Phase Three Brewing (2019)

LZ brew - so hot right now.

 

After finishing the podcast, I somewhat wish/dream that Shaun/Evan had gone the Kickstarter route to raise the dough to jumpstart their brewery/taproom idea, rather than waiting the 18 months or so down the road at least as they state to get that going. I think they'd have the support for it, and I don't think they'd be as beholden to their pledge backers as they would be to say other ownership (or shareholders in a public company). But then again this would mean it'd be a lot longer before they had any beer out and available to the public, much longer than the contract route they've taken with LZB. Good on them.

And hey, they could always do the KS route on top of everything else to help raise funds for when they want to do their own location, I guess!

 

Jesus Christ, there's already 5 pages? When I go back there better be a lot of shitposting or you're all insane.

 

I'll go back to my earlier point and say that Shaun is trying to beat More to production distro so that if the beers are clones he can claim his was to market first....

 

While I understand the Patel's had all the capital risk and Shaun had none, the Patel's built their business on Shaun being their head brewer. How could anyone not see how Shaun's leaving would substantially affect the business? It's not like Shaun doesn't want equity in a business, he is now putting himself into that exact position. In my line of work, when you have talent that brings in the substantial portion of your business, you make that person an equity partner to prevent them from taking their talent, reputation, money etc. to a competitor.

Maybe Shaun didn't want to be in the business with the Patels, and if that's the case then I would have asked for a non-complete clause to protect the capital investment. Sure, they may have received some backlash like TG, but TG still sells out every special release because they continue to make great beer.

 

Kickstarter is a terrible way to finance a brewery. If for no other reason than it's not going to raise nearly enough money to actually finance a brewery.

 

Do you think LZB beers will become better by proxy?

 

Is the hype and good graces surrounding this new brewery solely attributed to Shaun? I don't really know head brewers in the Chicagoland area but it seems like he is universally well liked (?). Or is is combo of the departure from More and what happened there along with expectations for the new brewery? This seems like a pretty big story and I'm just trying to understand why. Looking forward to listening to the podcast.

 

Keep your expectations very low.

 

People have been obsessed with Shaun for years. People think he is “king of adjuncts.” I think some of his beers are pretty good, and I’ve enjoyed stopping in at More for lunch when I’m in the area. But I’ve also shrugged at a lot of his most-sought-after beers. Your mileage may vary.

 

yes

 

1 - He wasn't the head brewer. But that raises an interesting point because there was a time when TG's head brewer (Mike Saboe) did leave and TG ended up bringing him back. I don't think there's any official report on what it took, but Clark Lewey was probably smart enough to realize what he was losing with Saboe and made some concessions to get him back.

1(a) - TG implemented non-compete clauses after some of their assistant brewers went to work for another brewery you may have heard of, Pulpit Rock - literally down the street from TG's old taproom.

2 + 3 - These distinctions don't make the case for not getting a non-compete clause. If anything, they make the case for either giving him equity or a non-compete. Unless there's an agreement otherwise, all the recipes created by Shaun while at More belong to More. So now More has a stable of beers it can claim as their own. But Shaun is the face of More brewing, and none of us would have cared about it as much as we do had Shaun not been named head brewer. Are any of us going to care enough about More to line up for releases when the barrel aged beers run out? Or are we going to follow the vision of Shaun to his new venture? My guess is that this can be answered by whether we all still line up at Ram - Schaumburg for Juicy, Side Note, Chaos, etc. Actually, we can't do that because Ram closed last October.

 

RAM Schaumburg was around for 19 years....Shaun's contribution was giving a short life line to a terminal dinosaur. I don't see More suddenly reverting to making only traditional 20th century beer styles...

 

Three-juiced? Assuming Pat Riley doesn't already have the trademark.

 

Bit of a tangent, but can someone fill me in real quick on what happened to RAM after Shaun left? I get that his assistant, Justin, took over, but someone said he's now at Hop Butcher? When did he move over there, was that before RAM closed in October, etc? Only thing I heard about the place was that it closed in October, didn't hear anything else. Thanks!

 

Not the same Illinois beer guy cachet, but I think they've done a good job of establishing themselves. They're a known quantity out of state just as a high level hazy and pastry stout producer, not as the home of Shaun the Brewer. And they seem to be pretty successful as a restaurant and local hangout.

 

pretty sure thats how pipeworks got their foundation going. right?

 

“king of adjuncts”