Phase Three Brewing (2019)

If the hype craters, is the beer really still good though?

 

Yeah just listened...sounds like while Shaun had creative freedom to make whatever beer he wanted, but he had little to control of the beer after it was made.

It’s my impression from listening that he wants to get more of it out to distribution, instead of filling a brewpub. Specifically when he says, people drive 40 mins to the brewery, than wait in line for an hour, and then they unfairly judge the beer based on the time and effort they put in to acquire it.

Personally, I prefer a physical brewery release vs the the 100% distribution model because if I really want a specific beer, I can judge how much time and effort it takes to acquire said beer. Then the hours of standing in line are on me because I chose to do it. The Hop Butcher model, for lack of a better example, leaves a lot need to be at the right spot at the right time type of situations. Now obviously a hybrid model would best for all IMO.

 

Listen to the podcast. It's a great interview.

Here are my quick notes from it:
-Phase Three has three owners: Shaun, Evan (former More restaurant manager) and Shaun's wife Brittany
-Contract brewing out of Lake Zurich Brewing to start
-Doing self-distro
-Shaun bummed to be leaving 65 whiskey barrels of beer behind at More
-Shaun enjoyed creative freedom at More but he and Evan didn't agree with some business decisions being made above them. They did want to get ahead of the expansions by letting ownership know they were leaving before the financing was finalized for the Huntley production brewery
-Production-focused brewery with a taproom is their longer term goal
-16-ounce cans; plan to get first ones in stores in April
-Gonna be well over a year before first BA release
-Most product (85 percent) to be canned (v. kegged) to start but they'll flexible
-Likely late 2020 before they have their own place
-LZB has a 15-barrel brewhouse like Ram did (More’s was 10)

 

Any insight at all where they are scouting for locations? This is of upmost importance, as I am looking forward to another burbs vs. city argument/discussion.

 

Thank you for the summary recap.

Regarding the 65 barrels, I'd suggest some sort of Ocean's 11 type plan.

 

If MoRE is clever, they will milk those 65 barrels as much as they can. Super limited bottle releases (250 bottles max), all line-up first come, first serve in warmer weather to draw the biggest crowds. Wax sealed with textured labels.

 

Phase Three will never get off the ground after a disgruntled Shaun gets jailed for blowing up More. Forensic scientists will unravel the plot after discovering the "accidental explosion" that brought down the brewpub was actually a deliberate attempt after finding the remnants 65 whiskey barrels that had been full of Fruited placed at the various structural locations of the building.....

 

Or do the huge release or festival release on Phase Three's grand opening day.

 

Well Lake Zurich Brewing is 7 miles away from my work so that is good news for now

 

If they truly let More know before More was committed (financially or legally) to Huntley, then that is the respectable thing to do. I was in a similar position when I started my business and you want to leave your former employer in as best a position as possible. Anything else is considered bad business.

I am just surprised he didn't do this two years ago when leaving Ram. His reputation was just as large at that point and I think he would have been awfully successful with the same business model as he is doing now. Maybe he has reasons or maybe he never considered it a that time. Either way, things have a way or working out in life.

I know this isn't the More thread but how easy will it be for them to find a brewer (either on staff or externally) to brew the More recipes?

 

They most likely wont be selling the majority of the product out of LZB.

 

RAM's brewing set-up was already established. I don't believe he had experience outfitting a brewery from the ground up. More gave him the ability to get paid while learning what goes into a build out. Those lessons add up in the long run as cost savings since the failures aren't coming out of your pocket the first time. You get to see what worked and what didn't work so it is as close to perfected when you have to fly on your own financial backing....

 

And thank god. I don’t need all you pasty neck beards depleting resources and trashing my hood.

 

Yes but I should theoretically be close to their first stops of distro

 

It actually sounds like the brewing equipment was in place when they hired him. He had them move stuff around because originally the brewhouse was right outside where people were eating.

 

The guy has a wife and kids, even if 2 years ago was a good time professionally (which @HouseofWortship makes a good case above why it may not have been) maybe it wasn't the right time personally to do something as risky as starting his own brewery.

 

Hey - we're not allowed to care about kids in the beer world.

 

Safe to say those BA beers don't have adjuncts, right? So they really won't be true Shaun beers outside of probably the next Mendhi and the barleywine.

One more tidbit on top of your very good recap: He left RAM when he did because he refused to fill barrels for them knowing he wouldn't be there in 12 months.

Edit: And one more: due to not needing on-tap beer, the typical IPA batch will increase from 100 cases to 500 cased of product. Obviously that's spread out across Chicagoland but it's still an increase in take-home beers

 

Plus, two years is an eternity in craft.

 

AFAIK Shaun brews his stouts with nibs but no adjuncts go into the barrels.