Metro DC Brewery Discussion Thread

That's what I meant. Less profitable, but additional revenue source. Or something like that. I defer to your expertise!

 

On price, I don't think it is fair to compare pricing for two different sized breweries. Aslin right now is on the higher end, but they also don't get the economies of scale that a RP or Ocelot get. It probably costs Aslin 2x as much to make a beer due to their limited size than it does for the other larger breweries in the area.

When Aslin does expand I would fully expect to see prices drop to comparable levels for other breweries. If they don't, then I would agree it is an issue.

Their beers are really good at this point so I am willing to pay a little extra for them.

 

I'm not sure "fair" really matters. Business is business. It's not the customers fault that they bought a small system, and customers don't owe the owners anything. If you like their beer enough to pay more for it, great, but don't pay more just for the heck of it.

 

I don't think you understood the point of my comment. I agree you shouldn't pay a premium just for the heck of it. I was explaining why I perceive there is a price difference between different breweries (I.e economies of scale, ingredients, etc.).

 

On another note, anyone know when Ocelot is releasing their barrel aged stuff? Excited to try them out soon!

 

Nah, I get that. My point is that there is no "fair," unless people are assuming that Aslin is somehow greedy and overcharging people, which would be more a case of people being uninformed than unfair. I get that they have higher costs, but that shouldn't make the customer more willing to pay a higher price.

 

They'll have them on tap for their 1 year party on the 30th, and then the bottles will be for sale the following Monday.

 

Meridian Pint is pouring My Sweet Virginia (BA English Barleywine) on Tuesday, April 12

 

Small Town was much better than Neutrino.

 

The other night I had a growler of Frightened, Ocelot's new IIPA, and thought it was fantastic, fwiw.

 

The not-so-short answer is this.

Everyone is free to vote with their wallet. I am a huge fan of both Right Proper and Aslin. One is making great low ABV sours/wild beers/farmhouse beers and the other is making great IPAs/big stouts. They both have a very nice fit in the beer world.

They're making completely different styles of beer on completely different scales. As mentioned above, Right Proper (even the Brookland facility) is not especially big at this point. They might as well be Sierra Nevada compared to Aslin.

I don't think you can open a brewery expecting to be as successful as Aslin has been. If you plan for that, you're taking a sizable risk. The fact that they've outgrown it so quickly doesn't mean it wasn't a good idea going in. I know that Aslin is looking at ideas and they've already added several fermentors since opening. Expansion is not something that happens overnight.

There's two things at play here. The first is that the style of IPA that they're making requires a lot of hops. Hops are very expensive, especially without hop contracts. Given their age, I can't imagine Aslin has hop contracts for Citra, Galaxy, Mosaic, Simcoe, etc. Which makes them all the more expensive to acquire.

The second is scale. As with anything, the price of raw brewing materials decreases with your ability to buy them in greater volume.

3 Stars is a good example. From the time they opened until now, their 1/2 barrel pricing has gone down almost $80. Why? Scale. As they grew they were able to consolidate base malts, buy enough to fit into grain silos, contract hops, etc.

 

I stopped by Aslin on Saturday and got to try Small Town in Ontario and Orange Starfish. Small Town was pretty good, but Orange Starfish really wowed me! That beer and Bringing Sexy Back are truly world-class IPAs, and I loved how flavorful it was despite only being 5.7%. I am so excited for both the present and future of this brewery. They may not knock it out of the park with every single beer, but man, when they do, the beers are the best in the area.

 

100% agree. I've had Mind the Hops, Master of Karate, Neutrino, Small Town, BSB, and Orange Starfish, and the last two have been my favorite. I know OS has citra, does BSB have it as well?

 

My friend brought crowlers of Small Town and Neutrino up to NYC this weekend, I think I'll probably crack one tonight. Excited to finally give Aslin a try.

 

I went out to Aslin on Saturday and tried Small Town, Neutrino, and Orange Starfish right next to each other. They're all basically the same beer. As they warmed up they began to differentiate a little, but if I wasn't drinking them side by side, I would not have been able to accurately distinguish them by memory.

They wouldn't fill my 32 oz longneck growler, so I went over to Ocelot for a growler fill instead, and man I'm really glad I did. I had kind of forgotten how good their beers are, but this trip reminded me. There is no doubt in my mind that they are making the best beer in the DC metro area.

 

BSB is all mosaic

 

Made my first trip to Aslin late on Saturday and was seriously impressed with Orange Starfish. I got there too late for Neutrino and Ontario, but if they keep putting out IPA's like Starfish, I'll have little motivation to keep trading for out of market IPA's.

 

they filled my 750ml hill farmstead longneck growler...

 

Same here.

 

yeah one guy picked it up and was about to fill it, then another guy saw him and told him not to fill it. They said they would trade it in for half the price of a new growler, but I wasn't going to pay $18 for a 32 oz fill.