Green Flash pulling out of New England

Discussion in 'New England' started by SunDevilBeer, Jan 15, 2018.

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  1. SunDevilBeer

    SunDevilBeer Pooh-Bah (1,945) May 9, 2003 Massachusetts
    Pooh-Bah

    Per West Coaster:

    http://www.westcoastersd.com/2018/01/15/19297/

    Once upon a time (early/mid 00's), GF West Coast IPA, and to a lesser degree Hop Rod Rye, were sought-after beers around New England. With their success, GF pulled a stunt of reducing their 6-pack to a 4 pack (and charging the same high-end price), were openly indignant about putting dates on their bottles, had a terrible re-brand and pointless bottle re-shape, and last but not least, their beer turned less than mediocre.

    I visited their Poway, CA brewery a year ago (mostly out of nostalgia) and everything about it was sad - from the mediocre beer to the forced too-cool atmosphere.

    Wonder how long those already-stale stashes of Soul Style will sit in local packies?
     
    jrnyc, meefmoff and AlcahueteJ like this.
  2. Sweatshirt

    Sweatshirt Initiate (0) Jan 27, 2014 New Hampshire
    Deactivated

    Thier recipe changes were for the worse. The 6 to 4 move as well. I haven't bought a GF beer since they got rid of Rayon Vert. They will not be missed by me Hopefully they take Alpine with them.
     
  3. pbrian

    pbrian Pooh-Bah (2,056) Feb 8, 2001 Connecticut
    Pooh-Bah Society

    Yeah, when I saw the headline, I thought Good! But I was thinking about Alpine...
     
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  4. Sweatshirt

    Sweatshirt Initiate (0) Jan 27, 2014 New Hampshire
    Deactivated

    Have you been a fan of the Alpine that gets sent out? I have found it very forgettable. I've heard the beer coming out of Alpine is still very good but whatever GF is making hasn't spurred a rebuy at all.

    Just curious if people are actually really into it and it's just me.
     
  5. pbrian

    pbrian Pooh-Bah (2,056) Feb 8, 2001 Connecticut
    Pooh-Bah Society

    I totally forgot that GF makes Alpine. The comment was based generally on my opinion that there is plenty of excellent regional beer and I have no time for overpriced CA beer. That said, I haven't minded the Alpine beer that I have had, Windows Up is certainly good when it's fresh, but I don't know where it was made.
     
  6. meefmoff

    meefmoff Pooh-Bah (1,848) Jul 6, 2014 Massachusetts
    Pooh-Bah Society Trader

    Man, I remember being excited to see them on tap in 2010 when I moved back to Boston (I remember excitedly ordering their triple IPA on tap at Sunset around then. There's a memory full of defunctness: style, brewery and bar all dead!).

    Haven't even given them a spare thought in years though apart from reading the Alpine threads here. Crazy how fast the beer world changed.....
     
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  7. SunDevilBeer

    SunDevilBeer Pooh-Bah (1,945) May 9, 2003 Massachusetts
    Pooh-Bah

    Yeah the contracted Alpine will be gone too. The stale overpriced 6ers of Duet & Nelson will rot @ packies too along side the rest of the lineup.

    Forgot about Rayon Vert. Nice little trip to Brett-town, but they $hit-canned that one a while ago despite significant push-back IIRC.

    GF really has a rep of NOT listening to customers if it’s not apparent by now.
     
  8. Kozaka

    Kozaka Maven (1,464) Apr 25, 2006 Connecticut
    Trader

    Must have been around 2010 for me too, would drive up to Table & Vine from central CT to grab GF, Bear Republic, Troegs, etc.

    My last purchase was Rayon as well; was that 2015 when they entered CT?
     
  9. Sweatshirt

    Sweatshirt Initiate (0) Jan 27, 2014 New Hampshire
    Deactivated

    RV was a thier best beer IMO. That was the straw that broke the camel's back for me. I actually found an accidentally aged 2012 single 12 ounce of it at a store a year back and grabbed it. Talked to the owner about it and he just gave it to me. It was terrific. The only true loss for me.
     
    Auror likes this.
  10. wehaveamap

    wehaveamap Pundit (783) Jan 16, 2010 Massachusetts
    Trader

    I had a bomber of Nelson right around when fake alpine first came and it was fantastic. The stuff I've had on draft (and any subsequent bottles) were all fine but nothing special. Won't really miss it but there were worse beers, main problem was 90% of the places that carried it also had something better.
     
