Sacred Profane Brewing Launching Summer 2022

I knew pedantic was coming.

 

The official descriptor of the #WELLACTUALLY™️ crew.

 

You never make a specific trip to one of your favorite breweries if they have a new beer on? Or if it’s a favorite/seasonal they haven’t had in awhile?

If you rotate the same two beers over and over again, that’s not the same thing in my opinion.

And I’m not saying Sacred and Profane will or will not succeed based on their model. Personally I love the concept and I’m excited to see how it pans out.

 

According to their IG page, they are hoping to have their first brew day on June 8th. Could be a bit before the beer is ready, assuming they “lager forever” like Notch.

 

Some more details copied and pasted from an article in the Press Herald. Sounding like an August opening:

Sacred Profane, the much-anticipated Biddeford brewery and restaurant under construction at 50 Washington St., may open by early August, its owners said.


The restaurant will offer a menu of classic beer hall fare, and the brewery features a state-of-the-art beer service system engineered by Czech firms Lukr and GS Technik. The system will be the first of its kind in North America, the owners said.

Carson James, co-founder of Lorne Wine and part of the Sacred Profaneownership team, said the timeline for opening the brewery has been contingent on the eight-week brewing process for its beers. The building will have electric power sometime next week, he said, allowing them to begin brewing and plan for an opening sometime in early August.

“We haven’t had that many hiccups on the buildout front,” James said, noting that the venue will have more than 80 seats between its upper and lower floors.

The lager-focused brewery is meant to deliver a Czech-style tank pub experience to southern Maine. “Our friends in the Czech Republic say that the brewer brews the beer, but the tapster makes the beer,” said Sacred Profane founder and head brewer Brienne Allan. “And we agree 100 percent that how you maintain and serve the finished beer is just as important as how you brew it.”

 

Oh I do that all the time. I’m far more inclined to hit up somewhere if they’ve got 2-3 new beers to try or a couple favorites on the list.

But Suarez only has four pils. Palantine, Qualify, State and Cabana. So if you go you’re only ever getting one of those four and depending on when you go it may even be the same one over and over. People haven’t raised issue with it.

Also if it’s a cool spot the locals (I don’t mean craft beer people, inherently) aren’t gonna give a shit. It’ll be their local watering hole and they’ll go over and over again and these aren’t the people ticking on Untappd so they’re not gonna care that it’s always the same two beers.

Its a unique, creative vision and people will gravitate towards it before you even consider how they like the space and the beers. They’re gonna do just fine.

 

I imagine a large number of people having a singular Suarez pour are there to pickup beer which is currently 6 different cans and 18 different bottles. Is there really a large contingent of people making the trip just for pours?

I hope to get there next month on vacation from MA but I doubt I make the trip if they didn't have anything to-go.

 

Location is a major factor too. I'm excited to check out Sacred and Profane, but it's right near Portland so I'm up there anyways.

Why not swing through for a pour and some food?

 

It's Sacred Profane. Named after the event on Peak's but just Sacred Profane.

 

Oh, haha, yeah that makes way more sense.

 

Re those two beers on tap that you all seem fixated on, I was able to chat with Brienne while I was up in Portland a couple weeks ago and she did mention that they'd have other packaged beers for consumption - collabs and farmhouse ales. Fava obviously has a lot of experience brewing those types of beers and they certainly want him to have that outlet. They're hopeful that they'll have a couple packaged beers available at all times for those in search of something different from the two delicious lagers on tap.

 

Brewing has started per their Instagram. Currently on the 3rd decoction. Does lagering time put the beer at 8ish weeks out?

 

Recent article touches on the backgrounds + observations within the industry (e.g. Nodding Heads)…will reference Fava here, considering the grumbles of absence

July Issue (Page 10): Beer & Weed

 

Brienne’s name spelled wrong at the bottom, Briene.

 

@MattOC - Bier Cellar did their best to correct that…apparently too late, for an issue correction

Also, @mhull...perhaps, but thinking SP is/will eventually target 90 days

 

First, permit me to put on my flame ******ing suit…

“I’m hoping the future of beers is less variety from every brewery and more specializing, but that’s yet to be seen…”

Yes, this business concept it indeed “yet to be seen”.

A number of years ago in BA thread(s) there was spirited discussion with Greg Koch about bringing non-German (i.e., craft beer) to Germany. At the time it was “yet to be seen” and despite a number of BAs expressing their views this was too radical for the German beer consumers Greg decided he could be the ‘evangelist’ here to popularize craft beer (e.g., IPAs) to the German consumers. Needless to say, we now know that the Stone – Berlin business was a fail and I have zero doubt that this unsuccessful venture contributed in Stone Brewing selling out to Sapporo.

I am a HUGE fan of Czech style beers (see link to article below) and I truly hope that Sacred Profane will succeed here but given what I am seeing locally at both beer stores and local craft breweries the majority of craft beer consumers are demanding the hyped beer styles of Hazy/Juicy hoppy beers, Fruited Sours, Pastry Stouts, etc. (frankly the beer styles I least enjoy).

Is there a substantial subsegment of the craft beer consumer market that desires non-hyped beers and will robustly purchase ‘traditional’ beers? From a personal perspective I hope the answer to that question is an enthusiastic “YES!” but I have doubts here.

I wish the folks of Sacred Profane a lot of well wishes here.

I am pretty certain that I have consumed (with pleasure) a bunch of beer brewed by Michael Fava at both Nodding Head and Dock Street breweries in the past and with that background I am even more ‘invested’ here from a personal perspective.

Cheers!

https://www.morebeer.com/articles/Czech_Beers

 

I do think that every mofo with a handlebar mustache and uses the phrase "writ large" will make an appearance at this brewery. Whether they attract some minimum percentage of the unwashed masses to make it an economically feasible brewery remains to be seen...

 

I have no insight into the financials of Sacred Profane.

It could be argued that since Stone was a large(r) company they could proportionally take large(r) risks. It is folks with just a little bit of money in the bank that should take no (or little) risks.

Hey, as a fan of 'traditional' beers I really, really hope that things work out well for the Sacred Profane folks. I personally will have my fingers crossed here.

Na Zdravi

 

It was a $25 million bet but it seemed like it was poorly executed. I don't have any first hand experience with it, but just looking at where it was - it's so far away from everything else. I think it was closed by the time I went to Berlin in March 2020 but I don't think I would have even considered going given how far it was. The Brewdog or Mikkeller bars I could have gone to, but I chose not to because both of those companies suck.

EDIT: I think most people going to Maine are driving vs taking the Amtrak up so they'll go right past Biddeford.