Three Chiefs (2019)

the 3 queefs backers really really think that it all comes down to the beer quality and that the shittiest of business practices dont matter "if the beer tastes good"

 

I love this thread and its tone, truly. There's real cultural value in anti-hype, and I encourage those here who are practicing it to keep it up. And to the Three Chiefs apologists, go ahead and keep flailing away; all voices are welcome, even those from people with terrible palates. I mean that.

I've tried two Three Chiefs beers, both collaborations with fellow awful hype brewery Barrel Theory in St. Paul. I had never heard of Three Chiefs prior to their collaborations with Barrel Theory or since that time until I discovered this thread. Island Fudge was merely bad. Powerglide was quite possibly the worst beer I've ever had in all my time in this hobby. Here's my review (from the other site):

4 oz. pour, on tap at the brewery’s taproom in St. Paul, Minnesota. Consumed on 6-20-18. Pours a murky, dull mustard, but good, moderate to large amount of short-lasting, beige head. Produces good lacing. Head and lacing rescue appearance. Sickly sweet, off-putting odor. Rotting oranges with a bunch of sugar poured on. Vanilla and cream scents. Awful, yeasty bread dough smell. Paint mixed with Play-Doh in the odor (yes, this is the sort of beer that has not an “aroma” but rather an “odor”). “Oh ick,” is what I said to myself when I first sipped it. Way under-attenuated. Granulated sugar, vomit (butyric acid?), and watermelon. Chemical and paint-like qualities (Fermented too hot? Acetaldehyde?). Gross! Medium body, light for the ABV. Very soft in the palate. This palate needs a lot of bitterness to work, and this has none. Looks okay on the net, and the palate could be worse. But in terms of aroma and especially flavor, this represents the worse of NEIPAs in an extreme way. Gag-inducing. Not even close to a finished product with its massive under-attenuation. One of the worst beers I've ever had. Offensive to the nostrils and tongue. Definitely a poorly executed and severely flawed beer, even if the low attenuation is intentional. I didn't realize a beer could cause PTSD, but I think of this beer and get nauseous. Amazingly bad.

2 for aroma (out of 10). 3 for appearance (out of 5). 2 for flavor (out of 10). 2 for palate (out of 5). 3 for overall score (out of 20) => 1.2 in aggregate (out of 5)

 

Three Chiefs is an small brewery that operates out of a distillery. What is their "shitty" business practice? Making you buy a glass to get a pour?

 

I know nothing about this brewery but I am following the thread for the spectacle. I am also, however, drinking a beer at the moment from another brewery that inspires strong feelings from folks.
I was reading the label while sipping and saw this line "...Then we aged it on freshly dumped bourbon barrels for three Kentucky months." and it reminded me of people's complaints in this thread. I didn't know if I'd ever had a 3-month barrel aging but now I know I have and this particular beer is fantastic in my opinion.

For the record it was 18$ for a 750 ($20 for variants) and I could just walk into the brewery and get as many as I wanted a couple weeks after the release.

Carry on with the argument about the value/cost of this hype machine

 

Rookie mistake. We all know yhe only way this will sell out faster is raising the price to $30 and make only 300 bottles.

 

Saving a bunch for beer festivals where people from all over the country can try them is a negative now?

 

I feel like some of you are just trying to hold onto the good old days where someone in Iowa would be willing to pick up an Assassin off the shelf and send it to CA for a couple bottles of Nelson.

The reality is, the market has changed. Demand is fee beyond supply and these are a lot of highly sought after beers. Just like in shoes, concerts, collectibles, etc... this brings out profiteers, over nighterw, and other annoying crap. That is just the reality in a market like this.

Three Chiefs does do things to exacerbate it though. It could be argued whether it's good or bad, it's all marketing. There are a lot of breweries out there, many failing, so I can't really fault them for doing what they can to attract customers to their business.

 

THIS.

Except the Assassin as a shelfie thing. Pretty sure that's never happened.

I've been loosely following this thread for the entertainment value, but seriously more power to these folks. Anything to get your name out there in a crowded, crowded market.

I'm not faulting them for it even if it's not how I'd do it if I were running my own place. Will it work? Who knows? We'll have to wait and see. But why should we crap all over them for trying? If you don't agree with their business practices, don't buy their beer and don't contribute to the hype. But all the posts talking about why they do or don't suck is just adding to the hype. Good or bad, there are a lot of clicks and views on this thread.

OK, headed back to the sidelines with my popcorn.

 

Somebody call Ja Rule to weigh in on this

 

I'm not so sure mockery adds to the hype. I get what you're saying; "all press is good press" and so forth, and perhaps in the short term this thread does expose more people to the brand, some of whom will seek it out. In the medium to long-term, however, a brand like Three Chiefs, with 1) ridiculous product and 2) aggressive and effective marketing to a young and unsophisticated customer base in a hip urban market, lives and dies on being perceived as cool. The more potential customers realize that people are not in awe of their whalez but rather are making fun of the brewery, the less interest those consumers are going to have in being customers, because, first and foremost, certainly above the beer itself, what they're buying is "the cool."

 

Actually, people are happy with the product and the hate is from a small but vocal minority. Let's not get ahead of ourselves and think that threads like this have any real impact. And let's also not assume that just because you didn't like what you had (curious, do you like pastry stouts?) that other people don't. If people weren't happy with the beer they wouldn't be lini g up overnight.

 

Are we pretending trade bait doesn't exist now?

Also, I don't care if critiquing them gives them exposure. Have at it.

 

Typically trade bait is only a thing while the beer (or brewery) is well regarded. Fake hype can only keep trades alive for so long.

 

What do you mean by "ridiculous product"? You are free to disagree with Untapped and Beeradvocate scores and reviews, but are you even aware how the public is seeing their product? I can't verify whether every Untapped or BA review is by someone who has had their beer (hopefully it's most), but we are seeing that people chiming in on this thread that have not. Can you claim that you have actually sampled a good spectrum of 3 Chiefs beer and then decided it was ridiculous?

 

They are making stouts that are better than anything Bottle Logic has put out since Forces and therefore the best stouts in the greater Los Angeles area (and I say this as someone who loves Bottle Logic). Their beer was the best beer at Wakefest which had most of the best breweries from around the country. They also brought enough Faha for people to get multiple pours of it if they wanted (which last I checked was a good thing and the opposite of what they have been accused of doing to drive up hype). For Faha and Uno releases I showed up a few hours before open and easily got a bottle, Cafe was the only release where waiting overnight was required. For Brulee I waited in no line and just walked in to get it. For Island Grasp, I got there 15 minutes before open and was 20th in line. While I do not agree with how they handle all of their releases, quite frankly their beer is no harder to get than Monkish IPAs and I don't see everyone raking them over the coals.

 

Three Chiefs is a new brewery though, so "can only keep trades alive for so long" isn't really relevant here.

They've released, what, four stouts? And most of them since FAHA have been largely said to be lower in quality than FAHA. (I have no personal opinion on any of the beers). Pretending its scarcity isn't a large factor in people wanting to try them is kind of ridiculous though.

 

This was not the case for early reviews of FAHA.

 

Look at all those terrible beers!

 

Hey..remember when Faha was first released and there were 3 (maybe up to 5) different untapped checkins for it? But the checkins that had anything less than a 4 were then deleted instead of merged with the hyped up checkin?

Yeah... I 'member. =P