Sacred Profane Brewing Launching Summer 2022

I swear this is right now by far my favorite thread on this site. A lot of interesting points being made. There was a point above made by @miguel_loves_beer that I agree with Having been there, the look and basic vibe of the place reminded me of a new, small craft brewery, regardless of what kind/how many beers they have.

 

Going back to a discussion a few pages earlier, perhaps just as the owners don't want to blatantly appropriate Czech culture and promote it as their own, they may also want to demonstrate similar respect to the sacred and traditional culture of American craft beer.

 

If I were to offer one critique of the SP concept, it’s that I’ve heard them say a lot about what it isn’t, but I don’t have a great feel for what it is supposed to be. Like I get it’s supposed to be sort of like a Czech pub, but they don’t seem to want to make it feel special in any way, like being plain is the whole point. Maybe it is. But that’s not particularly fun for the customer.

While we enjoyed our visit for the most part, neither of us felt a strong need to go back anytime soon. The two beers were quite good, but not mind blowing, and there will apparently only ever be those two. The food was good, but not special or very extensive. The vibe was fine, but not memorable, and they didn’t do anything to make it feel like an “experience.” We just sat at our table, drinking two lagers, and sharing some poutine. Which was fine for what it was, but I just didn’t feel the need to rush back until the next time I’m specifically in the mood for a Czech lager and poutine.

Whereas my favorite breweries or restaurants or bars have a fun vibe and lots of options to where I’ll feel like, “hey let’s hop over to XYZ and see what’s going on,” Sacred Profane seems to send the message that what’s going on will always be exactly the same and they don’t want to bend at all to cater to the customer, so unless it wowed me (it didn’t), I’m not feeling a huge draw to go back again and again.

 

I agree with you here. I listened to Brienne in the Born on 3rd podcast and she was quite clear about what they are not:

· “not a taproom”

· “not a craft brewery”

· “not coming here to drink the beer”

Well, I did hear Brienne use the word "restaurant" in describing Sacred Profane but folks have posted in this thread that there are times when food is not available. I personally have never been in a restaurant and food not been available while I was there. The availability of menu items would vary from time of day (i.e., lunch menu, dinner menus) but it was never to the point of no food being available.

Cheers!

 

Add another variety to the 2 beer model. They're adding maple cinnamon seasonal themed art on top of the foam now.

 

When I spoke with Brienne in May, one of the topics that came up was taproom environments. A lot of breweries not only offer the same types of beers but also kind of the same vibe and look. A lot of spots that look like a Danish coffee shop, subway tile, some wood. It all kind of blends together and there isn't really anything that differentiates one brewery from another. Somewhat to my own detriment, I just don't want to wander into a random brewery anymore. What incentivizes me to go to Brewery X vs Brewery Y? And Portland has such a density of breweries. What are the individual breweries doing to stand out from one another? Like at least one person (me) isn't going to breweries for the sake of going to breweries. I can't be alone in that.

I think that that's part of why they're trying to distinguish themselves from other breweries. I haven't had a chance to make it up (I really want to but have some personal stuff going on), so I can't speak to the environment there. It seems like there are things they still need to figure out. Thought @rightcoast7 raised some interesting points there.

 

Wish those were out when I was there. They would both be great for football Sundays. I will be up again next month but don’t know if I can stop in. I wonder if they’ll go out to stores.

 

If anyone knows pricing on 12pk can you drop a reply please.

 

$25/12pk. That sounds pricey because we’re used to $16-$18 12pks, but that is equivalent to a $12.50 6pk or a $11.11 16oz 4pk.

 

It’s a bit on the pricey side for a lager but whenever I think about balking at buying a $25 12 pack I just remind myself of how many times I’ve paid almost the same price for a four pack of Other Half.

 

That’s a fair price. I just paid like 21$ for a 6 pack of Trail Australian cascade. Not that it’s something I do regularly (it was delicious), but yeah.

Another thing, most breweries have been eating the cost of inflation over the past few years

 

Good price, beautiful packaging, still not behind the entire concept and food situation.

 

You can buy a 12 pack of Tonewood Lumberyard for 19$ Well that’s at the brewery you may see an extra $ or two at the stores by you maybe.

