Societe opinions

Agree - I'm a big fan of their IPA's. haven't tried their Belgian styled beers yet though.


Those growler prices are f'n absurd. Just seems like a ripoff.

 

I was pouring both The Apprentice and The Dandy at an IPA fest a while back, and thought they were just ok. I heard many a folk say 'oh, it's from San Diego...it must be good'.

 

I was blown away at how much rich, intense roasted character they got, without any hint of astringency...I'm a sucker for a good RIS, but The Butcher really impressed me. Out of the rest of their beers, Widow is my favorite but I haven't tried their IPAs since the initial batches, I definitely need to rectify that.

 

I visited a couple weeks ago, totally loved the apprentice, was underwhelmed with most of the rest of it. I didn't think it was bad, just unexceptional. The butcher had just kicked when I got there, wish I had gotten to try that. I liked the space a lot, but the thing that made me most excited was all of the barrels stacked up in the corner. An employee told me that they're not using any old spirit barrels, and they're so far only making sours. Should be a pretty great place to visit in about a year when those barrels are ready.

 

Societe makes no money on selling their growlers for $25. The cost alone is in the low to mid $20 mark, then cleaning them with acid and washing them out costs labor. Not to mention the co2 purge.
Butcher should be back soon and I'm looking forward to it.
I still enjoy all their beers, debutante the least, and think they are very underestimated thus far.

 

I like the Dandy and the Apprentice.

Not world-class stuff necessarily, but quite tasty.

 

The Pupil is fantastic. The Apprentice is pretty great. Last batch of The Dandy was much improved. Their Belgians need some work. They seem brewed like someone is afraid to let the yeast get truly expressive (I'd guess they're fermenting them far too cool).

 

Loved Pupil, but this latest batch was disappointing.

 

Yeah I wasn't really impressed either. I think that's my only encounter with them, and I was excited to try them, but definitely let down. This was in early August, so I'm not sure whether they were early/late batches.

 

I wasn't thrilled with the first batch of Apprentice. It wasn't bad, just mediocre. Good to hear it's improved.

 

Societe guys had a really strong start, but remember: they're brand new. They're already making great beer after just a few months, imagine where they'll be in a year.

And don't whine about the cost of SS growlers...you really think they'd be as cheap as glass? In fact, don't they offer glass growlers as well?

 

Yeah they do... and they're the same price.

 

Ouch...now that's expensive.

Hess and the future Rip Currrent are also selling the SS growlers. RC is going to be about the same $25, and I don't think they're making any profit on the sale. Not sure what Hess is charging.

 

I said this in another thread, but I'll say it again: I don't want a fancy growler. I want your cheapest one.

Why?

If it's cheaper, people are more likely to buy it. The more people who have said growler, are more likely then to return to the brewery for fills. To me, that's going to result in a lot more beer being sold, and a lot more money in their pocket.

 

That's why I have so many PP growlers, they charge $3 for them or something stupid cheap. If I'm there and I forgot to bring one and I see something I want, I don't hesitate!

I do like the functionality of the SS growlers though...but I'm a homebrewer and I often fill growlers of my beer so I get a lot more use out of 'em. But I won't have more than 1 SS growler from any 1 brewery, a cheap glass option would probably be a wise business decision as well.

 

Fancy growlers are something that works better in other states, where you could have it as your cool, decorative ONLY growler to bring everywhere. It's not so good in California where everybody already owns way, way more growlers than they want, and if they absolutely MUST purchase yet another, most would prefer it to be as basic and affordable as possible.

 

The guys at Societe only buy the best and that means the best sealing growlers they could find. They wanted to make sure that their growlers could last longer than any other breweries growler.
Ask Spycow how long the growler of Butcher lasted, I want to say 3-4 weeks in a stainless growler and Masterski still gave it a 4.5/5, I don't know what you think but the co2 purge and seal on that growler must have worked great for that.
I honestly wish that more breweries cared enough about their beer to make sure it stayed fresh for as long as possible.
Just my 2 cents.