Notch Brewing (2023)

Def a fun night. Didn't participate in the pour contest, but if Notch is looking for new staff, several would make the cut. Except maybe @AlcahueteJ although I did think his full glass of foam might have turned into a winner.

 

Dropped by the lunch, so no Stichfas for me but did try the new collab beer. Tasty swartzbier, and i like that the smoke flavor is more aggressive than in fire walk with me.

 

beertruth: Round 63: Chris Lohring of Notch Brewing on Apple Podcasts

Chris touches on:

• Notch's customer base
• The challenge in perfection: numerous iterations on one beer vs. continually adding new beers without practice
• The Stone Brewing Berlin controversary
• Style & naming conventions
• The water sources at Salem & Brighton, which are similar: discusses calcium chloride, filtration, treatment
• Side pull vs Slow pour
• Authenticity & paying homage: decoction, cereal mashes, open fermentation
• Will start experimenting with US Grains: heritage varieties
• The irritation behind Italian Pilsners & Mexican Lagers
• Etc.

 

I need to listen to this. Lots I would like to hear, but especially interested in side vs slow.

 

This is around the 25 minute mark, where Chris talks about the history in acquiring the Lukr faucets/towers first (e.g. initial conversations with Evan Rail), before discussing the slow pour:

• “there’s some confusion that the Lukr is also for slow pours…you don’t need a Lukr faucet to do a slow pour…in fact you shouldn’t use a Lukr faucet to do a slow pour…it’s not what it was designed for…”

Notch does not do slow pours

 

During my two week visit to the Czech Republic (2019) I never saw a Lukr faucet used to conduct a slow pour. It was quite the opposite in that the pours were conducted quickly via a bottom fill; maybe something like 4-5 seconds to conduct the pour.

It would seem that some US craft breweries seemed to think that conducting a slow pour using a Lukr faucet is a good idea? One example is Bierstadt and you can see a time lapsed video of their slow pour.



They have even adopted this slow pour thing from a branding perspective. You can drink a ‘slow pour’ from a can?



Na Zdravi

 

What are current Krug Club members doing about renewals? Having a hard time talking myself into another $200 expenditure. I made it to a few of the krug club events and they were always fun, but also on Tuesdays and Sundays, so not always easy to make. And almost all of the big events were free last year, so it's really a "skip the line" kinda thing, which is cool but also kinda awkward. And to be frank, the pour sizes in the Stein vary widely be bartender.

Anyone else have any thoughts?

 

Thought I shared in this thread, but I do not think I will be renewing. It honestly comes down to not being able to go to the brewery as much. This is going to be a super busy year for me and I am now in the no man's land of being between Salem and Brighton so neither brewery really makes sense for me.

That said, if I lived closer and had more free time, I would certainly be doing it again.

 

I renewed. I like having the stein though I totally agree that the timing of the events was frustrating. I only made it to the one. I guess I did it just to continue supporting the brewery.

 

Yeah, I hear ya on the support thing. It’s just kind of an arbitrary $ amount that I can’t exactly back into based on my spending habits. I drink a lot of beer at Notch, and get minimal value for being a mug club member. It’s weird. Give me like one free beer a month, use it or lose it. I dunno. MA liquor laws obviously make everything harder.

 

A lot of people I talked to at the last member event were probably dropping. I'm dropping because I've also moved and it's been much harder to make the commute compared to a short walk before.

 

I assume event timing is maximizing high traffic days(Thursday-Sat) to said high traffic.

Just like when your local xyz bar puts on 12 hill farmstead taps. On a Tuesday, at 2:30pm, when you have work, children and responsibility ha. We’ve all been there and seen that white whale tapping on said Tuesday and immediately think yourself “Yup, there’s 0 fucking chance I can make that”

 

Feel pretty much the same. Live very close, go there regularly and like supporting Notch. Will not be renewing as it's really not worth the $200 each (my wife and I) I kinda like seeing my beer and the different glassware, depending on what I drink. Also not really an event guy either, so I only went to the last one, the Krug Club member hurrah.

 

I think people understand why the events were on slower days (I believe a Sunday and a Tuesday for Brighton). I also get the gripes that it wasn't necessarily convenient (I missed the last hurrah because it was a Tuesday - my 0 chance I can make that). To Notch's credit, they did give plenty of advanced notice to plan out if you needed to make arrangements. It wasn't just a BTW we're doing a krug club event two days from now!

 

Guess I'll go to Notch today