 

No drama post here: went down to Biddeford Sunday of the holiday weekend (2 weeks ago) and enjoyed: easy, free parking, a wonderful mixed pour of the 2 lagers (came highly recommended from 2 beer-friends,) a delicious plate of steak tartare, mix of locals, & geeks passing through, and a friendly server. Very enjoyable, nice to explore Biddeford's renaissance on foot, and...I will return. If I was a local, I'd be in there after work 3 nights a week.

 

Incredible how much drama there is in this thread lol. Who gives a fuck about the business model? This place is great! Unfortunately when I went food was done for the day, but I'd definitely make a trip out there again

 

Not for most of the beer I buy.

 

I'd gladly pay $25 for both of those over the lastest Trillium DIPA at $24 per 4 pk.

 

was that even up for debate? there was no reference to hazebro 4pks.

 

Interesting, what beer?

I buy a fair amount of beer, everything from High Life to Tree House, and beyond, I can’t think of a single brewery that has raised prices.

 

What? Bro, not everything has to bend to your preferences. Everything will be ok, it’s just great beer at a more than fair price. No need to overthink something that you have literally no say in.

 

This whole thread reads like something I'd see on Facebook. It's kind of ironic that such a simple concept is being completely overanalyzed.

 

In terms of the number of beers it's "simple". But it's far from your "typical" concept. Which is why there's so much discussion about this.

If it was just your standard warehouse-type brewery, with corn hole, food trucks, and a list of 50% IPAs and then the other half a mix of styles, no one would be discussing it.

Moreover, one of the owners is well known in this industry and has some serious brewing experience. This was discussed for months before it even opened. And while having two beers is simple, the Czech Tankovna concept is relatively new to the US.


Hi-Fidelity in Portland only had three beers at open (and only one was an IPA, one was an English Bitter...far from a common style). But there isn't even a thread for that brewery (not a knock on them either, there's many many breweries without a thread in this forum).

 

I would 100% agree if I hadn't read all of the bizarre quotes from the owners.

Imo they're the ones who have stirred the pot by saying they're not a craft brewery, and that they're going to make these lagers better than anyone else, and how they're doing something totally unique that nobody else has done.

I mean there probably would be some drama type posts regardless, since it's a message board, but those quotes are just throwing gasoline on top.

 

Brienne might be a bit more well known but both of them have serious brewing experience.
Mike at Oxbow and Brienne at Jack's Abby and Notch.

 

This is what I'm talking about. Stirred the pot, like they're intentionally trying to have this discourse. Just feels like a lot of people taking some quotes and really running with them. What brewery wouldn't set out to make beer better then anyone else?

 

Whether intentional or not, they tossed those quotes out there.

What is the difference between "running with them" and "discussing them"?

I think the majority of breweries don't start out by telling the world they are setting out to make the best beer of its style in the world. If they'd said they plan to make the best beer they can, well duh. Everyone does that, I guess (not really). I would guess only a very small percentage of breweries come out before opening saying they're going to pump out the best beer of any craft brewery.

But I guess they're not a craft brewery, so maybe they meant the best beer of any tankpub.

 

On a forum filled with thousands of posts discussing all sorts of minutae about beer, how is someone genuinely surprised that there's an over analyzed discussion of a brewery?

 

If you restrict it to Lukr type tanks this is indeed a new concept.

If instead you take a broader perspective and view it as serving the beer from the tank (e.g., Brite Tank) my local brewpubs have been doing this for decades.

On a related note Human Robot has decided to jump on the serving from the tank bandwagon:

TANK POURS

CZECH 10° CZECH PALE LAGER | 4.2% ABV | $7

Beautiful bready malt balanced with a kiss of floral spice. Decoction mashed with floor malted Czech pils malt. Hopped exclusively with Bohemia’s gift to the world, Saaz hops. Poured from Czech Lukr side pull faucet.

POLOTMAVY 12° CZECH GARNET LAGER | 5.2% ABV | $7

Subtle, yet satisfying. Translated as “half dark” this decoction brewed lager has a slight roast flavor from atouch of chocolate malt atop the finest floor malted bohemian pils and dark malts. Hopped gently with Czech Saaz. Poured from Czech Lukr side pull faucet.

