Spencer Peach Saison

Trappist in general and especially Spencer come off as a cheap marketing gimmick. Spencer was floundering and decided to toss everything against the wall to see if it would stick. Peach saison,Grapefruit IPA, Marzen, Imperial stout...Desperate attempts to become relevant.

 

Given that they've sold jams/jellies/preserves for decades, it's maybe the most organic addition to their aimless product line.

Of course, they failed by not tossing in a bit of orange peel and naming the beer Fuzzy Nave.

Yeah, I can't help but think these guys launched with a 2000-era business in 2014. Maybe they could have found their footing in the days when Westy was at the top of the best beer lists, anything besides Chimay was a bit of a find, and bombers sold well. Now they're kinda stuck because no one gets excited for a tripel, so how can they play up the Trappist thing without it seeming totally irrelevant?

If they were to start over, they should have put their money into launching a sour/wild beer program from the get-go. At least that ties into Belgium, their history with fruit preserves, etc and would let them get to the high end of the market. Or they should have punted on the high-priced 4x11.2 Belgian pale and focused on getting a paters/table beer out there that could be an every-night go-to.

 

Weren't they supposed to brew their first beer (Trappist Ale) for five years before brewing a second beer style? I thought I heard/read that.

I haven't had their beer in awhile but I do recall their prices being a tad out-of-whack.

 

What makes you say they are floundering? Its always appeared to me that they sell fairly well at the stores I shop at. Certainly they are producing styles outside of traditional Trappist styles and I would say they look to be trying to find a way to be Trappist yet still "modern". Most of the beers I've had from them have been just OK. The Quad they produced I thought was their best beer yet and am interested in trying the barrel aged version. I'd like to see them focus more on trying to perfect those traditional Trappist styles rather than produce weird fruity beers personally.

 

Data's getting a little old, but in 2016 they brewed just 3,400 barrels of their own stuff, 40% of which was exported. It's one thing if you're a startup self-distributing a few thousand barrels in your metro area. It's another if you're only managing to sell 2,000 bbl across all of NE and Ohio.

Maybe things are looking up for them, or they have no need to grow. They haven't added any domestic markets since the end of 2016, AFAIK.

 

I'm not sure you can use the same criteria of success for a Trappist brewery as you can for a traditional brewery. The requirements to be an official Trappist brewery has the following requirement: "The brewery is not intended to be a profit-making venture. The income covers the living expenses of the monks and the maintenance of the buildings and grounds. Whatever remains is donated to charity for social work and to help persons in need."

Westvleteren produces about 4,000 bbl's per year, this apparently hasn't changed since 1946. Westvleteren 12 was once the most sought after beer in the world so you can't really use the size or growth of a brewery as an indicator of success or not.

Personally I find them an interesting brewery simply because they are the only Trappist brewery in the US. They have an open house once every year to visit their monastery and brewery, I'm planning on attending this year since it may be the only Trappist brewery I'll ever have the chance to visit.

 

Profit, maybe not. But they themselves said that 4,000 bbl/yr is "a drastic under-use of this facility." If they are only managing to sell half of that domestically across a big footprint, I suspect they would say they are underperforming their expectations.

 

The article you site says that they started with 4,000 in 2014 with plans to expand to 10,000 in 5 years. This article: http://www.masslive.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2017/06/spencer_brewery_massachusetts.html

Indicates that they did not appear to grow much between 2014-2016. In 2017 they planned on brewing 5,000-6,000 bbl. That means that in 2018 and 2019 they need to grow by 4,000 to 5,000 bbl to reach their goal of 10,000. They then have the ability to grow to 40,000 bbl in their existing facility. If they were expecting linear growth then they are currently underperforming. If they were expecting more along the lines of exponential growth where it starts out slow and ramps up in the 4th and 5th year then they may be right on target.

Their largest costs are probably their bottles and loan (the article mentions they buy bottles from Europe). Their staff consists of 4 lay people and the rest are monks. Based on all information that's publicly available its really not easy to determine whether they are succeeding or failing. In a world full of hoppy IPA's its also not surprising to see them try to find twists on more Belgian styles to grow their market. So time will tell I guess.

 

If they weren't failing and all was going to plan they would have continued to brew that mediocre blonde for 5 years and not expanded out to other markets so quickly. Everything else is a deperate gasp towards making this work any way they can.

 

System capacity is 40,000 barrels, so surely growth was part of the plan.

 

But if "peche" is in the title it's a must buy!

 

No other brewery has changed their plans in the history of brewing?

 

Sure they have but the reason is always that the old plans weren't working.

 

There are two types of businesses, ones that don't change and ones that adjust their plans based on the current market. Neither of those types rules out that the business is currently successful or not but one of them points to highly probable future failure. Successful businesses are always changing their plans. Night Shift originally planned to never produce an IPA but their plans changed.

Correlation without causation.

 

In a way I feel bad for Spencer - seems like they’ve been given terrible business advice all along from a beergeek stuck in 2005. And the same guy now is having them execute a 2015 strategy with the fruited junk.

IMO they should simplify things & put out an amazing dubbel or trippel, then branch out to some bbl-aged stuff mentioned by @emannths .

 

Or they could do this:


Looks like the advice they've been receiving has improved.

 

I kinda like it but then again I've always believed tradition to be a toxic and corrosive force.