Phase Three Brewing Company (2025)

Haven't seen it recently but last year they asked a couple times for help with waxing bottles. Perk was getting a bottle of whatever you waxed for free in addition to being paid hourly. I happened to have a random day off from work so I volunteered. When I showed up I was asked if I had any experience in waxing bottles, said no and then was told someone would show me how. No one from the brewery showed me anything; it was the other volunteers who had been there most of the week who showed and told me what to do. Putting on those pull tabs is a PITA and I asked a couple times if I was doing it right and was told "looks good to me".

As I said, haven't seen them ask for volunteers recently to help with waxing so maybe they have learned their lesson.

 

This is pretty funny. I have started removing the wax from 3Floyds Dark Lords and P3 bottles BEFORE my share for just this reason. Hey, we're going to be drinking these 4-5 bottles, let's get the wax off and just have to pop caps when we want to drink. I've had a couple times where we just stopped with the wax because we didn't want to loose a finger and just had a different bottle......

 

After hearing about the debacle that @eppie82 endured and the subsequent personnel changes, I was hoping things had changed at P3, but not from what I just experienced. Had placed an order for Kastalia and am also an Ambassador. Noticed they extended the pickup window and I was going to be out of town, so I waited till today to pickup my member bottles and my order. Got there and was told they were out of Kastalia, but to "come back later tonight".

Anyone else have this happen to them recently? P3 is very rigid about their pickup procedure. Screw up and place an order for LZ instead of Elmhurst and they refuse to switch it. How do you run out of purchased bottles? I drove 2 hours today to go pick up those bottles, I'm definitely not going back tonight. Waiting to hear back from P3 about my options.

 

Tried to DM Gavin via the P3 Ambassadors Discord only for a bot to tell me: "Your message could not be delivered. This is usually because you don't share a server with the recipient or the recipient is only accepting direct messages from friends."

 

I assume you already emailed [email protected], but if you haven't it will likely be your best bet to get a response/resolution.

 

I emailed Elmhurst directly as that was the location that I tried to pick up at. Thank you for that email address, I will try there as well. Now that I re-read the Discord invite, it does say email is the preferred method of communication.

 

As I finish up an enjoyable P3 Czech-Style Pilsner, I can say with a clean conscience that the absolute best beers Phase Three makes these days are their traditional European lagers.

In one idiot's opinion, anyway.

 

100% agree. I have think they make great pils and lagers and even had one buddy that put them past goldfinger. I’ve stopped buying P3 ipas and only purchase the BA stouts and lagers/pils now.

 

I was thoroughly underwhelmed by Pixel and friends (too sweet, but I liked the Nelson one), and probably would have been happier with some lagers instead

 

I think P3 gets grouped into "best of NEIPA" Categories because of the name they've made for themselves in pastry stouts. Hype categories somehow spill over, but most of the hazies they put out leave a lot to be desired. I think they're getting better with time, but the lagers have been stable and awesome for sure.

I'd like to make a case for their WC IPA game though. While traditionally it's not a hype style (even the best WC IPAs rank at like 4.0 on untappd... unless they're Pliny), Terrazzo and Comic Cake are outstanding examples of the style. Terrazzo is their take on Pliny and it gets damn close in my book. If I did a blind, who knows which one I'd like more.
I haven't had Swells yet, but I imagine it's decent as well. Triadic Harmonies was very bad somehow, and I'm not big on dank beers so I can't speak to the 'Saurus series.

 

Stopped by yesterday, haven't been in a while (just haven't been drinking much beer in general honestly, I'm living that single malt life) and was really pleased with everything I had.

Terazzo hit super well on a hot day, and then both small pours of Minuatie (2024) and Arches (2025) were excellent, particularly the Arches which is one of the best beers I've had in a while.

Every time I've been in, they've always had something fun and interesting to try, and the quality remains, to me, top notch.

 

I haven’t picked up anything from P3 in a while, but back when their hazies first started hitting the shelves, I thought they stacked up really well against Hop Butcher. At the time, HB’s limited distro made them tough to find, so if Binny’s was sold out, a fresh P3 drop was the next best thing.

Once the hype around P3 cooled off, though, I mostly just kept an eye on their new releases on the shelves without feeling much pull to actually buy them.

 

Has P3 gotten any better about grace on pickups? I saw the pickup window closes like 3 days before I plan to be in the area. Wasn’t sure if it was worth throwing my name in the hat or if they are sticklers.

 

If you shoot them an email I bet they'll work something out with you.

 

As a former 'ambassador'...I bet they won't.

Hopefully I'm wrong & they've changed for the better.

 

I was going to unveil a new feature tonight called “guess what I’m drinking?” And just describe the beer in my glass and see if people could get it.

Here’s my video review on my blog: BlogPost

 

Milk & Cereal?

 

Reviews for regular Arabesque pretty mixed, with some downright bad…

Anyone tried it yet?

 

haven’t yet but that’s a little surprising. I had the Minutiae welcome pour blind and thought it was an extended aged Minutaie. I really liked it and was surprised to read it was Malort BA. I didn’t really make the connection even after knowing that.
VR was a vanilla bomb cold but thankfully the barrel came out a bit as the pour warmed.
What Could Be 34 was nice as it was very coffee forward. What Could Be 35 ran sweet with the maple so the 5 oz pour was all I needed on that one. They had space for Ambassadors and free lagers so I was glad I went

 

I had arabesque tonight and thought it was good.actually very good