Sacred Profane Brewing Launching Summer 2022

See, I like how Notch started making it known that there's more than just "Czech Pils" and "Czech Dark" as styles.

I now see so many breweries doing the various styles, naming them correctly, and nailing said styles.

I don't recall her saying she'd do it better...doesn't seem to be her style. I could have missed it though.

Notch serves their Czech beers directly from the tanks. But I THINK Sacred Profane's system is set up differently?

This might be it...

 

I discussed in post #3:

"I listened to the podcast and Brienne made mention of horizontal serving tanks (manufactured by Lukr). I have had beers at US brewpubs/brewery taprooms served from serving (e.g., brite) tanks. I wonder if there is anything different/unique in dispense from a Lukr horizontal tank."

Cheers!

 

Yeah, figured something like that would be qualifier. In which, HOW does that manufacturer's tanks differ from others? (And tell me in written text - not a podcast or in an image from TikTok or Instagram or where ever these images originate.)

You want anything else, Kidden?
Nah, I'm good. Wait. How 'bout a beer?

Yeah, ya mean this post from six months ago (Feb. 26)? It did sound familiar as I wrote it - but, then, after a while, how many posts don't?.

Hey, I can't remember if I turned the water off in garden 2 hours ago.

(Don't feel bad, it's not the first time I duplicated another post's comment or question - usually it's one of mine, too.)

 

Directly from their lagering tanks? or are there separate serving/brite tanks?

I realized much of the early pages of discussion in this thread were all about the two-beer concept but not about how their serving system actually is technically different than a standard brewpub setup with brite tanks. Has anyone seen any kind of diagram for the typical LUKR setup? A quick googling doesn't yield anything.

Would their system have 4 serving tanks, 2 for each of the beer styles? One active and one ready for when the first one is used up?

 

From Chris at Notch…

 

Looks like I can answer my own question. This Instagram picture from LUKR shows 4 serving tanks hanging over the tap at Sacred Profane.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CgzOqgQK0pr/

@jesskidden , @JackHorzempa, a comment on the post confirms its a bag-in-tank system. So that would be the difference.

So I assume the beer is first naturally carbonated in the lagering tanks before it gets to the serving tanks?

 

In post #97 a photo was provided of the LUKR tanks and they were described as being “serving tanks”.



I have seen many LUKR serving tanks at multiple Czech pubs and I provided in post #98 a photo of these tanks on a floating pub (on the Vltava River in Prague).



Now, as it how the Sacred Profane brewery is exactly/specifically ‘configured’?

Na Zdravi

 

Appreciate your thoughts @zid , when framed the way that you did I can definitely appreciate the perspective of emulation without appropriation a bit more.

I would just suggest that these observations

comprise much of American culture generally, not just in the realm of beer. We are a nation of peoples escaping a place or a past and, so, arriving in these shores looking for a new one. Our most quintessential cultural trope, the "pioneer", is in many ways a creature of appropriation. A multicultural/acultural persona driven by some desire for "new" and willing and able to grasp whatever is at hand and put it to use to that end.

This project fits that mold in some ways, pushing to introduce the "new" concept of a beer that is so deeply integrated in its context that it can only be experienced in place. It's a concept that flies in the face of two generations of American consumer culture by reaching back to a time and place when there weren't really many other options.

Where other brewers pushing in a (to my eye) similar direction have chosen to make beers that are expressions of the place they are made and then package them for us to take a piece of that place with us, these guys have chosen to make a couple beers that demand that you come meet them in their place.

It's, ironically, a brash experiment in humility considering the modern landscape. I'm real curious to hear feedback from some BAs about the beer quality, but it seems unlikely it will be anything short of very good. The real interesting feedback will be from the broader world of craft beer drinkers

 

@Jbrews posted here yesterday:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/commun...drinking-now-2022.664092/page-98#post-7599013

I noticed the brewery is not in the BA Places database yet to allow ratings, so I just filled out an "Add a Place" for it in case no one else has yet.

 

I guess my question wasn't totally clear, but I was asking about Notch. And @MattOC replied.

I posted above with some info I found from LUKR about how their bag in tank setup is different than a normal brite tank and tap setup that would be moving the beer with CO2.

I also found this graphic from another similar manufacturer:

Their claim:

 

This was in response to the topic of American brewers claiming that they are making Czech beer, and in that regard, Notch is a bit disappointing... but I only say that because I hold them to a much higher standard than other brewers in this regard. I don't know if this was a change that happened over time (I'm not familiar enough with their product), but it seemed like branding concepts morphed from Session Pils being called a Czech style lager and an "American session beer" to Tenner simply being called a Czech lager. These days they sell "French pils" and cans that look like this:

I realize that this must seem like a complaint over absolutely nothing... but that's part of the issue. Today, calling an American brewed beer a "Polish lager" seems not only normal but even appropriate. People's approach to beer styles makes us think that the above should be considered a Polish lager. The days of US brewers being unable to legally call a beer Russian Imperial Stout because doing so implied erroneous product origin are mentally faaaar away. Looking at things from the outside, it feels like Notch used to be different... that they went out of their way to present things in a certain way that they thought was respectful. That was one of the things that made them who they were. They sweated over these details even if customers didn't give a damn. Things just feel a bit different now in this one regard.

