The Alchemist (2019)

Has anyone had this most recent batch of Ouroboros? The last one was really tasty, but I remember them being surprised that it turned out the way it did.

 

I've always wanted to try this beer. Did it turn out differently than usual?

 

Check out the YouTube video from the last run. It was great, but he was surprised that it ended up "sparkling bright", perhaps from the orange peel. I just figured if it is that unpredictable, I wanted to know how this was drinking.

 

I grabbed some Ouroboros this weekend but have not had any yet.

On another note, was surprised to find Alena on tap at Blackback this weekend. I asked the bartender about it and she indicated that they may get Alchemist on tap more often as Alchemist has more on hand. Also, CoOp in White River Junction had a sign that they will soon start getting shipments of Heady.

 

Doc Ponds has been putting up Alchemist kegs on Fridays during ski season. They had Luscious, Alena, Double Dry Hopped Crusher etc. pretty cool to see.

 

Looks like VT wide distro is happening.

 

Wow, that’s great. It’s always been a dream of mine to have Heady in the fridge at all times!

 

I can only assume Brattleboro Food Co-Op will get drops of these in the future....I'm so pumped!!

 

Didn't watch the vid but a family member relayed this news. Will they start dating the cans?

Its crazy. Even 1-2 years back, Frost and upperpass were sitting beyond 2 months old. I can't imagine now. I only visit once a year. But good news as I'm closer to southern VT than northern. I've had 18 month old HT and found it fine. But I'm just interested in their new mindset. I'm guessing sales are down and capacity is in excess. I hope they can lure southern locals in. Many of their breweries are hitting it out of the park. Competition now stiffens.

 

My understanding is distrobution throughout vt has always been in the long term plans.They wanted to do it right and consistently,so did not rush.

 

I haven't had it before, bought a couple 4-packs on a whim earlier this week. I really liked it. It has a nice orange flavor without being a NE juice-bomb milkshake. Lush or Julius it is not.

I have a feeling this is less about excess capacity and more about dialing in how much is needed at the mothership as they increase the amount they were distributing themselves. A year ago I could only walk out of CBC in Waterbury with two 4-packs of HT... now they'll let you walk out with a case. They've slowly been dialing in how much to make to increase volume appropriately. As the above poster stated, I think they always wanted to increase reach.

 

In the past month I've seen Focal and Alena on tap at Doc Ponds. As tempting as that was I can't pass up Society and Solitude when it's on the draft list.... lol.

 

Haha, yeah, I didn't say I had Alena on tap, just that it was there! I have a hard time passing up River Roost on draft when I am at the Blackback.

 

Ouroburos is legit. Definitely one of the best beers I've had from them.

 

Remember how there were long lines for like the first week they were open in Stow, and people were talking about how they undershot their expansion?

Demand probably is down, but like everyone said, they had this in the plans and I don't think they ever took their own hype seriously enough to think that the world wouldn't eventually move on to the next hot thing. Remember too that expanding to the rest of Vermont is... actually not that much expansion. They were already in Burlington which is by far the most populated area of the state. So no, I don't think this is a big deal. Especially not when a lot of their peers are already shelf staples around Boston.

 

I was at Mount Snow this weekend. Beverage Den in Bennington and a little store in West Dover both told me they sold out of Heady and Focal very quickly. They had cans of both at the mountain on Friday but sold out by Saturday afternoon.

 

@old bean. Just thinking out loud but people can now only travel to the edge of VT, say Brattleboro, get their heady and go back to say NYC. That's a 2:07 savings one way. I'm definitely down for a Hr road trip vs 3-4 hours for a quick fix.

I do know there is a certain element that that is not online 24/7 and above the hype. At last year's VT brewers fest in March at Killington, Lawson's had the longest line. I can see alchemist prospering for a good year. Time for others to up their game even more.

The truck chasing may actually occur in these lower regions now. I'm sure they'll figure out limits and how much to send south. I'm hopeful by August, I can drive into Rutland and find some.

 

Does anyone know what hops are used in Crusher?

 

I believe the only info that's ever been revealed about it is that it's dry-hopped only with Citra and that there's a little bit of Summit in the recipe.

 

As mentioned above, it was a nice surprise to see Alchemist on tap. My family and I stayed at Hotel VT this weekend and had quite a nice night by the fire along with Alena and SS8.

That hotel rules, btw.