Wolves & People

If the beers live up to the hype everything will be great, and if not there is plenty of room for criticism. But the possible criticisms seem to be more the norm (crowd funding, expensive clubs) that I can't really blame anyone from trying to take advantage of it. Splitting this membership as 6 bottles for $175 seems a little more reasonable.

 

I would hope that they will be doing big batch base beers and the membership includes the smaller single barrel type stuff. But again they left off a lot of important details like that.

 

God, I hate bashing breweries that haven't even opened yet, but I believe this forum is a safe place to discuss how we feel and perceive in an appropriate manner. That being said the press release seemed like they are trying to manufacture the farmhouse persona too much instead of letting it grow organically.

It's almost like they had a checklist of what makes a WALEZ-BRO brewery and started checking them off:

• In a literal farmhouse, notated with year built - CHECK
• Ambiguous brewery Name - CHECK
• Location derived wild yeast - CHECK
• Grow Your Own Ingredients - CHECK
  
• Expensive Society - CHECK
• Coolship - semi-CHECK
• Sour and Funk - CHECK

Not saying any of these are bad things in themselves, it just seems.... manufactured.

It also just gives off a different vibe than Hills Farmstead, Logsdon, de Garde, Ale Apothecary - breweries that care deeply about their local markets and the culture of the region.

I can't imagine de Garde existing anywhere but Tilamook. I can't imagine Logsdon existing anywhere but the hills of Mt. Hood. I can't imagine Hills Farmstead existing anywhere but Vermont. I can imagine Wolves & People existing literally in any semi rural area in America. I think this thought probably stems from the national distribution from the get go.

Anyways, we are a bunch of dicks in the PNW. Every state would be shitting themselves over getting a brewery like this, and here we are being the gate keepers of what we want to see in our area and not. We have some high standards.

All that being said, The Commons collab was extremely good and looking forward to having the brewery prove my assumptions and perceptions wrong.

 

I think it's the national distribution right off the get-go that rubs me the wrong way. Why not hone your craft in your local market before expanding all over the place?

 

Well to be fair to the brewer, who i am making a very conservative assumption is @JordanBrewer - he has been honing his craft as the head brewer at Jester King - one of the more famous funk and sour producers in the country.

 

It may sound manufactured, but it actually is Christian's family farm. On-side Isolated/propagated wild yeast from a fruit tree sounds manufactured (but also sounds delicious) And he's been in the beer community here (and elsewhere), drinking and writing beer articles and books like The Great American Ale Trail for awhile now.

Again, I could easily be wrong, but I interpreted the Shelton involvement in the near future to be more of like a consultant role than an actual distributor role. Everyone's business model is (and can be) different, which is one of the best things about craft beer imo.

 

I imagine we'll see 95% of their beer in local markets for the foreseeable future. To me the claim about involvement with Shelton seems, to some degree, to be about establishing legitimacy which is part of people's "complaints": i.e. we're risking our money on an untested brewery. Sounds to me like people are making some contradictory arguments: we don't like that you're aligning yourself (probably really tenuously at this point) with an established player known for representing best of breed breweries ... but we also don't like that you're unproven and asking for money.

At this point, the Shelton thing is largely moot. But I totally understand why you would put yourself in their company when you're trying to get off the ground and ask people to trust you.

And for all the complaints about how Shelton treats the Northwest ... I actually DO see a lot of their beers in our markets: Achel, Thiriez, Brouwerij West, Cambridge, De Molen, Ellezelloise, Freigeist, Grassroots, Jolly Pumpkin, Nogne, To Ol, Haandybryggereit, etc. We're basically bitching that we don't get enough Drie or Cantillon and ignoring the rest of their pretty great portfolio.

Finally - a question: does anyone know how these arrangements with a distributor work? Is there a financial component that may explain why you would sign up with one long before you have any beer to give them?

 

It's not uncommon for distributors to throw large sums of money at a brewery as a "signing bonus", especially if they are (or are expected to be) a hot commodity.

 

While I definitely see my $350 contribution as a gamble, I'm also not going to risk not getting in now. Still kicking myself for not having joined the Ale Apothecary and De Garde memberships from the get go. Although, between the three I'm now at about $1000/year in brewery memberships...

