Pipeworks Releases and Updates (2019)

I despise the Red Wings more than the Blues. That being said I didn't even watch the Stanley Cup Finals this year. Back to your question, yikes. I'd go with GB if I HAD to choose.

 

Lifelong Black Hawks / Blackhawks fan. Sure they played Saint Louis in the playoffs a few times over the years, but I always considered the Minnesota North Stars / Edmonton Oilers the primary rival in the 1980s, Detroit in the 1990s. I gave up my season tickets and much of my interest in the 2000s, and would consider Nashville the primary division rival this decade. I hate the scum laden New York Rangers, Boston Bruins and Toronto Maple Leafs the most, Nashville would rank next due to the fact that haven't been around as the three "Original Six" teams hated more.

In terms of the Bears, our family were Chicago Cardinals fans and when they moved in 1960, then became Green Bay Packer fans. The Pittsburgh Steelers were good when I was a kid so I jumped on their bandwagon, but also went to several Packer games at Milwaukee County Stadium in the 1980s/1990s. Still hate the Bears, though I stopped watching the NFL 20 years ago.

It was a great Stanley Cup series, glad the booing of Count Dracula, "A tradition like no other", lives on regardless of where he appears.

 

Let's be honest here.

Bandwagon Blackhawks fans (aka me): Great, good for St. Louis!

Real Blackhawks / actual hockey fans: This blows, their fans suck.


Most people in Chicago are bandwagon fans that don't really care about hockey at all unless the Hawks are in the playoffs (again, I'm in this category).

 

I'm sort of a bandwagon fan, but this is a hard one. St. Louis and Boston both have incredibly dislikeable fans, although I think St. Louis gets the edge there. But Boston is probably the most dislikeable team in the NHL, and it was pretty much impossible for me to cheer those guys, while the Blues' actual team seems pretty all right. I was going to be disappointed no matter who won, I guess.

 

If we're honest with ourselves and just blame Mikerphone for all this, can we get back to Pipeworks discussion? Real Gem!! Infinite Galaxy!!!

 

Finally picked up some Astro Dwarf today. As I previously stated, really like Astro Giant, except for the fact that it was extremely boozy, and hoped they would do a single version of it (and was happy when they announced it). Now what I don’t get, is the decision to make it a “hazy” pale when the double was typical of the other PW IIPAs. Anyway, I find Dwarf OK. Would have preferred a cleaner version. Glad Infinite Galaxy is back.

 

As someone who played a lot of pond hockey as a kid with friends, and several of those friends played on formal teams in HS, this is not surprising behavior in any way, shape, or form.

 

Been seeing a good amount of Seismic Positivity (HB collab) still out in the wild. Didn't see many comments on this beer, but one did say it was "pretty damn good." Any other thoughts from anyone?

Also, what's the latest people would purchase this? Canning date I saw yesterday was 5.16.19.

This leads me to another thought... I wonder if prices will ever drop for these hazy beers once there starts to be a more abundant supply of quality offerings. Yesterday, saw quite a few Pipeworks hazy options with mid-May canning dates (True Reality, Velocity if Light, etc), plus a huge stack of Maplewood Juice Pants, among others. Personally, I think $15-20 is a bit high for a 4pk of beer. Not to mention draft pour pricing for this style being around $8-10 for 10-13oz pours. I'm not gonna hold my breath, but will be interesting to see if prices come down when/if these beers are just sitting on shelves & not selling out the day (or within first few days) shipments come in.

 

your sportsball team and the associated sportsball team fans suck and mine are better.

 

He also took a few 'licks' from Shaw during this exchange in the 2013 Finals. Man that was a fun series.



I'm really pumped for the new batch of Infinite Galaxy. With BHA completely trumping any IPA I've had recently, I'm looking forward to another non-NE-style from another one of my favorite breweries.

 

"Any other thoughts from anyone?"

If you're able to imagine the taste of a PW/HB mashup, then thats exactly what it is. The taste is more similar to PW haze though: cloudy hop flavor rather than the sweet juiciness you would expect from a HB.

 

Breweries are going to be forced to drop their prices or not make the beer anymore. Or I guess alter the recipe to cheapen the cost of production.

This isn’t sustainable. How well is a 17.99 4pk of haze going to be received after it’s been sitting on a warm shelf for 3 months?

