The Veil Brewing - Richmond

Same POS system, there’s just too many options and not enough registers opens.

 

^^i find much to do about POS a little comical since one of the questions during Veil’s IG Q&A was about the sales process and the brewery assured they had more than enough POS and they had done events like this enough that they were confident it would all go smooth.

 

yeah I was thinking the same thing. They can’t even use the old “we were caught off guard” excise because they spent a solid month teling everyone they’ll need to get there early and wait in line if they want everything.

 

We arrived around 3 pm and still waited in line for over 90 minutes. By the time it was our turn in lines, the 4 packs of Coconut & Vanilla Hornswoggler and BB White Russian Hornswoggler were gone. Other stuff out, too. Sadly, from what I understood, some of the people not too far in front of us had been there since noon. I can't confirm for accuracy, but perception is everything at these events. I didn't expect to get everything, though, but was surprised at what was gone and what was still available given the various limits. The line was achingly slow. With this many releases on one day, they should have twice the space and twice the staff. I'm hopeful they will have a similar event at the planned Norfolk taproom next year and/or opt to release these across a few weeks rather than one day.

 

Maybe arrive before 3 if you have certain things you want?

 

It was definitely a slow line. But that being said, not sure given the context of this release, with all the options, how they could have done better. Once you got up there, they were hustling and were efficient with getting you the beer.
Just a ton of people with too many varied choices. To make it faster there would have to be some changes.
Also, I haven’t opened any bottles yet, but the things I tried on draft were excellent, White Russian horns, ba distant, especially.

*Also it should be mentioned for those that are truly line averse. I had a friend go around 5:30 and there was essentially zero line, but was able to come away with 2/3 of the packaged options. So if you didn’t have your heart set on something specific you could just stroll in later and leave with quite a few bottles.

 

Coming in today, quite a few good draft options, but really no bottles. That's ok, as it wasn't super busy due to all the rain.

 

I think we all knew it was going to be a painfully slow line. The only way I can see to do it faster would be tickets and I’m not sure I want them to go that route. If someone rolled up at 5:30pm, the wait was maybe 20 minutes, and they had everything (not mags obvs) except white russian bottles and horns cans. That’s impressive to me.

I did hear talk of people going through more than once, so there’s also that.

Rare kegs kicked super fast. Starve B in 20 minutes, pallbearer and ky reserve within 20 of that. But they had a ton of great taps all day.

 

I mean the easiest way would have been to spread the releases over multiple weekends to get more traffic and give locals more of a shot, but yeah, I get it. It was actually pretty quiet for a Saturday @ Veil today and they only had one bottle left and two canned beers, so they def know how to get em sold, no matter how long people waited.

 

It's just beer and I didn't want anything that badly, so no thanks. I was simply pointing out what was gone and was just a bit surprised given last year's event/supply. Thanks for your thoughtful insight, though.

 

I haven't seen a lot of discussion on the Dark Daze beers themselves. What did you guys think?

My 2 Cents:
Only cracked 2 bottles so far - EEMM is great and way more balanced than I expected. Maple integrated well but the roast from the malt kept it from being sweet. And White Russian Horns - I can see why that one sold out first. Those flavors come through and work so well together it's crazy.

Draft: First pour I had was AB Distant which threw me - was not expecting cherry bits. I don't know if that was on purpose (it wasn't in BA Distant). The flavor on it was awesome, sorta reminded me of how there were cookie bits in OG Oreo Horns. I thought Lord Whang was the winner with BA distant close behind. Honey and Maple were fine but not the standouts (only had a taste each tho). I liked how 17 Knid had aged. 18 was solid but I liked it with the extra year. If draft was any indication, Bourbon Circle of Wolves is going to be fantastic when I open my last bottle from last year.

Cans (have had at least 1 each):
Coco Vanilla Horns is probably in my top 3 horns variants
WDM3 is solid, will likely be better in a couple weeks
Dub Blackout Tastee is one of the best Tastees I've had (have had about 1/2 of them)
Black Ferrari, at this point, is vastly inferior to black ivy. The malt profile is the same and great, but the hops don't work as well and it's turbid AF. I'm hoping it'll get better with a little time but that wasn't an issue with blackivy which was great on day one and held up great for 6+ weeks.

