Night Shift Brewing

You're in luck, because that's a core year-round beer of theirs!

 

I can't fully comment but some of those assumptions are fairly accurate.

In other news - yes, we do sell kegs of nearly all our regular canned offerings to retail stores now. Just ask your local store that carries NSB to reach out to their sales rep and request a keg. Total Wines is also regularly carrying kegs of our beers in their cooler. Lastly, we are also working on getting our keg inventory into Drizly - so you could get kegs delivered right to your home or office (in Boston area).

Cheers,
Rob

 

Awake is moving into a quarterly seasonal. It will fade out around the end of the month and then we are bringing back our canned classic saison Matisse (which won the Silver medal at GABF in 2017). Awake will return again at the end of 2018.

 

We are dropping our taproom can prices for our core beers to better match our retail partners in the market. Starting tomorrow we will be dropping the price down to $12 4-pack of Whirlpool, Santilli, OHTT, Morph, Awake. With our new partnership at IBG, a new canning line coming online in Everett, and other efficiencies we have picked up we are passing that along to our taproom fans.

Thanks all for feedback like this! We are constantly looking to improve everything about our brewery and distribution business. We do listen to feedback from our fans!

Cheers,
Rob

 

Well then its time for me to go finish off my keg of Santilli so I can get a fresh keg of another Night Shift beer!

 

Damn, I'm pretty disappointed Night Shift is losing its only year round dark beer. I'm sure you have your reasons or sales numbers to back up why, but it seems like so many breweries make their maltier offerings seasonal only.

 

I better go stock up on Awake! Love that beer.

 

We have tried to build it up so we can justify it year round but the data doesn’t support it. We will likely still have dark malty beers on tap in the taproom year round. Just not sent out to accounts.

 

Have you ever given thought to making all your beers seasonal/rotational?

For example, Trillium's flagship is probably Fort Point, but they don't brew it constantly. I don't believe they brew any beer year round.

Then again, Bissell Brothers brews Substance year round, but I think that's the only one.

I feel as if today's beer consumer is so finicky that this could be a viable option. I also noticed all of your year round brews are now hoppy beers. I assume this is by design, and based on trends/sales (not like it's a surprise that hoppy beer sells best).

 

Anyone who's had either - the Duchamp or Homestead listed for sale on Sunday's cellar day have any of that HF thing going on?

Awake is a really great beer, definitely sad that it won't be year round. Admittedly I don't buy a ton of it in store, but I can't even begin to say how often it's the best option at countless local restaurants.

 

While this is a good point I didn't consider, I'd actually argue that's even MORE reason to have none (or less) core beers.

Personally, I'll often pass up on a brewery's core offering because it's always there. There's so many options out there, that I don't feel a pressing need to buy that beer.

But, when a beer is seasonal, or not always available, I'll make it a point to buy that beer now, because I may not see it for a few months.

To expand this example to a much larger brewery, I always pick up Celebration each year. If it went year-round, I think I'd hardly buy it. There's too many hoppy beers out there for me to purchase.

 

I feel like it's been pretty rare that Trillium doesn't have a Fort Point variant on tap. Either the OG, DDH FPPA or one of the FPPA variants (Galaxy, Mosaic, Enigma, Nelson, Motueka, Vic Secret) is either available in cans or on tap most of the time.

Then again, I'm completely basing this on my memory ... have literally no data to back it up. So your recollection is probably better than mine, but rarely have I been in there where I haven't been able to pick up some Fort Point.

Sorry if bordering on too off topic in the Night Shift thread. All my recent visits there have been spectacular. Keep up the great work @masterob8!

 

I think it's easy for beer-geek BA posters to lose sight of the layman market. There's something to be said for a beer like Whirlpool always being on the shelf and being a reliable get for your uncle who likes good beer but who isn't constantly looking to try new things and check ticks on untappd. While I see NS sit in my go-to packies more than I used to, part of that is there is simply more of it available, and it's still fairly rare to see their main beers collect dust. They might not fly but they seem to move stock pretty well.

 

No, you're right (Mosaic Fort Point is on right now), but I consider the variants different. There's fairly large differences between each one in my opinion.

I don't think my Uncle is drinking Nightshift...at all. As well as Nightshift does, I don't think they reach the layman too much. I think people either know who Nightshift is, or they don't.

And this is simply anecdotal, and ironic, but people I've been with who don't frequent Nightshift actually dug Awake more than anything.

I personally haven't picked up Whirlpool in quite some time, because...

A) There's so much hoppy beer out there, it's hard to justify having a regular go-to. It becomes a game of "what's new" and "what's the freshest"
B) If I go to the brewery, it's always around, so I'm likely to try something new that they have (and they always have something new)

There's very few go-to's that I have...Notch Pils, Honker's Ale, and maybe a local Kolsch or two like Goody Two Shoes. I also liked Nightshift's Kolsch as well...and I'm definitely more likely to grab some because I don't see it all the time.

 

I can't speak for Homestead, but I liked Duchamp a lot. It's not HF, but nicely light, dry and balanced lemon tartness. I liked Funk Renegade a lot too. Hoping to pick up another bottle or two of that. Not really tart, but tons of brett funk and pineapple with citrusy hops.

 

I agree, I think we often live in an echo chamber on here. When you have breweries like Founders who does most of their volume off of All Day IPA and Allagash that does it with White you have to assume that decent low ABV beers are what the average person wants. Whirlpool is a great beer and kudos to Night Shift for calling it a Pale Ale rather than a Session IPA Not everyone likes variety or at least not to the degree lots of us on here do. Its not normal to have this scenario:
Bartender: What would you like?
BA ticker: I'd like xyz IPA
Finishes beer
Bartender: Would you like another?
BA Ticker: No thanks, I'll have abc IPA
Bartender: Oh you didn't like xyz?
BA Ticker: No I loved it, might have been one of the best I've had but since I've already had it I'll probably never drink it again due to all of the other options which might be better.

In full transparency I often have the conversation above...

 

Night Shift has been bringing in a bunch of barleywines lately and it's great! Had Titus Andronicus on tap last week, new society beer this week is a blonde barleywine aged in rye barrels, and another english-style barleywine releasing tomorrow in cans. Plus they have Denali, a wheat wine, on tap right now. Don't often come across this style in tap rooms, much less four variations.

 

They must be on the #BIL bandwagon. I ain't upset.

 

Last year's Marilyn was fantastic, really eager to try it out again this year.