Nimbus and Old World win medals? WTF

Great article. Thanks for posting.

Homerism. A business receives support from locals that is largely undeserved or unjustified:

"It's also the only logical explanation for why Old World Brewery is still in business."

Then he goes on to talk about the horrible reviews, the numerous health code violations, how much competition now exists, etc.

However, at the end of the article, I think he answers his own question with this comment from his reviewer (who was hysterical btw) who said, "She just assumed that the owner kept in the black by continually funneling his own money into the business."

That's a completely different answer from homerism and locals being forgiving to the point of utter insanity. Likely the owner and his partners/investors are keeping the doors open out of their own pockets.

Am I missing something? Is it possible they are actually profitable?

 

Hmmm..? This relates to my Tucson thread. Its been over 10 years since ive had them, but Nimbus was cranking out some decent beers. Not so much anymore?

 

I wholeheartedly agree with everything said by BigBelcher here.

 

The homerism is obviously a major explanation.

I think most BA's are a little different than most craft beer consumers. A lot of people are really into the "buy local" thing even if they don't drink a lot of craft beer in general or have knowledge about it. They may not even know how lame most of Old World stuff is.

Plus there's a lot of people who like to try everything once (especially if local, too).

I see a lot of similarities to the bubble in the 90's here where lousy breweries did well even for awhile, except the growth trend is stronger this time.

 

Well, when one of the awards is narrowly defined as "Arizona Brewery of the Year", and it is just among those entered I suppose you have to give the award to someone. And Nimbus has done a great job of remodeling their original site and if you look at all the effort they have put into their "Monkey" theme stuff I think they earned at least a strong consideration for being a fun place to go with craft beer. As for their brown ale, well, I admit I usually only drink their Monkeyshine at the brewery.
Really don't like any of the Old World beers that I have tried, but the one that took an award, their Honey Wheat at least sounds interesting enough to try as soon as I can. I was disappointed in Zach's review of Old World, I wish he hadn't held back his opinion so much because I would really like to know how he feels about the place! Old World used to have some interesting music entertainment there, some unusual bands and had a pretty good turnout for a while.

 

Finally read Zachs article - ouch! I've never tried any of their stuff, but I admit that it's because of all the negative reviews - cant get myself to spend money on something that gets ripped to shreds constantly.
Nimbus is not bad though...I like Monkeyshine. Some other stuff is good enough although doesn't really compare to most of what's out there. Now Nimbus' food in Scottsdale is another story - I hated it

 

Do you think they are profitable? Enough "buy local even if it it's crap" customers to cover all expenses, salaries, operating costs and still have money left over for marketing, upgrades, etc?

 

Sorry I may have been confusing above. What I'm saying is that most people in the general public that buy craft beer are not BA's. Most aren't all that knowledgeable. The "buy local" movement is huge. There's a lot of people who are buying and drinking what is local, and they don't necessarily know any better. You could line up Sculpin, Union Jack, Stone IPA, and Electric Dave's IPA and they won't know which one sticks out.

Old World's beers aren't necessarily offensive or infected or anything. Those can still sell. I'm sure you don't think the general public is incapable of buying lame beer over and over. We already know that. Look at the success of BMC. Look at how we had Uptown Brewery, Alcatraz, HOPS! and other lame ones here in the 90's for a number of years. And the buy local mentality is everywhere now. It can happen.

 

No Label won some kind of fan vote at the Refinery over the weekend in Houston... I have no idea how that happens over some of the other beers there... taste is subjective I guess.. or they have more travelling fans..ha.