The Bruery (2021)

Oh no...

 

Fascinating! Could you tell much difference in those small barrel BT versions?

 

I'm pretty nervous about my tickets this weekend. Seeing these posts and hearing from friends who attended this weekend, it was not a great experience. Rushing through beers, not getting the first pour or flight between 1-1.5 hrs into a 3 hr session..... I'm supposed to leave 30 min early to my Hoarder session and somehow slam down an Anniversary flight with an avg ABV of 13%+? I want to note that they give you a "welcome" beer (Ruekeller can), which was a nice idea! But, how does that go from a can at opening to waiting over an hour for your first flight/pour. I really hope there is a game plan here, folks. After 3 sessions, I really hope they are ready to make some major improvements. To truly enjoy the experience, we should at least have time to drink each pour. Any interest in a suggestion list?

Possible Suggestions:
- Flags at each table with the flights ordered. Maybe they can visually see how much they need to pour and be able to fill the flights faster?
- Start pouring the cups once the event starts for at least 50-60 flights worth based on how many flights people ordered this past weekend. Use the wood flight holders to hold the cups in place and bring them out on a cart.

Fingers crossed!

 

OK, now this has my attention.

I was considering skipping this session, but this sounds quite good.

 

I'm a terrible person to answer this, my palate and vocab are pretty bad but I would rank them 30 gal -> 15 gal -> 5 gal, from best to worse. The 30 definitely felt smoother and the 5 felt a bit hot/harsh. They did say they sourced the different barrel sizes from different craft distilleries so that's another variable to consider. I'm forgetting the distillery names but I'm assuming as the program expands, they'll have other options too.

Even though I ranked the 5 gal last, I'd still consider it good on its own and I'm totally interested in getting one when the program launches.

 

Good ideas, I will be there on Sat, hopefully some efficiency will be realized. Pre-pouring some of the flights should be a no-brainer at least out of the gate.

 

What ever happened the Beer Advocate section, did that happen last weekend?

 

I was there for the second session on Saturday. The person pouring our drinks was saying it was a shit show for the first session but that the second session was much smoother. We had no problems getting our drinks pretty quickly. We had plenty of time for our flights and full pours. Food was good too. Overall great event that ran really smooth. I think they figured everything out for the second session, don't see them having problems for next week.

 

Thanks for sharing! I'm curious, were you sitting on the outside or towards the middle? The friend of mine that went said he was in the middle (not sure exactly) and it took 1.5 hrs during the second session on Saturday. Supposedly, the outside seats had a clear advantage. He had to finally flag someone down and push to get his pours.

 

Also, no mention of the "Fun Zone". Any hints?

 

I’m doing the early Saturday session and going solo. Sounds like a reasonable strategy is to arrive early and sit on the outside to get my first flight early? I’m trying to avoid rushing through high ABV beers at all costs.

How was the parking situation and crowd size?

 

It did take a good 45 mins or so to get our beers on Saturday afternoon. We were about 2/3 of the way from the entrance. More hands pouring would help future sessions for sure.

You select your flights at entry and they seemed to be working across the room with carts of pitchers. Grabbing a table closer to the entrance will likely speed up your initial service. Seated event, table service. All seats were sold at our session.

 

tented area with bean bags and some other outdoor games.

 

They seat you - maybe you can request to sit on the edge.

No parking in the bruery lot - it is entirely taken up by the anniv tents. Not sure about parking in the area, but it looked like the majority of people walked from their hotels in the area and/or used uber. Crowd is substantial. Im not good at estimating crowd size, but easily a few hundred I'd think.

 

Parking is at the old jeep dealership down the street (next to the Jack in the Box). Lot is run down but plenty of space. Got there like 15 minutes early and it was only half full.

 

I was in the first session on Saturday and it didn't matter (at least then) if you arrived early because they waited to seat everyone before they started pouring. It sounds like they might have dialed it in a bit more for the second session, but it was a little haphazard in how they did the pours (they would randomly walk by with pitchers in no particular order and would seemingly miss some people at the table on their first pass). It was still a fun event and the beers were great. We eventually got all of our pours, but no one at my table finished theirs, mainly because of how much time was left as compared to when we got our final pours. Honestly, though, it's probably a good thing that I didn't finish everything even if I got all of the pours sooner. It was a LOT of high ABV beer.

The staff were all great and were doing their best. If you do get in early and it takes a bit for the beers to pour, I'd suggest hitting the food trucks right away.

They had parking at the Jeep dealership just past the Bruery, which was just a block or so away.

 

I’m not going to lie - walking out of the first session Saturday and seeing tons of full glasses really hurt my soul.

while I personally had over a pint of Oreo cheesecake BT (our servers felt bad by the delays so kept giving us more of what they had nearby, and I really appreciated that), the sheer amount waste was hard to see.

 

Oreo cheesecake BT..... This sounds amazing.

 

I was at the Sunday session and I have no complaints. We got there about 10 minutes after start time, found a table to sit at towards the back, and had our first flight within 10 minutes. The Hoarders session was amazing. The 15 gallon barrel was, IMO, the best of the bunch, but the 5 gal, was a close second. The 30 gal was fine, but the barrel profile was not much different than regular BT. I already have friends interested in going in on a barrel together. I had my second flight when I got out of the Hoarders session, and got served right away. All the staff was great, the beers were great, the food was good too. Was a great time! After a decade plus of being a member, I'm still impressed with the Bruery every year. Hope everyone has a great time this weekend!! Cheers!!!

 

Agree on the 15 gal preference. It really is the best barrel size for small batch aging imho. 5’s are good for finishing but they are too aggressive for anything long term (ie: more than a few months, and that might be pushing it). The 30 was great but as you said, super similar to the larger barrel profile. Just oakier. Looking forward to whatever they do with this idea, and hoping 15 gal format is what they choose to go with!