Long Live Beer Works (2019)

This weeks IPA sold out yesterday and only 16 cases of the stout left over into Friday.

 

Bring some growlers up, they'll fill any brewery's glass and you're going to want to take some home.

 

Last time I went it was a Friday night and they had their 3rd Anniversary DIPA and a sour (Blood of Ghost) in cans. They appeared to have plenty to last into Saturday. Not sure if that is regular

 

They typically sell out of their IPAs within the day or maybe carrying over to Friday, however their stouts have somehow lasted into the weekend on occasion. You may have a shot for a 4-pack of the Small Joys stout close to open.

Within a matter of weeks I assume their capacity will increase substantially with the new taproom and brewery around a mile south. Then Beer on Earth currently in North Kingstown will move into the current LLB space.

 

Looks like the new spot is opening up sometime this week. If you’ve been following along on Instagram it appears to be quite a nice space. Can’t wait for them to have a decent sized taproom and expand production a bit

 

I'm not looking forward to the typical growing pains initially. Every beer over the past few months has been amazing.

 

Eventbrite tickets just went live an hour ago for selection of one of 4 windows to attend the soft opening: Friday evening, Sat midday, Sat afternoon, Sat evening. Free tickets but limited allocation each session so it won't be a total shitshow, which is appreciated.

 

Friday evening must've sold out in 20 min. Bummed I missed it. A visit will certainly be high priority for me once they get up and going

 

Eventbrite had some major issues, LLB actually had to email some people that their tickets were not valid and putting out a listing for each session so people are sure they are RSVP'd. I saw on Facebook that some windows showed as sold out then opened back up. People were posting Friday night was sold out, then I saw tix available afterwards and a Saturday session was showing as sold out that people after me saw as available.

 

Anyone make it to the new spot? Thoughts? I live in Boston & make the drive to Tilted Barn a couple Saturdays per month. I normally hit Long Live on the way back. I'm definitely interested to see how well they scale up - that can be a battle sometimes.

 

Great spot, just the holdovers available from the old spot as far as beer currently available but they scaled up a "New Anniversary" 3.1 beer (TIPA) which was released Saturday but still had 40 cases available as of open today. Yes at open TODAY. Only closed on Tuesday, the new hours are as follows:

40R SPRAGUE ST., PROVIDENCE RI
OUR NEW TAPROOM HOURS:

MONDAY 3-10PM

WEDNESDAY 3-10PM

THURSDAY 3-10PM

FRIDAY 12-10PM

SATURDAY 11AM-10PM

SUNDAY 11AM-6PM

The taproom interior was very well designed although parking and access may be a hassle, at least in the near term as the mills around them are constructed for new developments. It doesn't face the road, from the small parking lot available there is an alley to a doorway on the left. The level is a substantial square footage multiple of the previous space, but still cozy (not as pronounced as Proclamation's upsizing). Bottom level probably seats around 30-40 and upstairs loft about the same, with plenty of standing areas. Some great little details in there as you'll see.

Once the stock builds up there is a devoted growler fill area, and looks like 12-15 different taps for pours.

 

Article in the Journal with a few photos: https://www.providencejournal.com/e...rJ_oeGS2VLFUU_mLsUzAci8tZGNKF-rjL6iMs29cFkMuI

 

Nice. Thanks for the intel. Sounds like they did a good job with it. I'm going to try to make it there on Saturday.

 

Went to the new location yesterday. Wonderful new space, but the actual location is horrendous. Fairly close to the infamous Broad Street, both my Uber drivers had similar comments ("what in the world are you doing in this part of town?"). The old location was in a much better spot and a short walk from Bayberry Beer Hall.

The hope is that the area continues to develop and is fine in a few years. I'll continue to go as I love the beer, but will refrain from going after nightfall.

 

Does anyone else get the impression that Long Live isn't doing so well after their move? They used to can about 50 cases a week and sell out the next day. Now they can double or triple that but have highly rated beers last weeks instead of days.

I am not local but I went to the new place once. It was awesome and the beer was awesome but it was pretty slow and that was only a couple weeks after they opened. Also comments on their social media are way down. Like 2 or 3 comments on a new beer release.

If they aren't doing the business they expected I have a few theories.
1) They actually only had a fan base that accounted for selling 50 cases a week so regardless of expansion they are stuck at that number.
2) Everyone is looking for the next best brewery. Now that they are established people have moved on.
3) People don't like the new location. Not the actual place but the geographic location.
Of course I could be wrong about the whole thing. That is just the impression I get. What do people think? Am I looking too much into this?

 

I was just there. I thought it was a good sign that there was a decent crowd right at the noon opening. Now that they've ramped up production, it's only natural that the beers will last longer. Most Trillium beers last a couple weeks these days as well.

For what it's worth, I was surprised they expanded because I never thought they brought in big crowds. I do think the old location was much better, near Bayberry Beer Hall. I used to grab a pint or two at LL, then head over to Bayberry for another pint and dinner.

 

I don’t think these guys ever had the hype, though they do deserve it. They are one of my favorite New England breweries and I’d love for them to stay just like they are. The new space is beautiful (yes, a little off the beaten path) and the beers seem pretty dialed in. I think the prior demand to sell 50 cases in 1-2 days is pretty spot on. And now with the increased production it takes the urgency of having to line up away, which is awesome. Worst comes to worst they start disto with excess kegs or even cans if need be.

Overall, taproom craft sales seems to be leveling off a bit, probably due to all of the competition popping up. A lot of big players are sending kegs and cans all over the place.

 

I didn't like the old location much, as a mostly to-go customer. Too tiny, with too few hours. That place looked busy with like 10 people there. Moving to a big spot and going from being open 3 to 6 days a week is definitely going to thin things out a bit. Other factor might be that it's summer, when there's like a million other things to do in the area.

I've seen a few people complain about the new location, but tbh the biggest problem I've seen on my visits has been the street parking situation, which makes the road too narrow to really drive on. I assume those cars are all LL customers lol.