Night Shift Brewing

I feel like this should also go on the main forum, or at least also the Mid-Atlantic forum.

 

I agree with a lot of your post, specifically regarding Nightshift having a smart business plan and a diversified portfolio, but I disagree with this part.

Tap rooms are doing incredibly well, while regional/national breweries relying on distribution aren't. Beer is sitting on shelves due to the volume of craft beers, and people are drinking local.

Tap rooms are now ingrained in our culture, and I honestly see this being a long term cultural shift.

Even if a recession hits, breweries can always drop prices of their beers (especially New England IPAs I bet) and still make money.

Nightshift's cash flow is multi-faceted as you've stated, and none of this appears to solely rely on distributing to other states. And this time they've intelligently built a brewery/tap room in another state, rather than just expanding to other states with distribution.

 

All very interesting, I didn't know they had a food truck now too.

This part isn't true though, I've seen their selzter at liquor stores.

"The brewery has also been dipping its toes in the hard seltzer category, producing a few small batches that are only available in Night Shift’s taprooms with the idea of releasing a greater volume by the end of the year."

 

Certainly tap rooms are doing incredibly well and much better than regional/national breweries relying on distribution. My point was more along the lines of breweries that only succeed today because of those high margins. Its one thing to flourish due to the high margins and high demand but its another to just to get by. I think a lot of breweries have created a business model where if demand or prices goes down they won't succeed. Tree House relies solely on direct sales but my guess is that they are flourishing due to the high margins not just getting by. Had they built a $100 million brewery rather than I think closer to $20 million (would have to look it up) then it would be a different thing.

So I agree the tap room is here to stay but you also need a good business plan to go along with that tap room. Perhaps I should have been clearer in making the differentiation that you need more than just current success, you need to have planned for the unexpected.

 

Night Shift just dunking on the three tier system. Starting your own distributorship in another state along with an on-premise taproom? Ahhahaha.

It'll be interesting to see the ramifications in 20 years, whether the 3-tier was an antiquated bit of regulation or something actually important that we allowed to get trampled via sidestepping and niche-carving.

 

Has anyone been to the Owl's Nest in Allston?

How does it compare to the one at the Esplanade?

 

We biked to the Esplanade once and it was an absolute madhouse so we went on to the Allston location and it was much more relaxed. However, there were only a handful of canned beer options (maybe 6 NS and 4 guest cans). I haven't been to the Esplanade one but I was under the impression that had a much broader selection, could be wrong though.

 

I'd be interested to see what kind of strategies breweries will take that mirror the playbooks of the DTC winemakers of the west coast. Some of the best wineries (see: award winners; wine enthusiast ratings) in the country are DTC. There are likely some breweries whose model can sustain a recession, but I do think there are going to be a ton of failures: missed loan payments, loss of sales, etc. that lead to bankruptcies and closings. At the risk of dancing of graves, I welcome these things.

The established locals (Notch, Jack's, Night Shift, Oxbow, Wormtown, Lawsons, Alchemist, etc.) will prevail.

The industry giants (Hill, Allagash, Tree House) will absolutely remain giants and destinations.

Everyone else? Adios. Peace out. Thin the herd. I see so much mediocre beer on the shelves everywhere I go -- from here, from elsewhere.

(This isn't even touching on seltzers, cannabis, and other FMB coming to market. The 21-year olds consume much, much differently -- or not at all -- than I did at 21. Not a criticism, not a dig. It's reality.)

 

People will drink, but I think a lot more people will see a $22 four-pack of NEIPA near a $15 15-pack of House Lager (or insert-best-deal-here) and opt for the latter.

 

I haven’t been to the Esplanade location either, but the one time I went to the Allston location it was a bit underwhelming. I got a beer with no wait, which was nice. Pretty sure they had less than 10 total beer options. Maybe 6-8. The can I got wasn’t very cold and the whole thing was essentially just some roped off grass, a few tables, and a cornhole game with cans being pulled from someone’s trunk.

