Side Project / Shared (2020)

I’ve been to both. BL definitely seemed larger to me.

 

All different mixes of offerings of course (Russian River does not have a stout barrel aging program, for instance) but here is a quick breakdown:

Capacity (2020)
Russian River Brewing - 40,000 BBLs (2019) + New facility (add'l 65K potential) (Brewhound article from Oct. 2018)
Side Project - ~3,500 BBLs (STLToday article from June 2018)
Bottle Logic - 3,500 BBLs (in 2014!) <--Couldn't find current volumes

 

Russian River opened a $50 Million/75 barrel brewery In late 2018 that has 65,000 barrel output potential. I was there in Feb for PtY, it’s big.

 

The other thing Russian River did that I commend them is that they scaled up production but none of their product quality suffered. In fact, I’d almost say what they’re making is better and more consistent now. Breweries like Founders and 3 Floyd’s just don’t to seem to have the quality like they used to since they scaled up. Sure I can buy Zombie Dust at the grocery store now, but it’s just a shell of what it used to be.

 

Truer words have never been spoken. Sigh.

 

I think an important note is that the question isn’t “why can’t they increase production of stouts,” which I think gets at the size characterization you’re alluding to. Instead the question is about why don’t they shift more of their efforts away from the so called “Shelfies” and more towards BWs, Stouts, or other highly sought after beers.

I think that’s an important distinction. Everyone knows there are capacity constraints; this is all about how/why they use them how they do.

 

Does anyone know what the BA Stout that was bottled last week is? It was mentioned in the blog describing Achromatic vibes.

 

Whatever the BA Achromatic Vibes will be called

 

You're doing this wrong. You're supposed to pick an argument with someone and then beat it to fucking death. Much to the chagrin of everyone else here.

 

That is what I was guessing.

Lol, I just dont see the point in it, Id rather just drink the beer.

 

Achromatic Vibes is like vanilla frosting, wow this is sweet. I like it but maybe shouldn't have opened one to drink by myself.

 

Yeah, wake me up when we see Derivations turding it up on the online webshop for more than 0.5 seconds.

 

That's a good counterpoint, but with them choosing not to produce/release it on as regular a basis as Shared is releasing stouts, and with those stouts utilizing a similar/same quality base, similar/same adjuncts, similar/same barrel aging process, they clearly tried to shift the spotlight to Shared. I mean I think most of us interpreted it that way even in the beginning of Shared.

Not to mention, the hype over recent Derivations, from my own observations, has been dwarfed by the interest in Shared bottles. I hardly ever see Derivation ISOs anymore, whereas Shared is filling pages daily.

I also think there's something to be said for how (intentionally?) exceedingly rare releases of bottles like Derivation, as well as maybe BBT and Anabasis, or one-offs like For Gabe, etc. And I'm curious how much "Side Project" stout and barleywine is currently in barrels now compared to years past, and also, what the whole process is for allocating space (and brew days?) to Shared versus Side Project.

 

Yeah, but it’s also way easier to trade for BA Shared bottles while Derivation will take your first born, their first born, and a bottle of Pappy to close.

 

That’s the biggest reason I think shared has more ISOs at times than SP. for sure.

 

Their barrel stock has definitely increased over the past couple years though I couldn't give you an exact figure or multiple. And all barrels are available for both Side Project labelled beers and Shared labelled beers, with perhaps a few exceptions. An example that comes to mind is the Weldwerks collab that went into barrels a couple years ago and was recently bottled as Shared BA Achromatic Vibes.

 

We don’t know if it’s actually getting called BA Achromatic Vibes yet.

I mean most likely it is but it still could be under the SP label.

 

Medianoche Vibes?

To SP if you're listening, whoever guesses correctly gets the opportunity to buy a bottle without dealing with the refresh rush...

 

Your post tickled a memory and I think you are actually right as shown in Cory's post I quoted. Looks like it will be Side Project BA Achromatic Vibes.

 

Doesn't that strike anyone else as strange at this point? The lines are being blurred so as to make both pursuits indistinguishable at this point, aside from the cosmetics (label).