around for a bit longer out at accounts), and I loved Tan Limes when it was out so I look forward to drinking that when the it comes back at the start of spring.

 

Thanks for pointing that out - I passed word along to our marketing department to suggest changing the wording of that on the website. That intro on the "Our Story" section of the website hasn't been updated in a while, and as we outlined a few times last spring with the Bog being brewed at FX Matt and Lager at Yards we're no longer brewing all of our beer down at the Cape May airport.

 

Appreciate the detailed response @brianhink

So...if I may dig a little deeper, Lager *was* a good seller? I'll just cross my fingers and hope to see it again in distribution. Maybe a variety pack of that, Bog, and IPA? The brewery is a tad too far for on-site only releases.

 

I’m with you. I read the whole explanation but it’s too bad that something that was a top seller would be discontinued to make more IPAs. And I love their IPAs. I’m also too far too visit the taproom.

 

Brian,

Firstly, thank you for taking the time to compose your thoughtful post on a variety of topics.

As regards the specifics of Cape May Lager, how does your business relationship with Yards factor into things? Did Cape May Brewing decide to discontinue brewing Cape May Lager as a standalone consideration or did production issues at Yards factor into the decision here? I know that Yards fairly recently decided to add a year-round lager to their portfolio (Loyal Lager). Can Yards meet their production schedule for this new year-round product and still produce Cape May Lager at the same time (i.e., do they have this much 'excess' capacity at their brewery?)?

Cheers!

Jack

 

No problem, happy to help clear the air and share some insight into what our thought process was. Our partnership with Yards is awesome, we'll definitely be brewing a good portion of Tan Limes at Yards state of the art facility this year as we continue to grow that relationship.
I believe in the previous CMBC thread someone linked to our blog post outlining the release calendar, and in there we mention how with Tan Limes coming out we didn't want both that brand and Cape May Lager out at the same time, as there's a finite amount of tank space but also shelf space - only so many non-IPA drinkers out there in the craft beer world unfortunately.
We'll do close to 100 different beers in a given year, and have great success with long running seasonals like Bog, White Caps, City to Shore, Oktoberfest, etc, etc, etc, and despite that Cape May IPA and Coastal Evacuation combined are still the overwhelming majority of what we brew and sell. And since there's only so many arrows in our quiver so to speak for the rest of our lineup, we decided to take the gamble on Tan Limes.

 

Yeah, I can understand this reasoning from a marketing & product placement perspective.

Best of luck on your "gamble" here.

Cheers!

 

Since it was nearly 70°F today, I thought it’d be great to have a Cape May Lager before it’s gone forever:



Quick notes:

Canned 9/16/19. Decidedly hoppier than a helles lager yet nowhere near pilsner-level hoppiness, this one reminds me of a nicely made Euro Pale Lager or maybe a Dortmund Export (with less strength). Full body, crisp and dry finish. This would be great with a cheeseburger (duh). I paid $9.99 a sixer at Roger Wilco - Pennsauken. There’s about 1 case left.

As much as it pisses me off that Lager is done for a while, I’m quite happy they’re still going to brew Oktoberfest. They made a pretty good one last year I thought (good drinkability, not like one of those over-malted, messy Octoberfest beers you see a lot of breweries pushing)

 

Permit me to recommend Yards Loyal Lager as a 'replacement' beer for you.

Cheers!

 

Thank you for reading my mind @JackHorzempa ! I was going to ask you what you thought of that beer

 

I'll have to pick some up on the way home.

 

can mop water again... that is all

 

Excited to hear that CMBC will soon be distributed in Delaware (hopefully it will get to the southern part of the state). Maybe Maryland in the not-to-distant future?

 

Going down to Cape May for vacation this Summer. Already scoped out a few 6 packs I will be picking up:

Coastal Evacuation
Crushin' It
Tan Limes (4 pack?)

 

Seems to me that Cape May is playing more toward the beach crowd these days, which makes sense given their location.

A lot of their new beers have some combo of sessionable ABV, fruit flavor/juice, and low IBU. Like Tan Lines, White, The Grove, Crushin' It. This may be an attempt to capture those hard seltzer beach drinkers.

I enjoyed Cape May Lager and will be allocating my craft lager dollars elsewhere now. But 12oz cans of Tan Limes sound great for the beach this summer.

 

This blog post has some info including an image of a 12 oz Tan Limes can.

 

I like crisp. I don’t need zesty.

 

To each their own; I know a lot of people like Mop Water but I persoanlly can't stand the stuff. Then again, I can't stand most spiced winter warmers.

I'd love to see Honey Porter get packaged again. Great beer.