IPA Factory Breweries

That is exactly what I want. I want a beer that I can find in the store every time and buy by the case. I will get one draft from the IPA factories and not remember the name and probably never have it again. I might buy a random 4 pack at the brewery.

 

Dude, we get Equilibrium all the way down in Louisiana!

 

In the DC area, I first found it weird that while every IPA factory under the sun was pursuing a direct to consumer model, Solace was pursuing all of the bars and grocery stores. Honestly, it felt counterintuitive at first, but there's definitely something to being people's reliable choice.

Yeah, I can't keep up with, for example, all of Commonwealth's releases. Not only do they have 3-4 new or rotational releases per week, there's no naming convention that helps you relate them. It just feels like hop combinations for the sake of hop combinations, newness for the sake of newness. I don't know if they're trying to learn new things to improve their beer because it is hard to keep up and experience it for myself. I know a lot of breweries are doing this and I wish they'd focus on at least having some relational naming conventions. Trillium has The Street series. Triple Crossing has the Triangles. Tree House has family trees for their core beers. It's much easier to follow or keep up with than the names that seem like they're put in a random word generator.

 

That's a great point, I've never thought about it but the randomly named beers seem like they are at a natural disadvantage because there's an endless supply from an endless number of breweries and we as the consumers have no frame of reference for them. On the other hand, if Tree House released a beer tomorrow called Vvvery Gggreen, everyone would drop what they're doing, haul ass to Charlton to buy as much as they can, and give it a slightly higher Untappd rating than Very Gggreen.

 

I noticed that as well with Solace and now they are one of the more reliable and consistent breweries in the area. They have a 4 flagships that are always available (at the brewery and in stores) and then some rotating and random beers as well. Not saying they are making world class beers but pretty solid across the board.

I think Aslin really dropped the ball when they could have taken Orange Starfish and Double OS, and made those their flagship hoppy brews putting them in local bars and stores. I'd much rather go to Aslin (or a store) and pick up a beer I know is consistently good vs. picking up the flavor of the week and hoping it's worth my $20. Sure I'll take a chance every once in a while if the beer is intriguing but not often from a brewery who has constant QC issues.

 

I agree. Solace might not be the best but they're solid to good and you know what you're going to get. Even if I'm not excited about ordering Solace at the bar, I am at least comforted by the fact that I am not going to get screwed by an expensive draft pour.

I don't think Aslin knew they had a ball to drop. They were selling everything on site. They were able to build a massive new brewery. Everything was good for them. I'm not sure they thought to re-evaluate their business model.

 

Good point.

 

This is a very good point Jack, and I frequently have wondered this myself. Going back to Vermont over the summer recently vs 3 years ago, Edward, Heady didn’t seem quite as good as my past recollections, but Focal and some other NEIPAs even better. Probably pallet shift and not inconsistent batches.

 

Needless to say there is no way of accurately predicting this since how do you predict continued customer demand? For example, Other Half opened up a new brewery location in the Finger Lakes region of NY and more recently in Washington, DC. Will the new customers in those new locations rabidly support Other Half like their customers in NYC?

If Tired Hands opened up a new brewery location across the river in New Jersey, would you enthusiastically support them?

Cheers!

 

It remains to be seen whether it is sustainable. I think that these breweries will have to innovate to stay ahead of the curve or continue to adapt and keep up with consumer trends. I feel like the increase in locations for a lot of these breweries is to have more control over distribution. It allows more access to these breweries while keeping the margins. Furthermore, it avoids the problems of getting beer stuck at distro or retail to languish on shelves as we've already discussed here. Just on Tree House - the locations of the (open) Tree House locations are spread out across the state. The Cape is a wasteland for craft so Tree House should do well there whether that location is haunted or not. The location in Deerfield is close to Southern VT and Albany on top of being in an area with fewer (though some quality) breweries. Will the lines at Charlton dissipate? I doubt it will be as crowded as it was pre-Covid. However, by being 20-30+ minutes closer to more people, I think people will be able to access their product more often.

 

Is step 7 the transition (shudder) to seltzer?

 

Wow! Man they've really hit the road with their product. Is what your getting in LA fairly back-dated as well? At least 4-6 weeks old?

 

-Almost every US craft brewery brews an IPA
-Many US craft breweries brew multiple IPAs
-Most of said IPAs are mediocre (at best)
-There are already too many breweries
-There are already far too many IPA
-Although the number is high, there is an upper level limit on the number of people who drink IPAs
-New breweries are popping up seemingly everyday, and they all keep brewing IPAs.

You do the math.

Bubble done gonna burst here soon....

 

I think your sustainability point is spot on but I wouldn't look to Treehouse as any kind of a bellwether. They've (more or less) exponentially increased their size three times and still haven't been able to get rid of their lines (which they were explicitly trying to do with their last expansion). Much like Maine Beer Company's continued ability to still sell beers in 16 oz. bottles for $8 each, Treehouse seems to have access to some sort of ancient witchcraft.

And a small note: I wouldn't phrase things as "yet another location" because the new locations were always replacements for the old ones. This will be the first time they've actually created more than one fully functioning place customers can go, and the first time they'll have a location(s) that's more taproom than brewery focused.

 

Well, that is as good an explanation as any.

Like others have opined in this thread there just seems to be too many Juicy/Hazy IPA brands out there but this trend just seems to continue to grow and grow.

 

Of course in the early 80s I had no idea there would be so many IPA choices/ drinkers 40 years later. So in another 40 years, who knows? Several hundred million worldwide?

 

Possibly. But I walk around a beer store and the amount of IPAs is unfathomable. I then start looking at bottling/canning dates and the significant majority are well past what most people would say is within the time an IPA should be drank. So to me, it seems like the supply is already outweighing the demand. Then I consider what seems to be a continued growth of breweries in general and IPAs specifically and yeah......

 

We get Equilibrium here in the bay area, and it sits.........