Green Flash Acquires Alpine Beer Co.

Bring on the East Coast distribution!

 

That's a lot of hops.

 

Can someone please copy and paste the article into a post?

That website is blocked by my work and I'd really like to read the article!

Thanks!

 

This would be great. Bring on the east coast distro indeed!

 

Great article below. Good read, and good stuff!

 

yay green flash is doing something good!

 

Wow, Green Flash sure is trying hard not to be forgotten.

 

They were never in danger of that.

 

Very interesting read, turns out Green Flash has been brewing Alpine stuff since 13?

 

Seems like a great move all-around. No chance of decrease in beer quality, since Alpine's been brewing there for about a year without issue (if anything, batches have been just as good if not better since they started making beer at Green Flash). Plus, big increase in distribution is the likely result too. Don't know if it gets outside of CA right off the bat, but would assume access outside of San Diego increases a bunch.

 

On paper it looks good for everyone involved. I am very excited to see how this plays out, would love to have Alpine in Chicago, a wet dream I never thought possible before.

 

It's bound to happen with some of the larger craft breweries taking over smaller breweries and pooling resources [at least it's hoped they do this as the article suggests] and this may be the tip of the iceberg but my questions are: Where's all the hate? Where are all the naysayers? It's early yet. I'll check back later.

 

This is good news and bad news. IMO the taste is different coming out of GF than ABC. Different water used to brew. Different equipment used. Time will tell.

 

Have you noticed any difference in the Alpine beers that GF has been brewing since last year? I haven't.

 

Green Flash is in the "club". So it's cool. If ABInBev or the like snatched up Alpine, the tone would be dramatically different. With all the bitching that's been done about GF for the last long while (for good reason), people aren't as nervous about them ruining this as they should be.

 

Not too much with Nelson. But a little difference with HB and Duet. If you noticed the color of the latest batch of HB it is a little more darker.

 

Sweet mother of Methusaleh.

 

Are these East Coast problems? It's absurd to compare ABInBev to GF. Apparently it's hip to bag on GF? I think their beers have only gotten better and more complex over the past several years since I started drinking them. Chuck Silva is a phenomenal brewer. I agree there may be some distribution issues for freshness, but not sure who would complain about increasing distro for Alpine, whose beers are hard to find regularly, even in Southern California.

 

I don't have them often enough to detect batch to batch differences. I just remember having Duet and Nelson and thinking, "Oh yeah, this is still delicious."

 

GF was only doing kegs for Alpine this past year correct? Not any of the bottles?

 

I didn't think it went back that far, but possibly. They have been brewing Nelson, Hoppy Birthday, and Duet there for kegs that have been going into distribution for at least six months or so. There are differing thoughts on the quality, but I will say I have been unimpressed with the "new" Duet, but loved it when I had it at the pub and bottled in the past.

 

Q4T

 

I like some GF beers, my favorite they no longer brew. From the poor branding, to spotty (at best) bottle dating, to heavy batch variation, to barely being able to get a fresh beer out to people I'd be worried about them taking on another brewery. It doesn't seem like the best mother company to have absorb you.

 

Yep, unless that changed very recently.

Edit: it's all in the article except that specific detail other than saying that starting in '15 they will bottle, but I'm almost positive that it was just kegs of the three beers (Duet, Nelson, HB) being made at GF.

 

Im in Orange County and its a 2 hour drive one way for me to Alpine. I take a road/beer trip 4 times a year to Alpine to have some at the brewpub and pick up bottles/growlers to bring back with me. I've had all 3 ipa's brewed from GF at my local. Nelson I thought was almost spot on. But the other 2 a little different. I asked Steve on my last visit to Alpine about the GF versions and he told me that they did have issues with HB and Duet and it was not out in kegs like it should of been after the Nelson kegs. A month to month rotation. Yes it is huge to have ABC ipa's at our local that we are able to get to and have a pint or three but it still is not the same as the original. But better some than none. Its still world class beers. I just got back from Kern River Brewing Co. (Citra DIPA) and had the collab Deep River (Knee Deep) and it was awesome. The batch was brewed at Kern River. The bottled version was brewed at Knee Deep. So there will be a slight difference in taste. I brought back several growler fills from Kern and hope to acquire a bottle or two of the Knee Deep version to compare.

 

to me it's a texture issue. I feel the GF kegs are more carbonated, don't have the same seamless profile as the Alpine ones. Flavors are pretty spot on tho. This recent batch of HB is really really dark though, kinda weird but tasted fine

 

10 barrel last week, Alpine this week. Whats going on next week?

 

I wonder if this is the wave of future. Breweries will combine to save cash on resources. Economies of scale could be achieved this way. I could see this happening a lot.

 

ISO Alpine in Florida!

 

I love it when whalezbro are slain by Captain Distro.

To the future reviews that will undoubtedly shitcan whichever beers come out of GF with an Alpine label on it, I say suck it - rare has zero taste.

 

Duet is my favorite single IPA, hands down. I hope to God that they get this issue fixed.

 

Equipment is often overlooked as a source of flavor differences. I know breweries that had to go through flavor matching trials on new, bigger, more efficient equipment, and sometimes this was in the same building using the same water supply.

I would hope they have the capacity to adjust the water to match Alpine's.

 

Green Flash is great. I don't understand the hate.

 

It's like the recreational weed in CO & WA. Others are watching to see what happens. So if this arrangement between Green Flash and Alpine is successful, I also believe we'll see more of this type of thing going forward.

 

Have only had one beer by Alpine and thought it was somewhat overrated (as in "good" but not "amazing," which is what it was rated as).

This being said, I think this is great news and look forward to trying their other offerings, assuming that the beers will now be more widely distributed.

 

It ain't hate. Hate is usually directed at ABInBev. This is just some dislike, mistrust or absence of super integrity.

 

Me too. Yay for Capitalism.

 

2 pages and in and no one has mentioned that Chuck Silva is so cool that he can apparently even get along with the jackass who runs Alpine from his soapbox on the mountain.

 

The guy who runs Alpine is a jackass?

But he still makes good beer, right?