TRiNiTY Brewing Twitter

Their beers are pretty pricey... Ill give you that.

 

You know you're in deep shit when educated consumers think Paradox does better barrel aging than you...

 

I have nothing to add re: the Twitter "controversy" and I don't know if Trinity are good people because I have never met them (although this exchange makes them look like assholes).

I will, however, point out that Trinity brewed a beer named Red Swingline, IPA Primitif. And Crooked Stave brewed a beer named Primitif. And a search of the recent filings in the District Court for the District of El Paso County, Colorado for trademark lawsuits will yield some interesting results, i.e., Trinity suing Crooked Stave for trademark violation.

Sigh.

 

Seriously. After this, fuck trinity.... not like I was buying their overpriced garbage beforehand anyways...

 

After all of the stuff they've ripped off from other breweries, and after trying to call a beer brewed in the US in 7 days a gueuze (protected name), they decide to sue a brewery for a beer that doesn't have the same name?

Between that and the twitter meltdown, I really wonder how long it will be before Trinity burns 100% of any remaining bridges (if there are any left in the CO beer community).

 

It was also a bit of a surprise to watch all of the comments slowly disappear from the twitter feed...then I log back in to twitter later and find out that I'm blocked from even viewing Trinity's page. No response from the brewery, no comments, no nothing, just blocking, deleting, trying to hide the issue.

It's really unfortunate that it seems like that's become the new m.o. of the brewery. Stir the pot, talk some smack, piss off a bunch of people, then hide it like it never happened. I'd like to think that's not sustainable, so it will be interesting to see the outcome.

 

As the one who wrote the original "article" revealing who our local beer fans voted for in a "Best Barrel Aging" category, I am saddened to see such animosity both on Twitter and other forms of media. This was, at its core, a local popularity contest, like a high school student council vote, and unfortunately all sides felt offended and wronged. As a blogger, I felt that our local breweries have been underrepresented in other "Best Of" contests via our local free weekly and our daily newspaper. All original intentions were to boost awareness of our craft beer scene.

With the craft beer scene growing exponentially every year, we need to take steps to circumvent these situations before they happen. Not everyone is an expert, but on the same token, not everyone is an idiot. I hope people can look past social media and make their beer choices based on their own personal tastes and not based on what has/has not conspired on the internet.

Respectfully,

Ryan
Focus on the Beer

 

Nope! Fuck all the controversy, I have always been and remain a fan of Trinity. Yes, Jason can be a polarizing and outspoken figure and their prices can absolutely be a tough pill to swallow sometimes, but I keep going back and everyone with whom I have shared Trinity beers have been fans as well.

It is a damn shame that these things happen, especially within a community that otherwise is so tightly knit and supportive of each other. Sadly, it hearkens to the drama over the summer over another one of your articles - won't mention specifics, but I think us folks in the Springs all know what I am talking about.

Keep doing your thing though, Ryan! Focus on the Beer is an institution in the Colorado Springs beer scene and I hate to see so much pettiness being associated with what was, IMO, another great series from my favorite local beer blog.

 

I like many of Trinity's beers and I do think Yester knows what he's doing. They pioneered a lot of the wild/sour scene that has taken hold in CO. That said...their prices and general attitude are "lacking" to say the very least.

 

It's much like why I refuse to buy/support DBC...I just don't like them, and I won't spend my money on them anymore. We have way too many good to great to amazing options on our shelves, and we have more great breweries than I can even keep up with. I never really got into Trinity's beers before, not for any particular reason (and of those I have tried and can remember, Old Growth was as meh as could be), just hadn't gotten around to it. But with all our other options, stories like this will just reinforce my decision to not pick up their beers when I see them at the store.

 

I seem to remember Trinity having a beer called "Mr. Saison: Saison Vieille" on the shelf and CS having a Vieille on the shelf before that but no legal action happened there.

Plus for a dude ripping off Dr Suess and Fantome and Destihl and etc etc on his labels/names seems like a pretty nitpicky thing to go after since its a general French word. Seems to fit the profile.

 

Really the only time I ever drink Trinity is when I'm in the Springs at the tap room. Otherwise I'm not paying those prices. As for Paradox, I've given them plenty of tries and not been impressed. I think I had one decent beer in the 5-6 I tried. Honestly at the end of the day we're fortunate in Colorado to have so many other great choices! And I think I'll pick the other choices. (obviously just my opinions because I know you will always find many that LOVE these breweries) Can't we all just get along?

 

I still like their beer. I'm a big fan of Elektrick Cukumbahh...was disappointed to see the pricing structure when they went to smaller bottles. I also like seven day sour. I'll still buy it on tap.

 

Oh, man, talk about PR fail. The BA should send this out to members as an example of what to never do on social media with an official brewery account. It's pretty mind-blowing, actually. What is this guy thinking?

 

This isn't an isolated thing - I don't think they have any social media filters at all. I've seen some FB stuff that makes this seem like a calculated PR move.

 

I wasn't disputing you, only hoping you or somebody could point me to better information than I found myself. Because I don't like buying beer made by jerks and I have never had reason to believe Trinity were jerks. I live in Denver so I'm not plugged into what goes on in the Springs.

I've stopped buying DBC products, I've stopped buying Elevation over the Elevation vs Renegade business, I will never buy a Magic Hat product over the ludicrous West 6th business, and when Gordon Biersch made Oskar Blues take hero Gordon Knight's first name off that beer, I never spent another dollar at a Gordon Biersch.

So finding out Trinity has been a dick over c&ds will impact my buying; I do buy Red Swingline despite the price and one of my 11 beer reviews (I don't like reviewing) is pretty much a sloppy blowjob (+18.8% rDev) to TPS Report.

On re-reading my post, I can see how you reacted as you did. I apologize for that was not my intent. When I said my google-fu was weak, I was not being ironic, but truthful.

Sorry for my poor communication skills, which seem to be about on the level with my (unironically shitty) google skills.

PS: finding out they're suing Crooked Stave over the French word for "old" or "aged"--well, that does it for me. Adios, Trinity.

 

Haha, that's another way to put it

 

Agreed on all fronts - except for I still think Elevation makes a much better beer than Renegade. I also think that both of those dudes take themselves much too seriously. I remember hearing something on CPR about Renegade once and after a 2 min interview thinking "this dude sounds like kind of a ****" haha...

I'd like to think that there are too many good places in our state that are run by GOOD dudes and ladies to waste time with places run by jerks.

 

A couple of things from my tiny perspective--

Social Media can hurt more than it can help. At least, it's quicker to inflict harm. The Twitter post is bad enough, but even if it wasn't posted, someone at Trinity was thinking that. And that's a shame

The price point on Trinity's beers has improved, but I think their bigger problem is the label art. Yeah, looks fun and unique...but horrible for sales. People don't know what the heck it is

Name disputes are part of the business. I don't fault any place defending their "mark", but I do wish they go about their defense is a better way

 

Agreed to an extent. But when Denver Pearl changes their name because Denver Beer thinks it has the right to the word Denver or Trunity attempts the same thing with Primitif (which is not even in the title but the description) it looks like a petty move. Really "sours" me on that particular brewery