Green Flash Distributing Alpine Bottles

SF Peninsula now has GF bottled Duet, Nelson, Hoppy Birthday. Duet was $7.99, Nelson $8.99. Didn't look at HB.

I really enjoyed the Nelson I bought. Kind of blew my mind really. I guess the original source beer must be absolutely ridiculous cuz' the GF bottle was great IMO.

 

I like how this stuff is all over the east coast but nowhere to be found in KY. Spoke with my local rep and everything and they have heard nothing.

 

Agree with this. Even if these bottles are a notch below Alpine's own stuff, they still are better than 90% of the beers on the shelves and now many more of us can get them. The Duet bottles in Pa. were fresh and tasted ridiculously good. Hard to complain about any of this.

 

I got a growler of Alpine Duet at Thirsty Pug in Auburn about 2 weeks ago, but I haven't seen any bottles yet. I never had the original non GF version so I can't speak to differences between them, but I thought it was a fantastic IPA.

 

I'll give a shot, I've had Nelson from the Alpine Brewery and I thought it was world class, I need to go back one day.

 

"In addition to making recipe adjustments to scale up the quantity...." Sigh

 

I find all the complaints that GF has ruined Alpine hilarious, if not old and annoying at this point. Even if they had done the expansion in-house, at this scale the beers wouldn't taste exactly the same. Their recipes were designed on a small system and these kinds of crazy hoppy beers are notoriously hard to scale up perfectly.

 

You are a better man/woman than me. I called 5-7 craft beer shops in San Diego and all of them are none too thrilled with Alpine over their distribution or lack of. I tried to persuade my wife to detour to Alpine with our 2 kids but don't think they would have enjoyed the brewery more than the Safari Park.

No GF bottled Alpine anywhere in the OC. I don't understand how people in Virginia, NY and other places have this beer but its not available 75 miles away. Very confusing.

 

I have only had one bottle of Alpine brewed beer (Duet brewed by Alpine) but I can honestly understand how this gentleman feels. Somebody is brewing a revered beer and producing a sub-par product. I think that the majority of folks on BA would feel very similar to him in this situation.

Cheers!

 

SPLOOSH! My pants are damp.

 

I just love how folks have already written this off.

 

My understanding is this is quite common when you're going from small to big scale. When you hear about homebrewers going pro, almost everyone mentions this. I don't know the specifics, but I would not doubt that the jump from brewing this at Alpine scale to GF scale is similar to going from homebrewing to a 10bbl new brewery.

 

I just picked up a bottle of Duet in Rochester. Drinking it now. Wow! Amazing citrus, pine and West Coast-ness.

 

The 22oz bottles I've had taste mighty fine to me, even with the Green Flash logo on it

 

Everything on tap has been completely unimpressive relative to the 'real' Alpine versions. It's not just cliche-speak. No way in shit I'm buying these Green Flash bottles.

 

Would love to see people doing blind taste tests with the Alpine bottles vs. GF.

I think it was said that the recipe did in fact change, so it's very possible that the new recipe isn't up to par. However I think people are going into it thinking the GF versions are going to be much worse before they even try them. Not an unfair assessment, but it's possible the difference is greatly overstated.

 

So just 14 posts until somebody mentioned what a GF brewed Pure Hoppiness tasted like (even if in a different bottle format)

 

I had GF brewed Nelson in bottles in San Fran/Bay Area last weekend and the latest batch is very good. Not identical but 95% there. Haven't tried the others but Duet and HB were also available at city beer store and up in Rhonert park at beer craft. I say give em time...

 

Just had Hoppy Birthday in a GF bottle and it's great. Nice and hoppy, fresh enough, and a great soft finish with juicy hop notes. I've had this beer on draft and OG Alpine, and every time it's great. Fuck the haters.

Guys guys, do you think he's going to buy it?!