Pour Decisions/Bent Brewstillery Merger

I still miss Pour Decisions. I happily (and wisftully) still drink from my PD moustache pint glass, but I just can't get excited for Bent's original line up - and while I'll admit I haven't had much from Bent recently, I no longer feel the creativity that Kristen was bringing at PD. Maybe it's because I'm not seeing their beer, either.

But, I hope they do well and Kristen can keep brewing for as long as he wants. I have nothing but well wishes for the man.

 

I have tried both Nordic blonde and the dark fatha about a year ago and was not impressed at all....there just seems to be an arrogance there with Bent...we're going to make unaged bourbon and gin...really! Wow..

There is little respect for the craft with these guys . I do see their cans in liquor stores but with the choices available to us in Minnesota there is really no reason to buy an inferior product.

 

I dig the Uber Lupin and Moar. Tasty beers, IMO.

 

I feel the same way. It reminded me of how most taprooms used to feel back in the late 90's and 2000's. However, when I've mentioned this to friends, I get the kind of eye rolls that suggest Bent probably made the appropriate business decision.

 

I like both of those beers as well. Far from terrible.

 

I also miss the spartan PD taproom, it had that Dave's sort of beer over image, brewer behind the bar feel to it. I personally liked their old lineup, with their focus on sours and some underrepresented styles.

 

This is only me speculating, but I'd bet that at some point when they are where they want to be with their canning and building the flagships, you'll see those goses and berliners bottled again.

 

They have some kind of sour thing out right now called Funked Up.

 

I would think given the limited selection of available sours and the difficulty standing out in an increasingly crowded craft beer market, someone would figure out that they could clean house by offering a canned four pack of sours similar to destihl or westbrook

 

The Bent Brewstillery brand is so sophomoric. The names and labels feel like they were conceived in junior high. The BB logo looks like something lifted from a cheesy cartoon. The whole concept just feels wrong. Not that the PD image was perfectly polished and well designed, but it was cohesive and fit with the product they were delivering.
The transition from PD to BB hasn't felt right and seems to have been managed poorly. The whole thing has left me with a bad taste in my mouth, but not nearly as bad as some of the beers they are putting out.

 

Had their Rose Gose at Town Hall one day as a guest tap. Thought it was pretty good. Haven't had any of their other products though.

 

I bought the Living Social(?) tap room thing and used that yesterday with a friend at the BB taproom. I wanted to read some reviews to see if my take was echoed by anyone else, and found this thread.

Background: I've known Kris since before PDB and was excited for that venture. I thought he and BJ(?) did a very good job of their traditional and creative styles. The beer was clean, well made, unique, and usually quite nice. The bottles I bought of Gose and Berlinner Weiss were great.

I used this Living Social thing as a way to "force" myself to go back up there and check out the taproom for the first time since the merger. Holy shit was I shocked by the remodel. (I actually was unaware that it had been remodeled at all.) It has changed utterly. I mean, it's nice. Very nice. Too nice? Many of you have expressed similar thoughts here.

But really it's about the beer right? So let's get into that. We got a flight of 4. The two lighter ones (Nordic Blonde and an IPA I think) we had tasted almost exactly the same. There was an unpleasant harsh metallic sharpness that astounded us. I asked if Kris was still the brewer and we were told he is. WTF is going on in the beer then? I know he can make clean beer, but this was off. The sour one was almost undrinkable. (My friend and I are both big sour fans). I can't put my finger on it but there was some kind of cleaning product taste that we did not like. The stout was... ok. But it's pretty hard to mess that up. And it was not particularly good.

It was a Sunday so I couldn't use my $10 credit towards any beer to go, so I got another flight. It said flights were $8 on the board. So I ordered one of those and wanted to try the pyment mead as part of the flight. I thought. She had put 3 samples into my flight board, and then poured a glass of the mead. I gave her the $10 coupon and she said it would be another $5 after the credit. "The flight costs $15?" I asked. Yes. Not wanting to figure it out or fight over it, I just gave her another $5. (I think maybe I got charged for a flight PLUS a glass of mead, but I didn't even get a full flight. Weird).

One of the new beers was a Black IPA. It was also not great, with being a touch too roasty. It was not particularly hop forward either.

The pyment mead was at least ok, but not a beer.

One of the most enjoyable "beers" of the whole experience was the radler they made, which was of course ~ half lemon lime soda and half beer.

In summary, we left confused and discouraged. We want the best for Kris and I don't know the back story (I will go read those articles you have mentioned) but I don't know what is going on there. I consider him an acquaintance/friend. The beer is not good, and that is a huge change from PDB days.

I am overrun with pint glasses and have no use for a BB growler, so we just left those on the table, telling people around us they were welcome to them if they wanted.

 

The BB tap room reminds me of a bowling alley bar for some reason.
I'd give anything to have PD back in business.

 

Anyone try the new batch of Salinity? Salinity and Verity were two of the best things produced by PD. I hope the BB version is as good.

 

. My brother in law and I were huge poor decision fans before the merger and were excited to see salinity in their cooler. We split a bottle and it was under carbonated and had very little flavor. It had me wondering if Kristen is still doing the brewing, because it almost seemed like someone else was brewing with his recipe, but doesn't know what they are doing. If the bottle in the fridge is any better I will let you know

 

Drinking Salinity right now. My bottle is actually over carbed. Gushed a bit, carbonation in the finish a bit too aggressive for my taste. I thought it was solid. Flavors are subtle for sure, different than the old Salinity. I get a faint tropical fruit aroma and flavor which doesn't make any sense, but works. I gave it a 3.8 on the other site, I gave OG Salinity a 4.3 back in the day. If I could get a 6 pack of this for $10 I would buy it again, but I won't buy another $10 bomber.