 

Nice write-up. I have Veil intermittently, but made the trip from Lynchburg Saturday morning. Even though I missed a handful from Friday's release, I was happy enough with 2 bottles of EEMM and 3/4 cans with zero line. Couldn't justify a 2 hour drive and an additional 4 hours+ waiting in line for the magnums and horns, but kudos to those who scored those.

I couldn't stay long, but I had small tastes of Maple Whangdoodle, MMSS, BlueBugatti, and Broz. The Maple was a little too sweet, could only handle a few sips of it. Glad to hear you said EEMM is more balanced.

 

It's a huge beer, thicker than thick. But I'm sorry I only grabbed one for myself. I thought the Maple/honey Whang were a bit too sweet from what I tasted - EEMM is sweet as far as stouts go, but was nothing like those two. Glad you could make it up and grab a solid haul with no line waiting hassle!

 

I thought something was wrong with the AB Distant after trying the Bourbon Distant. The AB Distant tasted like someone dumped tons of purée into the keg, the glass was coated with chunks of cherries, it was off putting. I thought the Lord Whangdoodle was the best of the day with the Bourbon Distant a close second. The Veil derseves some credit, there’s no other brewery in Richmond brewing massive stouts and aging them that long in barrels.

Now bring on the DB Circle of Wolves.

 

Haven't cracked any of my bottles yet, but had a few draft pours on Saturday.

I second your thoughts on WR horns, everything worked very well together, we really liked it. Had BA distant, after a buddy mentioned the same AB issues above, also thought it was great, plenty of barrel, hint of cherry. Tried maple whang, and expected a ton of maple after the last Veil maple beer (toast-e-colz) but it wasn't overpowering. That being said, it was obviously a bit on the sweet side.
I don't care much for TIPA's, had a few swigs of my buddies WDM, and it didn't change my mind on them. I've seen quite a few people mention Lord whang was their favorite, so looking forward to opening one soon.

 

Yes and yes! For a brewery that often gets skewered for inconsistency on the hop side, the stout game in impeccable. Haven't had a bad lager or funk bottle either (little worried about the They Know Not bottles I got though), and obviously the BW is spectacular.

I feel like if they had said ANYTHING about the cherry chunks in the description it would have been different. It came across like 1 tank of Distant, and all the cherry sediment made it into the AB barrels while BB got cherry-less beer. It tasted great - but I'd never had cherry bits in a beer like that before and it was off putting for sure. I'm wondering if bottles are the same way.

WDM isn't gonna change your mind on triples I don't think. Have you had Chubbles or ImdonewithU? Those two standout as different to me where most of the triples they do have become rather similar.

 

Yeah, agreed, I wonder if the AB bottles are similar or if it was a draft only issue.

I've had them both and I will say (from memory) Chubbles was probably the best TIPA I've had and while enjoyable, I don't think I would want a 4pk.

 

since you mentioned lagers, I want to say that I agree, they have been making some really outstanding lagers lately. I can’t remember if I already gave my opinion in this thread, but the recent releases of Feel Feelings, Deathless, Thorn, and Dwell were all outstanding, in my opinion some of the best beers they’ve produced.

 

Sadly I missed Thorn and this year's Deathless (liked it last year tho). I always love Feel Feelings and I traded for Dwell when I was up last week. Had one on Thanksgiving and loved it - that's a special one.

At one point you said something about my take on black ferrari, that's ^^^ but blackivy >>> black ferrari.

 

Veil just dropped a teaser video for DB Circle of Wolves:
The Veil Brewing Co.

3 mins ·
YOU’VE BEEN WARNED

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=id%3D358087894958235%3Btype%3Dvideo%3Buser%3Dtheveilbrewing

I am really, really hoping this is a surprise drop tomorrow or even later this week because I could make it. If it's next Tuesday 1) selfishly/personally I can't go and 2) that is a lot of notice to hype up the release which I know it helps them but it's annoying haha.