Aslin Beer Company (2022)

only 8 months behind schedule, that's pretty good for them

 

It's 95 degrees out.

 

Makes no difference to me

I’m thirsty for a stout no matter the temp!!

 

Some friends wanted to checkout the new Aslin spot in DC last night so I headed over.

There was a line to get in, took about 30 minutes to get inside. This kept capacity to a comfortable level, which I appreciate. The space is actually really nice.

I tried 3 beers:
-CrossOver: IPA collab with Alamo Drafthouse. Smelled and tasted weird.
-Baby Shark: IPA with Citra. Tasted old, malty. Not good.
-De Gens: "German style" pilsner that was way too hoppy. Offensive to Germany.

My wife has a gluten allergy and got a seltzer that had 45 grams of sugar in it and was 400 calories? Very strange. It wasn't good. She then tried a white wine which smelled like feet and she didn't like that either. Maybe it was a natural wine? I like natural wine, but if it's not done well, it is very unpleasant to drink.

On top of that, we ordered sliders from the food truck there. It was just 2 tiny sliders and a side of very stale chips. Just a total rip off.

This isn't "growing pains". This is just a brewery that went off the rails a long time ago, and clearly doesn't give a shit about getting back on track. I mean at least date your cans? I do realize I'm probably not their target market anymore, and as long as the money is rolling in, who cares? Just pump out as much mediocre beer as quickly and cheaply as possible if people are buying it.

I had an Equilibrium IPA earlier in the evening, another brewery that has blown up and expanded, and it was incredible. I haven't had anything that good from Aslin in at least a few years. A damn shame.

 

Yeah, the other day I had a little sample of a draft Aslin IIPA that the bar staff said tasted weird. They gave me one of those tiny plastic cups, and it smelled and tasted like literal garbage. I actually gagged. Oh well, I'm sure it smells like money to them.

 

They actually advertise their seltzer to have 400 calories and 45g sugar? Don't drink them but I was under the impression that the entire point was zero/near zero sugar and low calorie (~100 for 12oz). Not sure how they can call something like that a seltzer, it's a hard soda with added sugar.

 

It had a nutrition facts label on the back like a soda. It was this one:

 

looked at a few labels through the abc site an looks like their lower abv (4.5%) are in the 114 calories / 16.9oz range but the higher abv (7%) your wife had indeed does show 399 Cals.

 

Is the money rolling in? It looks like pretty much everything Aslin send out is sitting on shelves all over the place. I really used to like them, but they make truly awful beer now

 

Yeah, the same 4-packs have been sitting on the shelf at our local Safeway for what must be over a year now. Bet they're glad they don't date their cans!

 

I srsly just get interested if its a non-IPA option from them. A *Brown Cow would be an insta-buy... but nope, flood away with the *Starfish.

 

I can't remember which one, but it's an IPA.

 

Hit Aslin's Herndon spot yesterday. The pizza next door was great! De Gens (Pilsener) was also good, but the Johann Buys a Broat was gross and just a shadow of what had been an interesting (and pretty great, IMO) beer in the past.

 

https://www.pilotonline.com/food-dr...0220816-s5bnd67pajbmretoqiu56zmhgm-story.html

VIRGINIA BEACH — A new craft brewery is coming to Virginia Beach, and it’s getting help from the city’s economic development coffers.

Aslin Beer Co. of Northern Virginia, in collaboration with a local landowner, will spend $3.9 million to build a brewery, tasting room and outdoor beer garden in the 800 block of Virginia Beach Boulevard.

The Virginia Beach Development Authority approved a $100,000 incentive to sweeten the deal at a meeting Tuesday morning.

In 2019, Aslin Beer Co. was described in a Washington Post article as “one of the region’s most buzzed-about breweries thanks to its ultra-juicy New England-style IPAs, fruit-infused sours and high-octane imperial stouts.”

It was founded by Kai Leszkowicz and Andrew Kelley and has locations in Herndon, Alexandria and Washington. It will soon open a fourth spot in Pittsburgh.

Aslin’s Virginia Beach brewery could open next spring.

“They will be a tremendous addition to the central beach area,” said Mark DesRoches, whose family owns the land and is helping to redevelop it. DesRoches is also president of the 17th Street Gateway Association — a group that advocates for improvements to the area.