HALLERTAU PILS GERMAN STYLE PILSNER | 5.2% ABV | $7

Hallertau pils is brewed as an ode to the industrial German pilsners of the 50’s to the late 70’s when technology allowed more efficient processes, but the liquid was still brewed “the old way”. We use a double decoction mash, 100% German Pilsner malt, and 100% German Hallertau Mittlefru hops.

TMAVY 13° CZECH DARK LAGER | 5.3% ABV | $7

A double decocted dark lager brewed with Czech Saaz hops and floor malted Bohemian barley. Jet black with a cap of tan foam, medium bodied with a mild, drying roast character.

https://www.humanrobotbeer.com/on-site-draft-list

Na Zdravi

 

See, this is where I keep getting confused here. Notch also serves all their Czech beers directly from the tank.

But this post (and some others before it) say it's a "bag-in-tank" system. Is that different?

Is this how they're all done? Is this how it's done in the Czech Republic?

 

Anyone who’s been around long enough would remember when Mr. Dan Lanigan made the claim he was going to make a beer better than Heady and available to the masses everywhere. And at the time heady was considered the best beer in the world to many.

We saw how that first iteration of Boomsauce turned out in its blended fuck up of a form

I never got “wrapped in that gentle juice blanket” he promised me.

 

I do not work for Lukr but I will do my best to address this topic:

Below is from the Lukr website (with emphasis in bold by me):

• The beer is pumped from the tank truck to a tank, usually equipped with the “bag-in-tank” system.
• Air is pumped between the tank wall and the bag, forcing the beer into the dispensing tower, and via the tap into the serving glass.

The main advantage of this solution is that the beer does not come in contact with air or any other gases and therefore does not go stale.”

https://www.lukr.cz/en/beer-tanks/

So, as you can clearly read above the Lukr tanks “usually” have a bag within the tank but since this sentence is qualified that means that sometimes the tank does not have a bag.

As to the aspect of “any other gases” I am uncertain why the bag-in-tank system is necessarily ‘better’ since the tank could be hooked up to CO2 to have the CO2 ‘backfill’ the tank when the beer is drained/consumed. This is basically how a cask breather works for the cask dispense of beer.

I already discussed the "how they're all done" above with the discussion of "usually".

I have seen Lukr tanks (I did not at the time know they were Lukr tanks) in Czech Pubs but I also saw tanks that were non-Lukr tanks as well. Were there bags within those non-Lukr tanks? Beats me.

Na Zdravi

 

I'll never forget how bad the LH samples at whatever fest it was at the time (ACBF I think) were. It was shortly after those comments and if I remember right the very first time their beer had been poured anywhere and they served two absolute garbage contract brewed test recipes.

I'm not a supporter by any means but I will give them credit for turning it around (including in beer quality). That first taste had me thinking out of business in under 2 years.

 

Brienne's inspiration stemmed from PU, who does use the vacuum-sealed bags; however, they utilize this method to distribute/transport the tanks to Tankovna bars via "temperature-controlled tank trucks"...SP is sending kegs

 

haha yeah my first tastes were a fest I believe as well.

I truly wish someone might still have the old description he had written. It was epic. Hell I think that post may even pre date BA’s Forum overhaul. I had a different profile name back then but no idea what it was. Anyone remember what year BA did the big upgrade? I know I probably joined around 04-06 ish?

 

In post number 4 of this thread I linked a video which detailed the Pilsner Urquell Tankovna (tank beer) system. There was no explicit discussion of bag-in-tank but a few aspects that might worth further discussing:

Pilsner Urquell tank beer

The tank beer is not pasteurized and Pilsner Urquell states it has a shelf life of 3 weeks

Pilsner Urquell non-tank beer (i.e., kegs/barrels)

This beer is pasteurized and in the video they mentioned a shelf life of 3 months.

Cheers!

 

2012 was the forum "reset".

 

So that's what the Mayan calendar was referring to

 

PU Tank Beer: