Funk Factory Geuzeria (2018)

They usually post the tap/bottle list for the weekend on Facebook on Thursday.

 

Is FFG beer distributed at all? I'm heading to the UP from Minneapolis and hoping to pick a few things up along the way but won't be able to swing through Madison.

 

Some madison stores posted that they had gotten some regular meerts and their wine/beer. So, yes, occasionally, minimally, locally.

 

So no distro to greater WI?

 

Not that I've seen. I think Tandem in Appleton posted on Facebook that they had some Meerts or Cervino a week or two ago.

 

I've seen FFG at Discount Waukesha & Milwaukee, I've also seen it at a store in Wind Lake as recent as 2 weeks ago.

 

Surprised no one has posted their production schedule for the rest of 2018 (this is also on their Facebook, but I chose the blog link since I know not everyone has Facebook).

I am of a mixed mindset on the upcoming beers.

While I understand that the méthode traditionnelle stuff takes a long time (and according to the linked blog post, the stocks are finally getting to the point that they'll be rotating in), I am frankly sick of all the Meerts and Cervino releases (the latter of which seems like it is being put on the back burner for the time being). Obviously I do not have to buy them, but as a (former?) Top 100 member, being Top 100 indirectly requires you to keep buying in order to keep your position for the releases that Funk Factory was founded on (the lambic-inspired beers); I also refused to pay the Magnum Club money because the value just was not there for me and I hate magnums as a format. It seems that many of the perks that were formally for Top 100 are now exclusively for Magnum Club members, which strikes me as a little bit of a slap in the face to those who were early adopters of FFG.

The point of this little rant is that I feel that FFG has lost a bit of its direction by not releasing hardly any MT beers in a very long time and by flooding the releases with mediocre to good beers as stop-gaps and cash injections (since the turnover time on Meerts and Cervino is likely much less than MT beers). I get that it is a business, though, and I realize that FFG owes me nothing, no matter how much I did or did not support early on. They are free to do whatever they want, and we are entitled to nothing (except Magnum Club, who are entitled to what they paid in advance for).

The continual influx of Meerts coming down the line is disappointing to see since Meerts tends to be quite simplistic, but the rest of the upcoming offerings bring me some hope. The saisons are really intriguing, and if they can put out something even near the level of Sante Adairius/Hill Farmstead/Jester King, I'll be more than stoked. The specialty beers (like the upcoming Blood of Jove and All Black Everything) are exciting as well; I just hope they don't all go to just Magnum Club and first come, first served lineups at the taproom (which cynically seems to me a way to drum up hype). Of course the main attraction of ~8 upcoming MT beers are very exciting, but, again, I hope Top 100 sees opportunities to purchase them in advance instead of just Magnum Club.

All in all, I hope the fact that their MT stock is finally getting to a cyclical point will mean much more frequent releases of MT beers and that Meerts, Cervino, and the saisons end up being more of a supporting cast to fill out the taplist at the taproom and release alongside the MT beers, not in lieu. After all, it is Funk Factory Geuzeria.

 

I would suggest contacting Funk Factory via facebook or email but if they are as responsive as Untitled Art you won't get any answers. I asked Untitled Art two questions yesterday and received no answers. I asked about distribution in Central and Northern Wisconsin and was told to contact their distributor. I've never known a brewery who doesn't know or have any say in how their product is distributed. My second question about the ability to purchase glassware wasn't even addressed.

Customer service, or lack thereof, says a lot about a company.

 

You pretty much answered your own concerns many times over. It is a business at the end of the day, and they need a sustainable income stream that will not only keep them open, but growing. Pumping out products that has to age for years is not a good business model. The prices they'd have to charge are unrealistic. So to fill the gaps, they release their "flagships" and variants there of. Every brewery of this nature does that; Side Project, Hill Farmstead, etc etc. They all pump out repeats constantly.

FF is the new kid on the block and they're a small operation. Give it time and you'll see the longer aged product come out more frequently. I think their 2018 schedule is pretty ambitious for how new they are. It's a big catalog, so I don't quite understand what there is to be disappointed about.

 

I got used to them pumping out exclusively "lambics" as an early adopter, and then when that dried up and was supplanted by Meerts, which, to me, is vastly inferior, I became disillusioned with FFG. That's where I am coming from.

I still have high hopes for them, and I am especially curious about the saisons.

As to it being a big catalog, it's largely Meerts filler, and I've said my piece on that. Quality over quantity, in my book, but as we've both said, it's a business and that filler must be necessary from FFG's perspective.

 

Levi knocked it out of the park with Jove, All Black Everything, and Black Currant Meerts. Amazing beers.

 

I think it's worth taking a step back and just enjoying these beers instead of hyper-critiquing every release. Meerts variants are almost all 4+ on Untappd, and if that's their floor then I'm not complaining. I, for one, love getting to taste their experimentations with styles and that holds me over between lambics. Nobody else around here is making these types of beers and some have been especially good (blackberry, cranberry, black currant, etc.). Cervino was shaky at the beginning but they've dialed that in too. On top of that, they almost always have at least one lambic available on-site - in fact I think they still had Moerbei Punchdown last time I was there - yum. This was only the first year of the new taproom which I assume was a huge undertaking, and considering their upcoming 2018 schedule they have nowhere to go but up.

 

I understand the criticism, I really do. We make a lot of Meerts beer, and it's something that I'm excited about. We wouldn't be able to have a taproom without Meerts. Flat out. Not even a money thing, we just wouldn't have beer available or we'd be open twice a year.

I've been reluctant to say anything, but I've heard this sentiment a few times and I think I need to address it. I think some people are a little disillusioned at the quantity and frequency in which we use to have lambic releases. I looked it up, and it averaged once every 6 months. This year we have 9 different MT beers on the schedule. The plan is to have a new MT beer available every month from here on out (though we'll see how Jan-Mar of 2019 goes).

We built a name on these beers and I've nearly killed myself building the MT barrel stock we have now. Currently 225 barrels across 3 different vintages. The last batch of Framrood was 500 bottles. This summer's release will be 1500 bottles.

We were never "pumping lambic out" in the past, but we will be.

 

<Insert Iambic pentameter joke here>

@FFGeuzeria - great info. And I appreciate the road map y’all put out - pretty rare for a young brewery to be thinking in such a structured fashion, from my experience at least.

 

Ha, yea. With this type of operation, everything we do we are thinking at least 3 years down the line.

 

I appreciate the response. The critique is only because I am genuinely a big fan, especially of the lambics, and it would be fanboyish and disingenuous of me to not speak my mind. I don't want to come off as a hater or anything because I really am very excited for the road ahead, and I will still be supporting.

It is not that I don't like Meerts, and I understand that it is, for obvious reasons, the core, the workhorse of the brand, especially on the taproom front. I think it makes a lot of sense, even if I am not necessarily crazy about the reality. Whenever I visit i always get a Meerts or two because it is a great draft beer (I would be more into buying to-go Meerts if it came in smaller bottles).

Since you're here, do you mind giving insight into the saisons and other farmhouse styles? Are you aiming for more of a classic DuPont/Blaugies thing or will you be doing the more Hill Farmstead/Sante Adairius/Jester King thing?

Thanks again for the response!

 

I hate the dupont strain. For sure more akin to the SARA/JK vibe. It's really more Andrew's baby. The first one we did was in part to have the saison portion to blend and make Biere de Coupage, which was a style he was super interested in making. The one we have in a foeder now is a "Danish American Saison" collab with Mikkeller Baghaven. We wrote the recipe together, and will brew it at both locations. Our batch uses all Wisconsin grown malt and they sent their house culture to pitch into our foeder. We'll do a batch in May in Copenhagen with all Danish malts and send them our house culture.

 

Back to the distro question, I was in Orlando, FL and I saw Meerts on the shelf at a liquor store. Also a few different varieties of Untitled Art. Stopped in for some Funky Buddha, did not expect Funk Factory...