Carton Brewing (2020)

big day for them. Plan on definitely hitting them up this week. The good thing about Carton is even if you somehow miss a can release, they allow you to drink it in-house that day. Wish Kane did that more often.

 

Happy to see the 2020 coffee release. Always a tasty one. The waffle beer sounds interesting, but I’m almost positive I won’t get that one - just seems like too much. The cantaloupe haze looks good though.

 

Stopped in today and had a great time as always. That Quadrupel, Chekhov's Gun was awesome, but it was only being sold in a 3 pack of bombers for $60. I sooo wish I could have bought a single bottle for $20, but $60 would have blown the beer budget.

Will it Waffle was tasty and interesting. I also really liked Letzfest, the other Helles Lager.

On the other hand, today was my first visit since the new 4-taster-full-pour system was implemented. Honestly? I like it. $10 for that amount of beer is still one of the better "flight plans" in the state.

 

I don’t understand the 3 bottle purchase, they handcuff you into a $60 purchase. Carton has always been the most customer friendly brewery in terms of pricing and availability of their beer. This goes against that.

 

Could you explain the new taster pour system? I remember being very confused when it was presented originally.

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/B6y8cscpK_2/?igshid=27o946ld0kvc
You get four taster sized pours and if you want, the beer tender will recommend the order to consume them, per the card on the upper left of my Instagram post. Most of us here probably have a decent idea of how we should or would like progress through the beers. Once you finish the four tasters, you get a full sized 12oz pour. If the beer for the full pour is higher ABV (like Regular Coffee at 12% or that 15% Quadrupel), that "full pour" is still a 4oz. All for $10, which is still a good deal, but a bit more than the token/chip system.

As for the "handcuffing" into a $60 3 bottle purchase? Yeah, very frustrating.

 

Thanks. For some reason I thought it was more complicated than that.

 

The only complication is the "full pour" - iirc they have 12, 8, and 4oz pours with odd abv cutoffs.

And you can't get a full pour of anything else other than 1-3 select beers outside of the flight.

 

Keep in mind you also do not have to finish all of the flight pours upon the visit and get your full pour. I have gone back a second time to complete my card. Also have saved the "pour" for a later visit so I think i have 2 cards floating around in various stages.

I think the 3 bottle system is their way of explaning how to drink the beers. 1 fresh, 1 shared with friends, 1 with some age...I ran into the same issue mainly because I just do not have storage space.

 

I'm looking forward to trying the Cantaloupe Haze. It sounds really good. I might have a small taster of the pastry stout; while I'm sure Carton's done a nice job with it, the description doesn't really appeal to me. I'm wondering whether, given the increased distro, Regular Coffee will be readily available around the state.

 

Pastry cream ale*

 

I suppose...that "directing our palate seems to be the theme even more with them as of late.

I wonder if the 3 bottle package will be a turn off for consumers and individual bottles eventually get sold.

 

I bet it does but it still eventually sells out. Kane in a way does the same thing with all the eventbrite ones at least, which I have passed on for the same reason. I would say at least in carton case it is thought out and reason behind it, kane it may just be ease of selling or whatever, just guessing on that part I’m not sure obviously.

 

I like Carton. I buy their beers whenever they pique my interest regardless of format/volume/cost. But this seems to me to be a pretty obvious attempt to move more volume of beers that will not otherwise fly off the shelves. Tons of Carton releases this year just sat on shelves. You can see cases upon cases at some places. The highlander weiss beers, plus many others, become "shelf turds."

Carton cannot credibly maintain the position that "this beer should be sold like this so you know what to do with it" when they are doing this across all styles including the less than 4% sour I bought last week. I happened to love Ipgasm when I tried it in the tasting room, and I already drank 2 out of 3 of them, but I'm not putting that third bottle in my (non-existent) wine cellar and neither is anyone else.

I appreciate the creative sales technique, but I call BS.

 

I believe every OWC release has sold out, so i don't think its a sales technique plus Carton has also had all OWC on tap so you can try before you buy. I still have a 2016 Shipwreck Porter in my frig.

 

What does OWC mean?

In any event, I was not suggesting this was anything underhanded or deceptive. And I like and appreciate ability to try before you buy. And I will support local craft (and Carton is both of those, all the way, and in all the right ways). And I like the fact that Carton pushes the envelope. All I'm saying is, a lot of styles are not going to sell quickly, so if someone wants it, they have to buy all three bottles. Saying "you should buy three, one to drink, one to share and one to save" is a convenient excuse to sell more quickly for something like shipwreck, which is the kind of beer that can/should be aged to see how it developes, but in the past HAS sat around (inexplicably) for some time when it was capped and waxed. But that logic, to me, falls apart when you start applying it to less popular styles.

But whatever. YMMV as the kids say. I like the beer. I like Carton. They want to make the beer. They want to sell it. I want them to make the beer, and want to buy it. If making me buy three bottles of a 3.9% sour helps keep their doors open, so be it.