The brewery was designed by Virginia Beach architect Jeremy Maloney of Altruistic Design. It will sit across the street from the police department’s 2nd Precinct station and a block east of the new sports center.

The outdoor area will feature covered seating, murals and modified 40-foot long shipping containers installed vertically with pavilions that people can walk through. The brewery building will feature rooftop seating.

 

It could also not.

 

either they're going to go under so spectacularly or they're playing a very wild business game. I'm not sure which.

 

Came here to say the same. It's almost as if they're hellbent on following in Modern Times' footsteps.

 

This would have been exciting for us about 3 years ago. But ok, sure, why not.

 

If the chatter on Facebook is to be believed, Aslin cancelled their anniversary party. I don't see any public confirmation from Aslin, but they have been curiously quiet about it since they first announced it in the spring.

 

Or Other Half.

 

What really happened to these guys, beer used to be very good now I won’t even buy it. Walked by 4 packs of DoS and skateboarding is not a crime and didn’t even think twice about buying it. These beers used to be some of my favorites. Not sure how they are expanding the way they are putting out a mediocre product.

 

Except, despite a good number of misses, Other Half is overall positively viewed by most consumers as they've expanded. I don't think that's a good comparison. Aslin has been garbage and is run by garbage people, so I'm not sure what is the plan for these new locations. I feel bad for the consumers in these locations that don't know better.

 

Strange to see DoS as a shelf turd at Safeway.

 

A charitable explanation would be that, like so many other breweries, they had great recipes when brewing on a small scale but couldn't figure out how to translate them to larger production.

A less charitable explanation would be that Richard was the only brewing talent they had at the start, and things quickly fell apart when the other two owners bought him out a few years ago.

A cynical explanation would be that they stopped caring about quality when their projections showed it wouldn't impact their ability to move quantity.

No clue which (or if) any of those explain Aslin's situation, but it's clear things have fallen apart.

 

The Facebook group that was once their fan page just removed "Aslin" from the group name. It appears the bottom is falling out of their local support base.

 

I was just saying maybe they are using the Other Half expansion more as a model than the Modern Times, since Other Half seems to have been more successful than Modern Times. That's my comparison. In no way am I implying that they've actually succeeded.

 

I g

I got kicked outta there a while ago but is it just called "Enthusiasts" now?

 

It’s now VA Craft Enthusiasts.

 

Per IG:

"After some careful consideration, we've made the tough decision to not hold our 7th Anniversary bash. It's no fun, but this choice was necessary due to all of our new ventures and our commitment to retaining the focus on our top priorities of both employee and customer engagement. We'll still be celebrating our 7th Anniversary this year with special guest taps and beer releases in our three tasting rooms between 9/15-9/19.

We hope you'll stop by so we can thank you for your support of Aslin and helping us achieve our dream of bringing our brewery to life. Thank you for the excitement and support throughout this crazy year we couldn't have made it to 7 without you all.

And you know... this means next year will just be even more rad."

 

Translation: we've overextended ourselves by opening too many locations too soon?

 

Too many pots boiling to plan things that they usually would do anyways. Any time you have to say "thank you for your support" is time you know things are iffy. Just my view on the world at this point. When the world is going fine you consider yourself the reason. When it isn't so fine then you look for backup.

 

I should be rejoicing that the anniversary bottles seem to have dropped in price since the last time I bought Aslins, but it actually made me back off and not order anything.

 

Aslin now open in PGH

https://www.americancraftbeer.com/dc-metros-aslin-beer-opens-new-brewery-and-taproom-in-pittsburgh/

 

Look out, Dancing Gnome! (LOL)

 

Aslin's location is much more accessible from downtown than DAncing Gnome. So there's that.

 

Decrease in quality and over expansion: recipe for disaster.

 

I dunno. Every time I go to their Alexandria location, it's pretty busy. And who knows how much beer they're selling at Whole Foods/Trader Joe's/Giant? Plenty of people buy mediocre beer.

 

I guess they are far enough away from Dancing Gnome to not have to worry about that, but I remain surprised they opened a location so close to Churchkey.