Been awhile since I’ve seen a lot talk about Societe in this forum but it used to be one of my regular stops when in San Diego. Not sure what people think of it these days but looks like they’re changing. https://thefullpint.com/beer-news/societe-brewings-travis-smith-parts-ways-with-company/
Still one of the best breweries in the county and they will continue to be so even without him in my opinion. But it does suck for them to lose him.
While it sounds like they're splitting on amicable terms, I wonder if Societe wants to begin chasing some of those trends. This line was rather interesting: "Societe Brewing is faced with some difficult business decisions in the middle of a county housing 150+ breweries." Hopefully nothing much changes. Societe is one of my favorite breweries. Anytime I see Pupil on in LA/OC, I get it without thinking about it
When Societe first opened its doors I would always road trip it to Societe and ABC. Fill my growlers and head home. Those were the days. But when BT's would get Societe ipas almost on a bi-weekly basis I had one of the best clear IPA's in OC at my back door. I still continue to see Societe beers at BT's once in awhile these days. Societe is still one of my favorite brewery's in California. Sounds like changes are on the horizon.
I always enjoyed Societe from the very early days but I always wondered how they would maintain long term success without either being a brewpub or canning/bottling their beer.
Living in NorCal, I have only made it one to Societe (plan to visit again in May). I really enjoyed the environment and different beer styles. Hopefully, they won't go the route of Stone and field a mostly IPA lineup.
They always have plenty of hoppy beers on draft these days so I doubt they'll go that direction. I wouldn't be surprised if they scaled down their barrel program and replaced the barrel room with a kitchen.
Draft only in the tasting room with limited draft accounts would provide maximum control over product quality I think. Admirable but probably not a long term growth strategy.
The Pupil was one of my favorite IPAs back in the day, it was Alpine then back down to Societe for fils of The Pupil. With all due respect they got lapped, a very flawed business model IMHO. Cheers,
I have to say I enjoyed many good stop there, but its been a few years in part by their over the top growler fill policies.
They bottle their feral beers and now offer crowlers of their draft beers (along with growler fills). Draft beer tastes better and that's why they do what they do.
The beer is very good, not god tier by any means, and has seem to have lost its luster over time. Travis seems like this Amish guy who is opposed to making money as anyone familiar with Societe would have ponied up good money for cans of Pupil IPA. It kind of reminds me of stupid ass Kern River waiting a decade to make more Citra. Reading that story makes me think they will try to do more than tasting room/draft only business which is smart.
I'd love to see some Butcher in a bourbon barrel! I don't think they've been lapped at all. They do their thing, they're always busy in the tap room, people are asking for their beer... Seems like they're doing just fine.
I would not equate the economics of expanding in Kernville to expanding in San Diego. If I lived in Kernville, I'd have exercised patience too with any expansion plans.
I am not saying either had to drop major capital to expand. Take your most popular beer with a cult following and brew the shit out of it while the iron is hot. Give the people what they want before they lose interest. Kern Citra and Pupil cans could have given both companies a drastically different trajectory if they took the risk and met demand for those products when people cared about them. Right now Modern Times, Pure Project, Mikkeller SD and even Burgeon have taken the lead on peoples interest even if Societe makes better beer.
Even HF eventually realized the draft-only approach was wrong. Maybe Societe will too before they have to close up completely.
Does anyone know the approximate pricing of their crowlers? Nothing barrel aged or anything, just the everyday beers and seasonals. Is the taplist on their website kept relatively up to date?
