Sacred Profane Brewing Launching Summer 2022

To be quoted is to be heard.

 

A rose is a rose is a rose.

 

Anybody remember that extreme BA backlash against Vitamin Sea before they even opened? Pepperidge Farm remembers.

 

Never understood this. The fact I could visit my aunt down the street from Dino’s house and pick up beers he left me in his cooler(which he paid to make) was one of the most generous experiences I’ve had in craft beer. Aside from that everything else they did was pretty par for the course.

Still don’t get that one.

It’s all water under the sea wall now.

We will all see how things go with SP over time.

 

There is a restaurant in Newport, Rhode Island that my in-laws love called the Red Parrot. The food is fine, the drinks are generic. It's right on the main drag there in NPT. The menu is, conservatively, 366 pages long. Jack of all trades, master of none. You can get pasta, you can get ribs, you can get salad, you can get shark (literally).

This is, to me, what beer has become. Just generic, big-menus with 366 pages of average beers. It's making me yearn for the days of going to the Claddagh in Lawrence, Massachusetts and having four buckets of Miller Lite. I don't want to have 76 options. I want to have two options.

"I'm in the mood for a light beer today" or "I'm in the mood for a dark beer today" and just drink that. Bonus points if they're both really well-made. I want to sit down with one of those two options, enjoy many of them as a compliment (not the centerpiece) to an afternoon out with friends or my wife or my brothers.

End of quasi-rant.

 

Yeah, I agree. Based on that podcast interview, she clearly is of the opinion that "craft beer" means trendy hazy IPAs. But to the average person, "craft beer" means "not adjunct lager", regardless of the formal Brewers Association definition.

Sacred Profane brews "not adjunct lager" so like it or not, they are "craft beer".

 

I think those are two extremes though. 76 vs. 2.

That being said, I'm more likely to go to the one with 2 options vs. the one with 76.

Notch has 12 beers on tap right now. Tree House in Charlton is probably closer to the 76 options.

Granted they both make high quality beers, it's not like all 76 options at Tree House are mediocre.

I'm still more likely to go to Notch.

 

McSorley's Ale House in NY city sells only light or dark beer right? Ironically people probably view that as "craft beer" too, even though they're owned by Pabst I believe.

 

I think the average person doesn't care about the ownership angle.

I think the average American sees Bud/Miller/Coors/etc. as "regular beer", and everything else as "craft beer".

 

Nailed it on the head there.

 

I respect the take, but for me variety is the spice of life. Sure there are places where there are 50 taps, 40 of which get one pour a day, and the beer is old and bad, but if anything I feel like that was more of a thing 5-10 years ago than now. Most of my favorite places have a big selection - TH, HF, Notch, Oxbow, etc, and I find less than great beer from any of them to be a rarity. I don't think I'd be going to any of them as frequently if they only had two options.

That isn't to say the SP concept isn't cool or interesting, it definitely is. Still really excited to finally make it there sometime in the next month or so and have super high expectations. I imagine it's going to be a pretty regular stop on Maine trips for me. I find the "not craft beer/not a taproom" stance interesting (and maybe as a bit of an attack given my stance directly above), but I'm definitely not going to knock it without going there. Tons of respect for both Allan and Fava, it's hard to read tone in print.

 

You can listen starting at the 53 minute mark here for Allan's comments about "craft beer". She gets to the "not a taproom" comment at about the 56 minutes mark.
https://www.bornon3rd.com/podcasts/craft-beers-new-era-with-brienne-allan/

 

Meh, I can understand the “not a craft brewery” angle. A lot of people who aren’t into micro breweries / craft breweries, think of bearded bros drinking ipas with their child in tow wearing Patagonia talking about subtle notes of kumquat

in that sense, they aren’t really a contemporary craft brewery.

 

It's just odd that they seem to be trying to separate/distance themselves from the craft beer world, in a way that comes off as if they have some level of contempt for "craft breweries".

"Yeah, we brew our own beer, on a small scale, and we sell it on-site and plan to package and sell in stores, but we are NOT a craft brewery"

ok?

 

I think I’m just now learning that some people don’t realize the stigma that modern craft breweries have.

 

Don't Call Me White A Craft Brewery

 

I mean, the owners basically look like a request from central casting for "craft beer hipsters", and they have a meticulous way they are serving their beer. I'm not so sure that their overall vibe presents any different than your stereotype, other than substituting Czech-style lager for IPA.

 

What is it exactly?

 

Sorry should have clarified, that's not what I meant.

I meant the irony is, the general public will see McSorley's as craft beer, when many beer geeks wouldn't consider it that due to ownership

Just like Sacred Profane, they both offer a light and dark beer only, but the two couldn't be more different in concept and quality.