The people at Sacred Profane are between a rock and a hard place with regard to naming conventions. On a podcast, Allan stated how just calling their beer a "pale lager" could be an issue - a beer geek customer would hypothetically respond, "Yeah, but what kind?" To which Allan would proudly state, "It’s the Biddeford kind." Then Allan stated, "I am not going to take somebody else's culture and promote it as my own." But if she is considering it a "Biddeford lager," then isn't she doing exactly that? That's the trap. What's thievery: claiming it's a Czech lager or claiming it's a Biddeford lager? Is it a no-win situation?

I know most people just roll their eyes about stuff like this (and I hesitate to add it to this particular thread given the environment here), but these topics are important to Allan.

From an article:

From Carson James, one of the partners in Sacred Profane:

From a podcast:

Of course nobody is ever going to use the exact words: "We aim to brew these beers better than Czech brewers," but the consistent narrative that they want to create is that they aim to make these the best of their type in the world... and that's the same message from a different angle. The message is very deliberate in how they want to portray their product. Stating that they aim to brew these beers as good as Czech brewers just doesn't get people as excited. I know not to put too much stock in article headlines, but there's a reason that the editors went with: "This brewer is determined to make the world’s 2 best lagers in Biddeford" as their headline. Personally, I would get more excited if the rhetoric being used in this regard matched the other rhetoric being employed (being reverential, learning from Czech brewers, and getting the thumbs up from people in the Czech industry, etc.).

(And it's easy to predict how BA reviewers as a group will respond to these beers )

OK... that's waaay more nitpicking than anybody here wants to see. I only made these two posts because I thought you and @jesskidden would get something from reading them. I'll leave now.

 

Would the BA forums - not to mention a whole lot of the rest of the 'net - even exist without nitpicking? (Hell, complaining about it is just more ... ah, I'll leave it at that).

 

Isn't this the beauty of the word "style" on a beer label? Czech style lager, polish style lager, etc..

Seems pretty clear that they are deliberately setting out to brew lagers in the Czech style

 

The TTB agrees:

 

Seeing both Mexican and Vienna on the right hand column made me think of a recent beer from a local PA brewery. On the can label it stated "Mexican-style Dark Lager". But the history of dark lagers in Mexico is mostly due to European immigrants brewing "Vienna" style lagers after they immigrated to Mexico in the late 19th century. To muddy the situation further, this article indicates that most of those original brewers were actually US trained. Kind of a weird situation to figure out the proper geographic region to give credit to.

 

Boy, that's got to be in the running for the least enforced rule out there

 

I guess the alternate of "or other text to indicate true place of production" seems to be doing some heavy lifting considering doesn't every label already need to have the address of the brewery?

 

Well this is all becoming too much for my pea sized brain. ***slams a pint of Julius***

 

Great article - thanks for the link. Yeah, I never bought into the theory that because an Austrian was the Emperor of Mexico for a few years in the 1860s, so Mexican brewers made Vienna Lagers half a century later. Always wanted to dig into that but never had the energy, sources or the ability to read Spanish.

But I do have a section on Adolph Schmedtje on my page of famous Anheuser-Busch brewmasters. Schmedtje was a grand nephew of Adolphus Busch, AB brewmaster and then worked for Grupo Modelo during the US Prohibition era - likely developed the early recipes for Corona Extra and Modelo Especial. Despite Grupo Modelo's claims (below, from a recent Annual Report), he was not German but was born in St. Louis.

 

The original mantra of Notch was American session beer that was 4.5% or less. Their first two beers were Notch Pils and a Notch Ale (which I think was English leaning in character).

Soon after he did state they would be Czech focused, but he’s always brewed styles from multiple cultures. One of his earlier brews, The Mule, was a corn lager that one could say was more of an American style. And I believe his third beer was a Saison.

And if you read the fine print on their site, he gave a nod to tradition for the Notch Pils, stating the proper style name. And the cans (might have still been bottles then) said “Czech Pils” because the general public didn’t know Czech terms. We’ve matured as a culture and more people appreciate and can recognize this nomenclature.

Regarding the Polish Lager, they’ve brewed that for a few years and there’s some local history/significance behind it, including a Polish fest they hold. I think canning it was fairly recent.

QUOTE="zid, post: 7599611, member: 427912"]The people at Sacred Profane are between a rock and a hard place with regard to naming conventions. On a podcast, Allan stated how just calling their beer a "pale lager" could be an issue - a beer geek customer would hypothetically respond, "Yeah, but what kind?" To which Allan would proudly state, "It’s the Biddeford kind." Then Allan stated, "I am not going to take somebody else's culture and promote it as my own." But if she is considering it a "Biddeford lager," then isn't she doing exactly that? That's the trap. What's thievery: claiming it's a Czech lager or claiming it's a Biddeford lager? Is it a no-win situation?[/QUOTE]

Serious question, how would you got about it if you were Notch or Sacred Profane?

I thought it was Munich Dunkel?