Breakside issues...from an anxious devotee

I think a bit of paranoia.

When they brew their flagship IPA they do so in mass quantity. But it's so damn popular, and good, that draft options tend to be relatively limited if you're not quick on the draw.

Fred Meyer charging $17 for a growler fill of Lunch Break has absolutely nothing to do with Breakside. Plenty of kegs to go around. Purely a pricing decision by Fred Meyer.

Wanderlust production tends to be a bit hit or miss but nothing out of the norm. We are tapping a keg this week. Could probably do a keg per week if we wanted so I don't see any issues once again from production.

 

Hawthorne Fred Meyers is always expensive for growlers. They wanted $14.99 for a growler of Drop Top one time. Very rarely I find do the prices and beer match.

 

Hey folks-
Ben over at Breakside here; happy to address some of the concerns above...

Yes, our website was hacked a few weeks ago, so we have been dealing with that. As far as we know, it is up and running properly now and the beer menus are updating regularly, but if you are having any issues please feel free to email us and let us know. I don't handle website stuff, but I'm happy to forward any concerns to the folks that deal with it.

As for Fred Meyer selling Lunch Break for $17/growler, that's entirely their pricing. We sell our kegs of Lunch Break at the same price to our all of our Oregon distributors who sell it to retailers at a single price. The retailer is responsible for final mark up. Lunch Break growlers at our spots are $12 ($8 in Milwaukie on Monday and Tuesday!) and 22 oz should retail at $3.99-$4.29 depending on the store.

Most of the Wanderlust kegs that we make end up going to our wholesalers outside of Oregon-- Seattle and Hawaii take most of it--since they don't get any Breakside IPA. That said, we do ship our Oregon wholesalers a good amount of Wanderlust kegs, and they almost always have it in stock. I think that the demand for Breakside IPA (whether you think it's the better beer or not...and even our own staff is about 50/50 on who prefers Wanderlust vs Breakside IPA) causes a lot of bars to pass over Wanderlust as a draft option, even when it is available. Most of the big grocery and bottle stores will carry both of our IPAs, but some only choose to stock one, and when that happens, they almost always go for Breakside IPA.

For what it's worth, we almost always have fresh Wanderlust draft and bottles available in Milwaukie. The Dekum pub only pours Wanderlust draft when we run low on Breakside IPA, though fresh bottles are almost always available there as well. Sorry about the pitcher thing-- the bar staff does that when the beer gets foamy during keg changeovers on our long-draw draft system, and they try to minimize lost beer. They shouldn't be pouring it that way 98% of the time.

All is well production-wise for us. We're making and selling more beer than we ever have, including more IPA and Wanderlust than ever before. We have great hop contracts through the end of the year that allow us to make the IPAs as often as we can with the hops that are best for those beers.

Thanks for the concerns and questions; we're glad that you dig the beers and will keep making the best beer we can!

 

Please send some regular IPA to Seattle again. I don't make it to Portland as often as I'd like.

 

A couple questions, if Breakside is still lurking:

1) Post Time Kolsch, which I enjoyed tonight (again!), is currently listed as retired here on BA. True?

2) Any plans to can any of your other offerings? (Breakside IPA? Please?)

3) Breakside Gin Barrel Double Witbier was one of the most unique and creative beers I've enjoyed in a while. Any plans to resurrect it?

Thanks for the great beer!

 

I am amazed at the pricing! Ill will be loading up on these to bring back to Louisiana

 

I second the canning thing Breakside IPA in cans would be great..hopefully 12 ozers

 

Thats pretty average for much Oregon craft beer bombers.
Its better out here!

 

Completely unrelated, but are you guys going to flash freeze your fresh hops with liquid nitrogen again this year? That simcoe FH IPA was one of my favorite beers of 2014.

 

It's on tap at the Sixgill right now and tasting mighty fine. That is, unless the beer listed as Flagship IPA is a different one from the Breakside IPA.

 

Yep! Fresh Simcoes are due to arrive early next week. I'd guess that Maletis will get kegs of that the Tuesday after Labor Day. Also doing a version of Wanderlust with Fresh Cascades and a new IPA with fresh Mosaics all using the liquid Nitrogen technique.

 

That's the same beer. Some of the bars up in Seattle call it that to avoid confusion with Wanderlust.

 

1) Not sure why it's listed as retired. It's a summer seasonal. Should still be kicking around Portland and Seattle right now.

2) Not right now. With the new fancy bottling line we got in in April, we'll be focusing on six packs instead of cans in the near future.

3) Did you get a chance to try Bellwether? That's the current version of the Gin Barrel Sour Double Wit, though it is a little different than the version we brewed in 2011 since it also had Thai lime leaf in it. Bellwether is due to be released again in Q2 2016.

Cheers!

 

When you have a chance, I'd love to get the full details on each of these FH beers. Please let me know the best way to contact you about it. Or, I got info from Fred last year, and sent him an email a few days ago.