 

I don't think your assumptions are/would be wrong at all. You hit the nail. Now it's up to people to throw their money at it without tasting anything. I think this is a safer gamble than the Bruery membership from this year

 

Except that de Garde had 4 or 5 months of beers being distributed to Portland before the Keepers memberships went on sale, and Ale Apothecary was still accepting members... I don't know... a year, year and a half after their first releases?

 

Not trying to be a dick, but I wonder what people think it means to do a kickstarter? The prices of the beer aren't designed to reflect the cost of just the beer. They want to put their beer in front of you while having enough to cover the beer and make capital improvements. Most of the items in available for purchase in the kickstarter are all at prices that I think most here would agree represent a reach in value. This is a fund raiser, not your typical garden variety sale of product. I think folks view of this is perhaps just a bit skewed. Now...if the prices of their beers are the same going forward, perhaps we can revisit the pricing as it exists now. We'll have plenty of time to assess whether we got what we paid for or not. In the meantime, lets pretend these guys are attempting to raise funds for what they're trying to accomplish.

I would think it should be noted that this kickstarter also isn't trying to fund their operation from scratch. They have a ton in place already, which isn't typical of many kickstarters. This seems to be a fortification of something that has a backbone already. The people involved don't appear to be amateurs either. Just my 2 cents. I'm nobody, however, and I know my opinions not worth even that to anyone else.

 

There's no doubt that there's an element of gambling to the crowd funding approach. But what's wrong with that? Most of us have the money to spend. We're either going to spend it on this, or something off the shelf. If this place turned out to be successful, we'd be trying to spend our money here...assuming there was enough to support the demand and even provide us that opportunity. As it stands, these are a great way to both help fund a new operation out while simultaneously providing us a means with which to avoid having to hit the trade forums to try something good. Anyone that trades regularly knows how costly that gets. It's just money, guys. What the fuck are we working for anyway? I love this shit.

 

Still doesn't change the fact that I wish I had got in and didn't. The idea of spending hundreds of dollars on brewery memberships back then was new and crazy to me though (my how that's changed). Also while it is a gamble because they have not yet established this new brewery, I think they have a lot going on for them and a good bit of potential.

I do have to admit though, it seems pretty vague what exactly I paid for and that's where the real gamble is. Also what was the point of having a mailing list to be notified of when this type of stuff would become available and then not email anyone? These two bits of disorganization worry me a bit.

 

There's no good beer in your area, or even within driving distance? That must suck.

 

I didn't say that. You did.

I didn't state that I can't get anything good here. But I like variety, and I enjoy getting to try all the good beers. I can buy a nice steak at Whole Foods and grill it myself...but that doesn't mean I don't also enjoy getting a nice steak out at Sullivan's, Morton's, or the Capital Grill on occasion.

 

"to avoid having to hit the trade forums to try something good", sure sounds like you're not happy with your local selection. Obviously, there's plenty of great beer all across the country these days, so most of us don't have to put a ton of effort into obtaining good beer. And, we're kinda pulling your chain a bit. But, with depth and breadth of breweries around us, forgive us if we raise an eyebrow when a newcomer makes big statements like this.

 

That's not it at all. I live in an area with great distribution, and I'm still an El Catador, Bruery Reserve Society, and Wakefield OG member. But there's still stuff I enjoy that's outside of SE PA's distribution channel, so I have to go about other ways of getting it. Does my desire for Cigar City, certain Bruery offerings, and Wakefield beer mean I'm unhappy with the myriad breweries we have like Tired Hands and Forest and Main? Or the breweries distributed here such as Bell's, Founders, Dark Horse, Ithaca, etc? It sure sounds like you're making assumptions just to be argumentative. I don't have to put any effort into obtaining good beer. I walk across the street to Whole Foods. I simply enjoy trying a lot of other things too. It must be embarrassing that I occasionally drive to Vermont for a weekend of VT only beer. You guys do indeed have a lot of great breweries that made a name for themselves in short order. The only difference is most of them didn't start in THIS fashion. Had they...what would you have thought of them at the time? What would you think of them in hindsidght? Do you only find this approach offensive just because you have so many other no risk options that the idea of having to take a leap of faith galls you? And I don't need to forgive you. I haven't taken offense to anything you've said. I hope you haven't taken any to mine either. Just different opinions..and I'm admittedly the argumentative type.