Breweries Trending Up and Down

It's posts like these that remind me how sad I am that Victory only ships a limited supply of their lineup to Rhode Island. An alt? A Kolsch? Their various one of lagers that I never even hear of? These brews are all right up my alley! Sadly, when I see Victory it's always just Hop Devil and Golden Monkey. So sad. This makes my desire to visit Victory that much more.

 

Up: Sixpoint, The Bruery, AleSmith, New Glaurus
Down: New Belgium, Epic, Goose Island

 

For Westvleteren at the brewery, you call in the week before to make a reservation. Then you go to the Abbey and buy the beer. For the Westvleteren 12 it is 40€ plus 12€ deposit fee for the bottles and the handy crate. This is 52€ total or at today's conversion rate $70.54. After you call in and do the pick up you cannot call in for another 60 days. That is from the website and the fact that I have picked up multiple times over the last year. You are both half wrong.

 

Jesse, I live about 30-40 minutes (highly dependent on traffic congestion) away from the Victory Brewpub and I unfortunately do not make it there frequently. I am lucky that some beer bars which are closer to me frequently have Victory specialty beers on tap.

Below is a link to what is on tap today at the Victory Brewpub.

Of the beers on that list, I particularly like: Sommerbock, Zeltbier, and Braumeister Pils – Tettnanger Tettnang.

I have not had the good fortune to try Sunset Dunkel yet (I have not seen it on tap at the beer bars that I frequent.

I also need to provide a shout out to their newest year round beer: DirtWolf Double IPA. That beer is absolutely awesome!

I am also a big fan of Uncle Teddy's Bitter on the handpump.

Cheers!

http://www.victorybeer.com/brewpub/taplist/

 

Mmmmmm, that Tettnanger Tettnang must be great! Love to try those Pale Bock's as well. Drink an extra one for me Jack!

 

The Braumeister Pils – Tettnanger Tettnang.is indeed a tasty beer but it is the least favorite for me of the Braumeister series of beers. I prefer the Braumeister Pils – Hallertauer Mittelfruh, Braumeister Pils – Sladek and the Braumeister Pils – Saaz. IMHO, the Braumeister Pils – Saaz is the best commercially produced Bohemian Pilsner.

Cheers!

 

And that's growler only correct, no bottles?

 

Correct, the Braumeister Pils series of beers are draft only.

Cheers!

 

(Tears hitting my keyboard)

 

hey, Growlers are just big glass bottles!

 

Jim, obtaining a growler of a Braumeister Pils beer could be a bit challenging since Jesse is in Rhode Island and it has been my personal experience that not too many kegs of Victory specialty draft beers get distributed. I have drunk most of the draft specialty beers (Alt, Kolsch, Braumeister, etc.) at the Victory Beer Hall in South Philly after Phillies games. Every once in a while TJs Everyday and Capone’s will receive kegs of Victory draft specialty beers.

Do you know whether any of the Braumeister Pils beers ever make it up to Rhode Island?

Cheers!

Jack

 

Wouldn't be the first growler sent via mail……

As for whats sold in what territory, thats a question better asked of the regional sales rep, who in this case looks to be Ken Powers. See our website for contacts. I know Ive seen BP in the DC market often so kegs do get out to some markets.

Cheers,

Jim

 

I agree. Cheap beer = good! Overpriced beer = bad!

But I think it's important to remember that SN, Lagunitas, and Victory do have some advantages that a lot of new guys don't. They've got a lot more capacity than most craft breweries, for one thing, so they're going to be able to offer lower prices than the 10 barrel operation down the road.

 

For me, it's mainly about price. When GF switched to 4 packs, I stopped buying their regular beers. One day a sixer of west coast IPA cost $9.99, the next day a 4 pack cost $8.99. What?! It's not as if they are a one man operation or something, they are a good sized brewery. They make a great IPA, but last time I had it it reminded me a lot of Torpedo, which I can get a 12 pack of for $12.99. I'll still buy their higher ABV 4 packs every once in a while, and I really enjoyed Green Bullet, but I refuse to spend $8.99 for a 4 pack of slightly above average IPA when there are plenty of others to choose from that are just as good or better. Also, since the 4 pack move a few years ago, their beer sits on the shelves longer now so it's tougher to find them fresh. So it appears they are trending down, at least from where I sit.

