Jack's Abby (2021)

Good to hear Jack's Abby is making it through these awry times. Since the pandemic started and my discretionary spending diminished, my beer purchases have largely been limited to Jack's Abby and Sierra Nevada. Even with JA's switch to four packs their beers remain an excellent value.

 

@JacksAbbyBrewing
That was one of the most insightful, heartfelt posts I’ve ever read from a brewery in all my years posting here (and the years before when I just lurked). I tend bar at one of those places you talked about that rely on in-house sales almost exclusively so it really hit home with me when I saw your post. I knew there was a reason I drive all over Long Island just to get your beers (other than the fact I find them delicious). Keep up the good work and good luck moving forward.

 

We have a pretty cool, geeky project we're launching this weekend, and think some of you lager-heads might be interested. We've run limited batches of House through different carbonation methods as a way of testing the sensory impact of carbonation methods on our beer. These mixed fourpacks contain a spunded, krausened, force-carbed version of House, and one duplicate you'll be asked to match with the others. We're using an application called "Sample Ox" to track responses and gather data. We plan to continue spunding House Lager as we always have, but are interested to learn more about these processes in hopes of deepening our understanding of the lagers that we love.

We executed this quality experiment by eliminating all other variable that might occur from batch to batch. We did this by brewing one large batch of House lager. The following day we transferred out of the main tank of House lager into three smaller vessels. By doing so we could eliminate all brewhouse variations, attenuation issues, yeast cell counts etc and be confident that the only variations between the three batches of beers were how we carbonated them. All batches of beer were carbonated to the same level of 2.6 volumes and packaged on the same day.

• Force Carbonated Version: allowed to ferment at 48 until VDK pass. No top pressure was applied. The tank was lagered 8 weeks at 32 degrees until packaging when it was forced carbonated.

• Spunded Version: allowed to ferment at 48 until it was "bunged" at the end of primary fermentation to capture the CO2. The tank was lagered 8 weeks at 32 degrees until packaging.

• Krausened Version: allowed to ferment at 48 until primary fermentation was completed. Appromimatly 10% krausen was added to create a secondary fermentation. The tank was bunged at this time to capture CO2 and then the tank was lagered 7 weeks(one week additional was used for refermenting the krausening) at 32 degrees until packaging.

The goals of this experiment is to show of significant process changes affect flavors in finished beer. I hope you are able to taste the difference. If you wish to participate in this experiment, you can place an order on our website. Note it will only be available for pickup at the brewery.

 

Purchased! sounds fun

 

This experiment is so much cooler than a brewery taking their New England IPA and swapping out Citra for Mosaic.

 

Sounds like a really cool experiment. I wish I lived closer to Framingham...

 

Forgot to mention in the last post. We are running this project in conjunction with the University of Southern Maine. USM has been running data analysis on all three versions and will be working to parse the sensory feedback to better understand the lager fermentation process.

 

I wish the taproom was open. This sounds like it would have been a great reason for a Friday after work visit for a bite and experiment with the wife. A 'taste card' could accompany the three variations to help build data for the experiment

 

We are getting close! Working on finish touches for an improved beer garden that we hope to get open by the end of April.

 

This sounds so cool, even though I understood only about 35% of the verbs in the post.

You guys rock and I hope to be able to make it back to the good ol' USA and more specifically New England this summer and take part in what I hope to be even more lager experiments. I'll study up on some of these verbs in the meantime.

 

Welp, that 4 pack went quick.

 

If anyone here tries it I’m curious to hear your findings

 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.worcestermag.com/amp/4670182001

As a beer buyer this is the best news I’ve seen in months, I hope they are able to change distributors and I wish them all the luck in what looks like an upcoming legal struggle with Atlantic.

 

I admit I do not know the fine details of these distribution laws so take my opinions with a grain of salt.

I agree that I hope breweries have more control over their own product.

I also get the feeling that Sam Hendler was a little disingenuous when one of the

since JA did just that at its own brewery. Atlantic's reasons

. Isn't that essentially the same reason (though not word for word) JA gave?

If the pandemic is a reason for layoffs, that is both their choice to make, it is their business to run how they see fit after all. If cutting cost (payroll) to maximize profits is a reason for layoffs, that is both their choice to make, it is their business to run how they see fit after all. You just can't have it both ways by holding it against the company you have a signed agreement with while doing the same thing yourself.

Charlie Baker signed the so-called franchise law reform and JA saw a potential way out of their agreement with Atlantic. Good for them, go for it. Save the consumer from the BS though. You already won us over with your quality, too much of the BS will turn away

 

Is Atlantic saying they just want a better way to determine what the distribution agreement is worth or do they really believe that they deserve to have the lifetime rights to a brewery's distribution?

 

If that's what the agreement they both signed says, I'm guessing the answer to your question is yes.

 

You bring up an interesting point, but I’m not sure I agree. Remember, the majority of JA product is sold through distribution. If Atlantic lays off the employees who promoted JA product, I think that is certainly a legitimate concern. And I don’t see how JA laying off their own beerhall employees has anything to do with how Atlantic does (or does not) promote JA. It’s not a matter of having it both ways, it’s more like JA making business decisions in their own interest.

 

That definitely could and would be a concern for JA.

Unfortunately all we really have to go by is what was in the article and recent statements by JA. None of which mentions an Atlantic employee that promotes JA getting laid off. Atlantic laid off employees due to the pandemic. If Atlantic holds to their commitment

the employee who promotes JA is irrelevant (bad word choice) not a valid argument

 

No offense, really. I just think your speculation lacks basis in fact. Not trying to insult...

 

Not insulted.

The figures I quoted are directly copied and pasted from the original article linked in post #133