  11. Justin42

    Justin42 Initiate (0) Apr 3, 2013 Massachusetts
    Trader

    I traded for a couple bottles of Expo a few years ago and thought it was phenomenal. So I was quite excited when Alpine started showing up in MA. But everything I had was just fine; not bad, but nothing worth revisiting. I never had anything else from Alpine pre-GF, so can't say whether the quality changed or whether Expo was just a much better beer.
     
  12. Davl22

    Davl22 Maven (1,329) Sep 27, 2011 New Hampshire
    Trader

    I was a big fan of Le Freak and Double Stout. Those were some of my first tastes of craft beer. Bummer.
     
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  13. EnronCFO

    EnronCFO Pooh-Bah (1,969) Mar 29, 2007 Massachusetts
    Pooh-Bah Society

    I only had Expo once pre-GF and remembered really liking it. But was also a one off and I was just getting into IPAs way back then, so not a great comp. was pumped when they showed up in MA. Tried it once, thought it was good, then never bought again because the price was like 25-50% higher than other 6-pack IPAs at the store. I feel like Green Flash might end up as a business school case study someday.
     
    wehaveamap likes this.
  14. pointbreak

    pointbreak Aspirant (257) Dec 16, 2017 Massachusetts

    They set up their east coast operations in VA Beach, VA not too long ago, I would imagine this would help with the freshness on the east coast somewhat at least in the last year or so.
     
  15. OTB

    OTB Pooh-Bah (1,779) Sep 2, 2011 California
    Pooh-Bah Society

    Hi guys, if I may drop into your thread to comment on this. I'm a southern California guy who for many years was a loyal Alpine customer. I live about 2 hours north of Alpine but have a satellite office in San Diego, so getting super fresh OG Alpine was easy for me and I stocked up almost weekly. Back then it was what we called the holy trinity, Nelson, Duet, and Pure Hoppiness that we sought out in bombers and growlers. What Greenflash did to that line-up was criminal, as anyone who was lucky enough to have had OG Nelson and then the plunk GF said was Nelson knows what I mean, but there was plenty of blame to go around from both parties. When the new GF employees came in to the old OG Alpine brewery telling us long time consumers that the beers were exactly the same was when I said adios. Green Flush as we call them cannot brew a drinkable beer on their own let alone try to duplicate a legendary line up that was once Alpine Beer Co. Even here in So Cal you will see bottles of GF beers on shelves that are months old. They are in business in-spite of themselves.

    Cheers,
     
  16. papposilenus

    papposilenus Grand Pooh-Bah (3,208) Jun 21, 2014 New Hampshire
    Pooh-Bah Society Trader

    Never particularly cared for Green Flash and won't miss them a bit. I'd hope that their departure would make room on the shelves for something better but, this being New Hampshire, I won't hold my breath.
     
    Jbrews likes this.
  17. seanwhite

    seanwhite Initiate (0) Jan 31, 2008 Massachusetts

    Echoing the sentiment of others, I loved Imperial IPA in 2008-2010 range. That was a really dank beer. I tried it more recently and thought, A.) recipe changed and for the much worse or B.) my taste/palette changed substantially.

    Maybe both. Ill miss what they once were, but not what they became.
     
  18. BearsOnAcid

    BearsOnAcid Pooh-Bah (2,215) Mar 17, 2009 Massachusetts
    Pooh-Bah Society

    They relaunched RV a couple years ago as Baroque Beligique in the Cellar 3 Series
     
  19. LKAZZI

    LKAZZI Initiate (0) Aug 31, 2014 Connecticut

    Yep, original Nelson and Duet at Alpine were great, so we're expo and pure hoppiness. Awesome little place to visit and stock up (on Tues am) before the GF hostile takeover.
     
    OTB likes this.
  20. OTB

    OTB Pooh-Bah (1,779) Sep 2, 2011 California
    Pooh-Bah Society

    In my OP I didn't mention Expo as as most know it was a once a year release back then. It was the first time I ever stood in a line to get a beer, this was the Expo release in 2010 when it was at it's height of hypedom, 6 bottles @ 6.99 a bomber was the max allotment. What I miss most, besides OG Nelson was the amazing BBQ at the original pub, it was a small pub, maybe 40 max but the food was amazing. A world class tiny little brewery that met an embarrassing end. Recently GF/Alpine have begun trying to hype the return of Nelson in 2018, yea right.

    Cheers
     
    CTHopman likes this.
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