Trillium Brewing Company (2019)

Picked up some cans and had a pour at the brewery today. In my opinion, it's still too young to judge, but I am very impressed by it. Sabro is such a cool hop and I'm glad Trillium decided to use it exclusively in this brew. I'm expecting this to be a "wow" beer from the can in about a week or 2.

 

Grabbed a mixed pack of new and old favorite IPA's last week when I was in Canton for work. The biggest difference I noticed was color and head retention. Darker honey color and low carb. Vicinity and Congress both had this odd flavor I'm attributing to the current batch of Galaxy hops they're using right now. Instead of a fresh pineapple flavor, I'm getting this off-putting taste that reminds me of diced pineapple that's been in the back of your fridge for too long and started to ferment. Their IPA's now taste like what smaller breweries trying to copy them taste like (if that makes any sense). Less refinement, less complexity, less aroma. Overall, muddled and blah. They used to be, far and away, my favorite hoppy beers. For the love of God, please don't change the ferm profile of Sprang. It was the last hoppy beer I remember fully enjoying from them.

On a positive note, their stouts are still phenomenal. The toasted almond and toasted pecan versions of Night and Day are so decadent and chewy.

 

Thanks for crystallizing some of the issues I’ve been experiencing lately. The lack of head retention is for some reason especially off putting for me. Totally a preference thing.

 

I'm really shocked they haven't addressed the new fermentation profile other than saying "we like it better". Clearly a lot of their long time fans have taken issue with it and I'm surprised they're fine with this. No wonder people are questioning the motives behind it.

 

They have the sales numbers. We have anecdotal evidence that people are not buying their beer as much as they were before the change. I’m pretty confident that if they’re seeing a big sales dip, they’d revert back. I can only assume that sales have been better or even with what they’ve been in the past.

 

Sigh. Wu Tang was so right.

 

Yeeeaaaaah but there's so much else going on with the brewery (new Fort Point location, the retail/tipping fiasco, a ever-changing competitive environment) that it would be hard for them to attribute a increase or decrease in sales specifically to the fermentation change.

It's also not the kind of thing that I would necessarily expect to effect them immediately. Especially for people who don't know there's been a change (which I'm guessing is most of their customers), maybe they just assume it was on off batch or something. Just speaking for myself, there wasn't one specific Trillium purchase that put me off of them forever, but between their inconsistency, high prices, lack of distribution, and the ever-increasing quality of what is available locally, it just never occurs to me to go anymore.

All of which is to say, if the new fermentation profile really is a turn off for most people, I don't know that sales numbers would reflect that in an immediate or obvious way, but it could definitely hurt them in the long term.

 

Couldn't agree more, especially on their stouts. While head retention can be preferential, I think it can also be somewhat indicative of the quality of the beer.

 

Why is it too early to judge? As we know, their beers go through a length quality control process before given the ok and released to the public.These should be good to drink once released. This reaks of the Trillium FB page.

 

Did Never & Again go through this entensive quality control process? Epic failure. I agree that everything released is worthy of judgement at time of release.

 

I agree. I used to go to Fort Point once a month for my fix. If the quality isn't setting them apart from something I can grab from my local store, it'll be a visit once or twice a year when I happen to be in the area.

 

I'm going to assume you don't drink a lot of high quality stouts if you think head retention has anything to do with a quality stout. Maman, BCBS, most Angry Chair, Bottle Logic stouts, etc. They all have very little head.
If anything head in a stout likely means it is probably a little too over carbonated.
Founders Breakfast stout is one stout that comes to mind that pours with a lot of head and that is far from a quality stout.

 

Interesting, I'm a regular drinker of the stouts you listed, especially BCBS, Bottle Logic, Founders KBS/CBS, in addition to Tree House, and I find they all maintain decent, sticky head retention. Maybe I'm using poor description or terminology but its not the almost flat, soda-like appearance of recent Trillium beers.

I'm surprised to hear someone advocate for a stout without head.

 

Wait, what?

 

Wash your glassware, bro.

 

Speaking of Trillium stouts...... wonder how this one will turn out.

 

Why no Maple syrup in this??? Seems like a no brainer to me.

 

Great point. Makes me think back to whether I've ever seen a Trillium stout with maple? I can't think of any right now and it's such a good adjunct.