Breakside Cellar Reserve Club announced

I heard about this "officially" earlier today and unconfirmed rumors swirled for quite a while - was gonna post later on tonight, but thanks for beating me to it, @Spaceloaf!

Angelo/Brewpublic [correction: D.J. Paul is guest-writing...] comments: "These barrel-aged beers all sound quite tempting, its just having to pay $200 up front for beers that have not been brewed seems to be a bit suspect from a consumer’s side." I can agree that's a good-size chunk of money for 10 bottle of yet-to-be-brewed beer, but I've been happy with most everything I've tried from Breakside, be they barrel-aged, "sour" or just flat-out experimental (not to mention the standards they do well). Am willing to put faith in them to succeed, so count me in...

Not to be missed in this post are the bottle release on Saturday (@ Milwaukie Taproom) and the 100th beer (Safe Word Triple IPA) that goes on the same day. Was talking with brewer Ben Edmunds last week and he seemed most excited about the "Beaujolais avec Brett"...

Cheers,
Brian

 

Someone's back from their HK trip! Welcome home!

 

I like Breakside but $200 for ten bottles is too steep IMO. I'm sure they'll get their 80 members but I'm gonna hold off.

 

I'm interested. Sure its steep, but Breakside is one of the local guys I'm most interested in supporting.

I'm all for showing my appreciation via investment.

 

I'm interested as well, but won't be in town to sign up.
Anyone going that needs a new friend? No muleing needed, will be in town permanently In Feb.

 

I see that Breakside now has a link on their website: http://www.breakside.com/beers/cellar-reserve/

You should call the brewery and see if you can make arrangements to join without being present on Saturday.

 

I'll see, but I'm guessing no... Anyone going?

 

The price sounds pretty reasonable to me. If I lived close and loved what they were doing I would have no problem buying into this.

Hell, I am a Crooked Stave member and love what the do so much, in only their second year paid $300 for the same quantity of beer (although split into 375ml's). This year it bumped to $350 and I still think it is a good deal to be able to get some of the unique beers that others can't buy from my favorite brewery. Just wish I could be around for some of the advantages like private parties and tasting.

 

These clubs are ridiculous. I'm glad beer has now turned into wine.

 

I have no problem with the clubs in many instances. Some people use them as a pseudo-Kickstarter campaign; a la Pelican (which also did Kickstarter) and Reuben's. I particularly like the way Reuben's did it; free growlers with a punch card, larger pours, first right to buy limited bottles, some exclusive merchandise. There aren't any members only beers, but it does create community and reward loyalty. Others do it as a way to guarantee sales of more experimental or perhaps costly - from a production side and sales side - beers. That's ok by me.

What bothers me a bit is when places do it to offload inferior or low demand product - which is what a lot of people perceived with Pelican ... the beers the club members get are good, but with the exception of MoaS, easy to acquire shelf beers. Another point of bother is when it's used to generate faux-exclusivity. On this latter part, that doesn't mean the beers aren't good. They may be. But the exclusivity factor is like diamond marketing. I don't know much about Side Project, but they seem like one of the most insane examples of engineered scarcity. Ale Apothecary and De Garde, on the other hand, seem rare due to organic constraints - small operations, just getting started in the case of De Garde, an ethical imperative to use local ingredients and not outgrow the hands on production stage in the case of Ale Apothecary. And, at least in the case of De Garde, pricing that is friendly to consumers.

A more direct point, I've had a number of Breakside beers and the only one's I've thought were good were the normal IPA, the pilsner, and the BA Aztec. The latter I think will be great with some age. Wanderlust I thought was marginal. I suppose I need to visit the brewery to try more, but so far they fail to speak to me as a place capable of pulling of something like this with consistent results that merit the cost.

 

Can I ask that since you do not know much about Side Project, then where did you come up with this idea of 'insane example of engineered scarcity'?

 

Sure. But I'll digress a bit before answering.

The main point of my post wasn't to praise or condemn various breweries, but to address the distaste some people have regarding limited releases / clubs. This lead into a casually thought out breakdown of how / why I suspect some breweries do these limited releases. The motivations seem to vary pretty widely ... and I think a blanket distaste for the clubs ignores that. Picking apart the motivations and economics seems necessary before forming an opinion. So I was defending clubs from a claim that they're inherently ridiculous. My secondary point was to apply this to Breakside. So if I talked about your project too casually, that was an effect of trying to stay on topic - something I do badly.

Now a bit more about what I was thinking and some rethought ... it was a passing thought so it didn't have a lot of precision. I try to be forthcoming with disclaimers and to own my ignorance; I'll sometimes (often?) misspeak but I rarely claim certainty. So no surprise if I'm partially off base.

To admit that I don't know much about Side Project shouldn't come as a surprise ... since it's somewhat difficult to know much about Side Project. I'd guess that most people - even those talking about / seeking beers on BA - don't know much. I poked around the site, looked at the Facebook and Twitter accounts, and read through threads on BA and there's not a great deal of depth to the information. That's not a criticism per se - should you spend your limited time writing extensive documentation of your operations or should you spend the time brewing - but an observation. Furthermore, many threads on BA are filled with dis-information. And getting "information" by actually tasting the beers is VERY difficult.

