I’m drinking a 2018 tagboard, and I can’t understand why black project isn’t the most hyped brewery in CO. Dang it, this is incredible
Black Project has an interesting reputation locally. Love/hate is a fair description. Some of it relates to the owners, and some if it relates to the beer and business model. The people that hate them would probably never give them credit for anything they've done well. On the other side of the coin, the people that love them tend to overlook their issues to a fault. Personally, I find their beers to be very inconsistent. Even within the same batch. Some bottles will be terrific, while others have a character that reminds me of an old trash can. Even the bottles of the same beer/batch/box they've brought to events have been like that. Some are great and others are undrinkable. Yet the stuff they have on tap in their tasting room has all been pretty great IMO. I've only been a couple times, but I left happy and impressed each time.
very interesting - can you dish on the owners’ peccadillos? Like... as an socially responsible consumer, should I think twice about being an ardent fan?
It's nothing malicious. Their personalities just rub some people the wrong way. They're opinionated folks. They aren't doing anything wrong and to my knowledge they never have.
My only experience with them was before they transitioned into Black Project; I believe they were called Following Futures. I went there a couple of times because of the book club I was part of at the time would occasionally meet there, and their beer was fine. Not good, not bad, certainly not great, just serviceable.
Yup, they used to be Former Future. They had a steampunk/Willy Wonka'ish theme and clean beers. They were pretty good, too. They had a salted porter and a wild yeast saison back when those were super unique things. I was actually part of their initial public tests where they had people try their beers before they opened. I think they were always enticed by the romantic notion of spontaneous fermentation and that whole tradition. Plus, at the time there were new breweries in the same mold opening on every corner.
Black Project has put out some amazing bottles. Oxcart might be the best spontaneous lambic-style beer made in America. I wouldn't tell anyone to avoid purchasing based on the owners- I think Domingo pretty much nailed it with his description. They had a peach wild ale aged in bourbon barrels that was out of this world fantastic in I think 2017.