 

Does anyone know if the Esplanade is also cans only? I was assuming they had a draft setup and my interest level drops considerably if that's not the case.

 

Are the same consumers buying expensive double IPAs also buying craft lagers?

My experience is that many New England IPA consumers barely even know what a lager is.

I think many of them are new to the scene in the last few years. I bet they’ll either reach for cheaper New England IPAs or maybe quit the hobby altogether.

It’s got draft pours too. And not just from Nightshift. I had a Devils Purse draft when I was there.

There’s a bunch of games there, tables, gorgeous view, and a couple food trucks.

This is probably why it’s crazy with a huge line compared to the Allston location. My brother wanted to check out the Allston one but I told him it didn’t sound too spectacular.

I said we could probably just go to Everett and sit outside for a similar experience (minus the view of the water) with a much bigger tap list. Sounds like I was right.

 

I usually bike to Watertown and back from Cambridge on Sundays and the Allston location is a perfect hydration stop. They have added draft lines and rotating beers from NSB and others. I find it a lot nicer than the zoo of lines to get in and lines to get a pour at the Esplanade location. I also like the Castle Island constitution wharf biergarten as well as the most secret one called the Anchor with multi brewery cans near the Korean war memorial in Charlestown.

 

My bet is that Lagers are the next big thing....sort of the middle ground between the NEIPA craze and the Bud Light broz

 

A lager? Is that like a pilsner?

 

I feel as if people have been saying that on here for years. I certainly see more of them now though than say, five years ago. There's also a lot more beer in general.

Ha!

I love that one. "I like lagers and pilsners".

Personally, I'm afraid of reptiles and snakes.

 

I feel like for it to be actually the new thing, more breweries have to commit to it. You see a lot of breweries putting a lager or two out there, but they're not very good and because they don't sell, these breweries only periodically produce the lagers. On top of that, unfortunately, the lagers don't get much better as a result too (not dialing it in).

I think that if there is a downturn in the economy, lagers could be the next thing because of the consumer dictated price point (i.e. consumers expect lagers to priced at a certain point so it has suppressed craft prices vs other styles which have fluctuated freely). To date, the last few years have been about big and bold flavors, so I don't see a shift in consumer demand happening without some sort of shock.

 

I feel as if I'm seeing more and more locally. Which I believe is a response to the over saturation of New England IPAs.

You have to differentiate yourself somehow.

 

To me, there's an element of this being the consumer's fault, if not the entirety of it. There are too many people who equate a lager with "anything that tastes like a 'regular' beer." This is simply untrue. Night Shift, since we're here in their thread, has done a marvelous job distinguishing the differences. There's Nite Lite, there's a Dortmunder, there's a pilsner, there's a Czech dark lager.

When people use "lager" as in, "[Brewery Z] has a pretty tasty lager on tap," it kind of infuriates me. What kind of lager are they making? Is it light? Dark? Low ABV, moderate ABV? Of course, it's part the brewery's fault too. Educate the consumer. Don't just slap "lager" on a can and not express what the beer is about the same way they do a stout or hop-forward beer.

So when someone says, "Lagers are the next big thing," I'm never really sure what they mean by that. Are people suddenly going to be assessing lagers like they do IPAs? Instead of, "This is more of a piney, resinous IPA than the honeydew and jackfruit IPA," are they going to be saying, "I tend more toward Czech pilsners because they're a little bit more rounded out than the crispness of a German pilsner"?

Or are they just going to drink anything that says lager and talk about how much they love their local lagers? If they're going to do that, just drink Budweiser. That's way more economically responsible (and Bud is actually good. I go Miller High Life > Bud > Miller Lite for those guys).

 

And one of the things that puts NS (and Jack's and some others) ahead of the curve is that they hit the market before the NEIPA craze. If IPAs were to die tomorrow, these places would be absolutely fine. The others? Not so much. I'll lead the procession.