If a consumer is paying 16-20 dollars for a 4pk, I think they have an expectation that the beer they just bought is exceptional. And how many exceptional hazy beers have I tasted lately? Maybe 5. Which is a very low percentage. I critique nearly every one of them for something, whether that be the price point or the beer itself.

The haze bubble is undoubtably going to burst. It might not even take a recession. I think a decent portion of young breweries that have relied on haze are going to need to pivot.

 

Speaking from a small sample set (myself), I can say that now that I'm commuting for work, instead of working from home, and have children, my ability and/or desire to chase haze is approaching 0. I have no doubts that there will be a rabid following of people with the desire and ability to chase the latest, but I don't know how much that group is expanding. If it's the (relatively) same, small set of people that are able to get their hands on the latest, it seems, to me, as if that will have a negative impact on the growth within the market. I also wonder how much is trade bait, so it's actually spurring interest outside of the market than locally.

Sure, folks may be able to try things in-house, but we've seen how that isn't always guaranteed and that is somewhat limited by the space (if there is one) or amount of people who can be served. It may turn some people on to the style, however, if they try some haze at the local place, but can't purchase the beer are they necessarily going to seek out the haze from another brewer or are they going to revert to their old standbys.

I certainly understand this is a bit of a beer geek bubble, but I do question whether the overall beer buying public is moving towards the haze as much as the beer geek population has. And while we're semi-comfortable with the $20 4-pack, I don't know that the average Joe is as comfortable. Add in the increased capacity for known 'rare' beers like Zombie dust and I also question the haze market's continued growth.

My final thought is that I, as a consumer, have a bit of haze fatigue. I'm pretty much over having to have the latest iteration of a breweries hazy release of the week. I just don't care if it's new or if it's a slightly different hop bill. If I walk into my local shop and they have something interesting, I'll buy it, but I'm not keeping tabs any more and certainly am not disappointed if I don't grab the latest. There are too many good beers on the shelf to be worried about what I may have missed any longer.

Finally, I don't know if it's the market or if I've just been negatively affected by the Boston sports hate (screw you all), but it's where my head is at this morning after a couple of Smells like Bean Spirit & Malevolence Caliente cans that I picked up just sitting on the shelf at the local Binny's. Who would've thought that stout season would last into June.

#RambleOff

 

My opinion is that it will be the economy that dictates the change and the timing will match up with some consumer pricing fatigue. But I don’t think that will affect your More’s, Phase 3’s, Hop Butchers so much. It will be the slightly larger breweries who rely on distro who are pricing similarly and need to move more beer. The young breweries will be more affected in terms of their expansion/debt

 

You guys are correct, I agree with everything above. The reality is that people on here are a very, very small segment of the beer drinking public. One need look no further than the largest threads on this forum which are for More, Phase Three, Hop Butcher, etc. Those breweries pale in comparison to the popularity of other breweries to the general public. Heck, P3 and HB really only brew two styles of beer. There just are not alot of people who are willing to shell out $20/ 4 pack of beer.

I worked the Pollyanna beer fest as a pourer; I believe they had roughly 2500-3000 people. The fest is huge. They had one hazy beer on tap and ten (10) other beers. Would you like to guess what the general public consumed the most? If you said Summerly (Raspberry wheat ale), you would be correct.

In summary, it is very easy to let this board shape your thoughts on what beers people like to drink, but the reality is far different.

 

And I do apologize to PWs for voicing my opinion about the haze craze in their thread. I am by no means criticizing their releases/decisions, but more a comment on the industry as a whole. I do love the fact that they have hazy offerings and that they're relatively easy to come by. I consider their King of Borgs to be top tier local haze and I really enjoyed the NvUvH as well. Once again, a large part of that is that I didn't have to chase and in the case of the NvUvH, I just got lucky. Still, the fact that I can usually find their 'science' series haze sitting on the shelves means that they're one of my go tos.

 

It’s interesting to me that the haze craze has so many “varieties”. Not everyone does a new beer that’s really the old beer with some different hops. Alarmist mostly just does le jus which is a NEIPA that is more drinkable and not as overpowering as most NEIPAs (to me at least). I’m starting to wonder if the hazy beer that is a flagship might be the one that lasts? I don’t think hazy beers will ever go away - it’s not a fad - but I agree that the group that is into chasing it was probably a subset that peaked two years ago and is less likely to chase the new varietal each week. Particularly as there are more producers.

 

Make IPA’s clear again!