Long Live Beer Works (2019)

Here’s my main criticism - they need to start doing single can sales. I know the didn’t do it in the old space due to limited cooler space, but now that they’re in their big new home They absolutely need to put their big boy and big girl pants on and do single cans.

I rarely want 4 cans of anything, and their unwillingness to do this makes them seem inflexible and greedy (and I know they’re actually good people )

 

I don’t think greed is the word I’d use. That’s extreme.

 

Selling single cans like Treehouse, Proclamation or Fox Farm does is anomalous. I, like you, rarely need a four-pack of anything and would prefer to grab a can or two of a few different things, but it's really not fair to expect any brewery to cater to that.

 

To give a shout out to another RI brewery (not meant to shit on LLB), Buttonwoods Brewery in Cranston is a small operation and did not offer single cans at first and I expressed disappointment when asking. However less than a year later they do offer single cans, it is $5/can if doing singles but at least the option is there. I don't mind the upcharge if I can grab 4 different cans for my 4-pack.

 

This kind of goes to one of my points.
Say someone is spending $20 a week on beer (mostly at their go to spot), then a new good brewery opens up. That person isn't going to spend $20 a week at both places. Then a couple months later a new awesome brewery opens. Now what?
It just seems like the new place is the place that gets the business and right now, with breweries, there is always a new place. It must be hard to be a five year old brewery.
It will be interesting to see how it all plays out five or ten years from now. I wouldn't think that all of these places could possibly survive. I just hope places like Long Live rise to the top and stick around for a long time.

 

My two cents. I love the new space. You don't feel packed in and I've never had a problem finding a place to sit. Also, as far as I know, they're the only brewery taproom in RI open on Mondays. Parking isn't the greatest due to the narrowness of the streets; however, it wasn't great at West Fountain either; especially on can release days. I also wouldn't leave anything of value in my car. I'm also hoping that with the increased capacity that we'll start to see some more traditional (and cask-conditioned) styles making it into the line-up. As previously stated, I do wonder about the landscape in five years. RI was a beer wasteland not that long ago and now new breweries are popping up almost every month it seems. It would be cool if some of the smaller shops could collaborate with the larger ones for cost-sharing, tap sharing and to help with long-term sustainability, but at the end of the day, quality (or at least being able to keep up with the fickleness of the beer geek crowd) and financial resources are going to define who's still around.

 

Agreed with the above. The backward-ness of RI beer laws as compared to the rest of the region and most of the country has and continues to put our breweries at a disadvantage. Due to the speed of growth with better taproom laws, you see new distro INTO RI from breweries all over New England, but conspicuously our local breweries have to grow at a very measured pace. Proclamation is pretty much the only RI taproom-based brewery grown into regional distribution - Foolproof, Grey Sail, Newport Storm/Craft had distro as part of their business model.

 

I don’t think it’s as anomalous as you think. Trillium sells singles, Jack’s Abbey & Springdale do too.

 

When long live was in their smaller space with limited cooler space, this made sense. But with such s larger space , I don’t see how it hurts them or puts them out to sell single cans. Just seems inflexible to me.

 

I've been to over 200 breweries. It's anomalous.

And again, I'm for it. I'm very much a singles guy with most of my purchasing and actively avoid bottle shops where you can only buy in four or six-packs. I also don't think it's that difficult for breweries to implement -- Springdale is a great example of having a bunch of their stuff available in full four-packs, and a percentage of those beers available in a different cooler as single cans. Burlington Beer Co is another one, letting you make mixed 4-packs of any of their offerings.

But it is very rare that breweries allow this and I think it's silly to hold NOT doing it against a place.

 

I guess we have different definitions of anomalous.

 

LOL okay.

 

I’m not holding it against Long Live, as much as I’m saying I really can’t see the reason why they can’t or won’t do single can sales in their big new space with (presumably) more cooler space. Seems inflexible.

Cheers!

 

84 Aleworks just announced on their FB Page they are closing on Sunday.

 

I consider myself pretty immersed in the New England beer scene - especially MA and RI - and I've literally never heard of that place. Off the cuff, I'd guess that they brewed very mediocre beer that might've worked 10 years ago, but not today when there are dozens of better options in RI alone.

 

You probably hadn't heard of them because their brewing operations just started 1-2 years ago, after being open as a tavern 10+ years prior to that. I have never tried their beers but based on their taplist other than the 20 local-ish brewery taps it appears their 5 own beers are a Milkshake IPA and standard IPA, pale, red and blonde ales.

 

They have been killing it lately. The DDH Black Cat was one of the best beers I have had this year.
It looks like they are rolling out a crowler line for small batch stuff that usually only went to tap. Pretty cool.
It says the crowler size is 750 mL (~24 oz). That is weird, right? Aren't they typically 32 oz?

 

FYI 750 mL is 25.4 oz. But yes I have seen crowlers in 32 oz sizes for the most part.

Also agreed they are doing no wrong lately. Killed it with their "extreme" beers and "Stout Mouth" event a few weeks back. Haven't even been this week but their Anniversary series DIPAs are always awesome.

If the brewer pivoted back to his UK-trained brewing roots with English-style casks (their weekly casks are usually adjunct stouts, IPAs or sours), then short of a pilsner that would serve the majority of beer drinkers.

 

It is tough in this ipa, sour, and stout market. He brewed a pilsner that is still available in cans from months ago. I don't know, maybe it wasn't that good but like you said with his background it was probably good. It is strange that certain breweries can just kill it with the throwback styles and still put out new age ipas. Fox Farm for example. Is it the quality or more of a perception?

 

The pilsner was not good