Oxbow: New Bottles

damn, gonna have to get my ass to portland. These guys make wild ales that are up there with Allagash and Hill Farmstead. Catalyst, Cavern, Momoko, Synthesis, all knockouts. That's just off the top of my head.

 

I'm wondering what "relatively small run" means? Oxbow bottles are now highly visible in liquor stores in Maine and MA and similar to Allagash, while they make some of the best saisons in New England, they've lost their trading allure for better or worse depending on how you look at it, so given this small run - maybe Oxbow is trying for some kind of a "Lil Sal" like enthusiasm among us wild / Belgian enthusiasts - especially considering the timing with the Dinner release?

 

I don't think they're trying to create hype. Some of their releases are just smaller batches than others, particularly the fruited ones (Momoko, First Fruits, Professor Plum, Cavern). I'm assuming because they're using local fruit most of the time.

 

Oxbow is top 3 for me. Always on the lookout. Thanks.

 

One of the reasons I truly love Oxbow is, despite your trying to double think how they're trying to manipulate their market, I really think they don't care about the beer hysteria. For beers like these releases, they make as much as they can and they sell it all. They've never really pandered to hype. Liquid Swords or Arboreal sat on the selves as long as Catalyst has, before people realized these are gold dust. Has there ever been a line waiting for a release of their beer? More often people complaint that the beer sold out before they found it was good. Low Bush is superb and compares favorably with "Little Sal". And related to not finding out about, keep an eye out for Fruited Fridays, an infrequently recurrent event at the tasting room. Notification seldom goes online more than a couple days in advance. The last event previewed both Low Bush (with Little Sal as a guest tap) and Supa Momo, with old favorites such as Prof Plum and the new First Fruits. And, if you missed it, the Novare Res takeover on Saturday was insane. Example: Freeze a keg of Infinite Darkness- "Infinite Darkness Ice" and "Infinite Darkness Lite”.

 

The Oxbow/Novare Res tap take event this last Saturday was simply amazing with what seemed to be about 50 unique offerings.
Next time I'll have to book a room nearby to get threw more of the list. Their unfiltered lager and double dry-hopped beers were delicious, and my favorites new samples from Oxbow were Phosphorescence, Space Aged Barrel Boy, Mr. Sparkle, and Supa Momo.

 

Stoked for Low Bush and Native Wild. I agree w/ you guys on Adams not caring about trade value of his offerings. The dudes just stick to making their liquid, as always. That 800 bottle run of 3 Barrels Deep I would surely consider a small batch run, but only just that. No market ploy. Cheers to continuous goods from the woods!

 

Good comments, no, great comments - I sometimes get stuck in my small little BA world and forget that there are brewers and drinkers that don't trade or heck, visit BA or even rate beers...jeez. At the time I wrote that I was in the middle of mail trading for a whale (don't get into that bad habit...) so I had trading on my mind, and missed the 15 minute edit deadline, so I regret not being able to go back and change it, after re-reading it.

In any case, thanks for the jolt of reality - and yeah, completely agree, "gold dust" is a great descriptor for lots of what Oxbow puts out. As Sweatshirt said above - top 3 is right. I'm just a little lost right now in all the new market entrants and need keep focused on some of the solid stuff we have right here in our backyard. Are you a shrink by any chance? Cheers!

 

Had Low Bush at the Portland Bottling and Blending spot on Saturday night and it was great. Nice carb, berry was light but present. Finish had a nice cheesy funk when breathing out through my nose. Would recommend, but to go bottles were all gone. Not as good as some of their other fruited stuff IMO but would drink again.

 

I used to love Oxbow until opened my eyes...

Oxbow's prices are way too high for very little and there's a lack of difference in taste between 10 types of beer I've had from them. I really don't understand them anymore...

They're most certainly NOT in the same league as Allagash, Hill Farmstead etc.

 

They've priced me out with $18-22/500ml bottles in Boston. I appreciate their styles but can't bring myself to pick up bottles regularly.

 

I agree with the overpricing camp and do think they're pricing themselves out of their own market but only to a certain extent - I don't think it's as much of an issue for many of the people on this website though, which represents a good portion of its target customer base. In general, overpricing in a growing industry whose bubble is still a long way from bursting is much less of a manufacturer's problem than a consumer's...

Having said that, I wrote a blog about this overpricing dynamic in the national forum if you feel like taking a gander as I think overpricing in the Wild / Sour market category in general is rampant and is more driven by distribution and profit margins and the like (whereas in Oxbow's case, I think it's more driven by brewing process and supply costs).

https://www.beeradvocate.com/commun...-boston-market-and-beyond-wilds-sours.498943/

As for comparisons with Hill Farmstead, Allagash, etc., my take is that everyone has their own opinion. I personally love them all, but do agree that there is somewhat less variability among Oxbow's different beers than with other breweries in this class, but I am certainly not the tasting afficianado who can make distinctions from one beer to the next, although I'm sure I could do a reasonably good job in a taste test.

What I really wonder about is how much longer I can continue to spread this love (and cold hard cash) around when Oxbow comes out with its second $18 500 ml bottle in a month, right on top of an unlimited Allagash Coolship Red bottle release (a $60 investment on my part). And since I live in Boston, I cooled my heels with a nominal $22.05 single Red Broken Angel purchase last week at Trillium, but if I lived equidistant west of Portland, I would have had to part with an incredibly egregious $35 for the latest Flora. Oh, and let's not forget the three bottle limit on that bad boy...girl...!

 

Their bottles range from $12-17.50 in ME, depending on how long it was aged in barrels/bottle conditioned. I've honestly never had much sticker shock with their beers. Allagash charges $15 for a 375ml of golden brett/midnight brett/tiarna etc. All beers that aren't aged in oak long term. I feel like I get what I pay for with Oxbow. Not unlike Jester King or HF, all of Oxbow's beers have a sense of place to them, which I don't think many other american wild producers have accomplished.

 

Can't wait to try this! $25 for a 500ml is steep but a lot of work went into this beer

 

They bottled this beer in 750ml bottles.