Lack of information or incomplete information can add mystique. Whether that's something you intentionally take advantage of or not, I can't say .... but the way information is disclosed (or not disclosed) contributes to the brand image, generates impressions of exclusivity, rarity, etc. Consider the phrase describing The Origin - "it is never to be brewed again." I also think things are released in sets? As with HFs Damon, this plays to collector mentality I work in marketing. I've worked for luxury brands. I don't see creating a premium brand image as a bad thing, but it does drive demand which "engineers scarcity" when supply is constrained. And from what I can tell, your supply will be constrained for the foreseeable future if not forever. You're working in a set of styles that are difficult / costly / impossible (?) to do at scale - as well as exploding existing styles & pioneering new ones. So am I saying that you should just make simpler beers and create a less exclusive image since you can't make your current offerings available to the masses? Of course not! But this does, in my mind, qualify as engineered scarcity. Where I was wrong in retrospect was in drawing a line between you Ale Apothecary, and De Garde. The "problems" you face are similar.

So I stand by the engineered scarcity bit. The "insane" modifier was too loosely applied. I meant that more in regards to the beer community. I look at the trades, the way people that have the beer hype it in order to ramp up trade value, and I find that insane. That's another driver in engineering scarcity. You have little to no control over that. By being unwilling to participate in this insanity - such as trading 4 to 1 $s of amazing beers - I'll almost certainly never try any of your beers. Regrettable; I'm sure they're excellent. I guess I singled you out primarily because Side Project is one of the current feverish trade items.

 

Thank you very much for taking the time to reply. I really appreciate it.

I hope that I didn't sound snarky in my post, but I felt as though you were placing AA and De Garde in one hand and then placing me in another as if I wasn't constrained by the same growth/demand/difficult production methods/problems that they are encountering. It also looks like you are more "regionally" located to them than to Side Project, so acquiring their beers should be easier than acquiring Side Project, making me more scarce to you.

At this point in time, I am probably taking some things too personally, but its easy to do so when my company is just me, and only me, and its something that I have been working toward for years. To address some of your points:

Yes, I have been releasing more than 1 beer at a time on my release days and people have started calling them "sets". Wasn't my intention to create these sets, but it was my intention to release more than 1 beer on a given day. You've noticed that I spend time here on BA and that isn't strictly business related, I have been a member on here for a while, I've attended beer releases and I love sharing beers with friends... From that, I felt as though I was actually helping the people that support me and Side Project by letting them only have to make one trip out to come grab some bottles or "sets" instead of spreading out the releases weekly or such.

The Origin will not be brewed again because I do not believe that I can replicate that beer. The Oatwine was incredibly time consuming, expensive and difficult to brew once, let alone replicate and scale. Also, the name 'The Origin' was an oversight on my part is way too similar to 'The Origins' from Chad at CS. I spoke with Chad and told him that I had made a mistake and that I would not be brewing that beer again, so thus, we ran with The Origin and immediately retired it. I put that on the label to let you know that I wouldn't be brewing it again.

You are correct, I think that my current website is just a step above tragic! I can make beer, but have no talent or time for a website. At my current level of business, Side Project will probably not have that updated for at least the next 6 months. I understand the importance of a website, but I am more concerned with the beers right now and trying to meet some of the demand. If you know someone that can make me an amazing website in exchange for beer, I would hire them tomorrow!

One thing that I will have to disagree with you on is your use of "engineered scarcity". The demand and production methods are what is engineering the scarcity of these beers in my opinion. The 3 breweries that you listed aren't making these beers because of a marketing and sales strategies that address the demand and prices points of these styles. I know that I make the beers at Side Project that I do because these beers and styles are the ones that I love the most, I love drinking them, I love challenging myself in producing them and I love working with oak and local microflora. I also work at Perennial full-time, and as it grows, it, like all breweries, becomes more like a factory and less like a brewery. I have a feeling that Trevor and Paul, both of whom I have met personally in the last 2 months, feel the same way. We, the brewers, are not engineering the scarcity, the demand and styles are doing that for us.

Back on topic, I will probably do a 'society' this year. Love them or hate them, there are a bunch of pros and cons to them, but a lot of my local supporters are asking me to do one.

I do really appreciate your response and the time that you took to address your points. I do hope that someday you get to try some Side Project and you can let me know what you think... With any luck, I might be working with one of those other breweries that you mentioned above sometime this year . Hopefully then, you can try some...

Until then.
Cheers,

 

Just jumping in to say Cory is making absolutely phenomenal beer. Don't think he's doing anything intentional other than that. Much respect.

Membership type stuff might not be for everyone, but like Kurmaraja said, it depends upon the intent. It's can be either for folks or for money. There is wiggle room of course.

Merry christmas to all.

On point, if you love breakside, this is a no brainer. Fun stuff and a party.

 

Just finally had my first breakside. Woody was excellent. Sorry there Was only 1 bottle to buy. Safe word was excellent. Very reminiscent of alpine. So balanced and smooth. Glad I got my membership.