As far as Rogue, I don't understand how they stay in business. Who buys their beers?

 

On the Up

Tired Hands Brewing Company-Great beers that change constantly. Their two flagships, Hop Hands and Saison Hands(use to be Farm Hands) are great session beers that I cannot wait for them to start bottling when they open up their production brewery in the near future.

Wicked Weed-Have pretty much the same business plan as Tired Hands but more expansive. What I mean by that is that they rotate new beers on constantly and only have a few flagships. They have an impressive BA program especially for a brewery that has been open for just over a year. These guys are going to go far if they start canning/bottling and start distributing kegs around the country.

The Alchemist-Heady Topper is fucking great and I believe I heard that they are going to be producing different beers starting soon? I hope I am right because if they turn out half as good as heady topper they will have a promising future.

Heading Down/peaked

DFH-Pretty much nothing new excites me from them. I like how they approach new aspects of brewing and expand on the definition of what a beer can be but can they please just make a good beer. 60 and 90 are decent at best and their American Beauty release was ok but to sweet. Burton Baton and 75 minute are good beers but that is pretty much all that like from them.

Rogue-When I first got into craft beer about 5 years ago I loved Rogue because they had so much to chose from. Now nothing they have or release motivates me enough to purchase them because they all are very similar using their proprietary yeast 'Pacman' for almost every brew it seems like. Having the same yeast strain makes all the beer taste very similar. Also they take up a lot of shelf space like someone pointed out.

 

I can't speak to Victory, because I am less familiar with them, but anybody who lived in CA long enough knows that SN and Lagunitas have each had this formula working for them since they were the small guys. I can remember visiting SN in 1991 and it was a little pub and taking the tour was stepping into the back room and just seeing three bins of hops with big plastic scoops. And likewise, there are small guys today that can deliver quality products to market at reasonable prices.

Unless you are releasing a beer with the depth of process of a Firestone anniversary beer or the quality of a Russian River Consecration, there really isn't much justification for prices in the range of $15 to $20 a bomber. And I am sure that people will greet such a statement a with a lot of blah, blah, blah attempts at justifications, because that statement is a direct knee cap shot at hundreds of popular breweries out there right now. But the reality is, that twenty dollar bombers of anything lesser in quality and/or depth of process of beers like those mentioned above, are equal two things:

1) Ineptitude of running a business efficiently. I believe this covers the vast majority of these cases because in a boom time, businesses are not forced to learn efficiency if they can get ridiculous prices for their products and have lines out the door with rather amateurish efforts.

or

2) Breweries are exploiting their customer (fan) bases. This is also a result of a boom time in an industry and I am not saying that breweries doing this have the midas touch in the board room; just that they do not price based on a reasonable margin formula, but are more concerned with what they can get their customers to part with. Just as a stripper quickly sizes up their potential clients, these breweries are most concerned about how much they can get out of their customers to part with out of their wallets.

And of course, there are varying levels of hybridization of these two, as well. Businesses that are not very well run and at the same time realize that with the right hype ground game, can cash in before an inevitable shakeout happens and also maybe in the process, can build a significant enough brand to also sell off at some point.

 

Stone - down. 2 of the worst beers of the year in Crime and Punishment. And the Stoned Smoked Porter with Vanilla Beans was boring and just not a good beer - went down the drain.

 

Love both of those sweet beers, send them to SW Mizzou please & more Backburner...

 

Up: Prairie Artisianal Ales from OK, Core Brewing From Arkansas, & Mother's Brewing From Missouri

Down: New Belgium, Goose Island & any brewer who can't freshness date their beer ( give me a bottled on date please ).