Twin Elephant Brewing to open

Bacon

 

in Chatham I only know of River Grille (across the street) and Charley's Aunt (very tiny with only one or two craft beers on tap). what are the other two? agreed that Summit has some options, but I guess in terms of "brewery experience" in a very dense area there's no options within 25-30 min apart from Trap Rock, which is more 50/50 restaurant/brewery. and while Trap Rock's beers may not all be mindblowing, they're solid and at least you can get a 22oz of their stuff for $6 you have Magnify 25-30 min away on a day with no traffic -- but days with no traffic in this area are slim haha.

basically Chatham/BH/Summit has been an awesome location for a brewery for years, so I'm happy to see someone here but do hope they don't rely too much on the business they're going to have regardless of product quality and are content with that.

a good pale ale, IPA, or DIPA would quell my doubts very nicely, as all the good breweries in NJ at least had a decent flagship IPA or pale ale out of the gates.

 

What is going on here? Attacked? You said there was no local competition. The next sentence you said there was local competition. That's the bullshit I was referring to. End of story. I'm sorry you're getting so emotional about this.

$6.50 is expensive for a pint at a brewery. They shouldn't have problems with pouring beers. The wait time shouldn't be as long as it is. They shouldn't be closed for any reason on what should be their 4th or 5th weekend open. Good. We agree on these things.

We disagree on the beer. As I said earlier, I had two beers (one of which was a hoppy one) and was satisfied with both. I look forward to returning due to the aforementioned enjoyable beers, friendly staff, and nice space.

 

I was scared away by the talk of long lines, not enough servers, carbonation issues and most importantly, just average beer, so I have not been yet.
But it's downright embarrassing after all the planning I am sure went into this venture to run out of beer after 2 weeks and be closed for what would have been one of the busiest weekends of the year.
And now they are coming back with 6 completely new beers when they reopen? You'd think they would work on perfecting a couple of core beers.
I hope things get better for them but they are off to a rocky start to say the least.

 

Haven't they already come out and said that their plans are to constantly be making new beers?

 

mikeburd, was the hoppy one you had the Lil Shimmy Ye (pale ale)? I didn't have that one, but have heard it was better than the ones I had (Shimmy Ye and Juicy Busey) from a friend who also didn't like either of those two and found em lacking hoppiness, but he said the Lil Shimmy was a great improvement, so I'm hoping they bring it back. I was just a bit concerned that, after homebrewing for almost a decade, they didn't have a decent IPA or pale ale ready to rock on opening week - or the week after. makes me think they're not capable of much other than basic reds, browns, and stouts at the moment -- styles that aren't very date-sensitive (a 2-week red ale will pretty much taste the same as a 2-3 month old one), rarely taste "fresh" considering their malty dominance, are easy to brew and styles I can get in a store without really minding the freshness a brewery offers. it's not like they should be unfamiliar with brewing small batches as homebrewers, so I'm not sure how much equipment familiarity plays a role - or how much improvement I can expect with the next batches. How much can their beers evolve from here? I probably put too much stock in their "homebrewing for a decade" bit during the tour. tasted more like the work of fairly new homebrewers. if the guy was like "yeah, I just started brewing a few months ago," my expectations would differ.

I'm not saying to abandon reds and browns, etc, entirely - as some people don't like hoppy beers - but if you're gonna put seven beers on then at least appease hopheads with one. I do wonder if they're similar to the Forgotten Boardwalk head brewer in that they're not a huge fan of very hop-forward beers, so their output is very malt-forward - as it has been so far, and the hoppy beers not exactly malty but certainly not hoppy either. but at least FB had Pocket Trick after awhile lol.

By calling it "bullshit" you're implying there's no validity to my statement whatsoever, when in reality there's no immediate local brewery competition within 30 min apart from Trap Rock, which is a really different joint and has cheaper prices per oz (despite being fairly upscale) and either comparable or better beer. This is one of the most densely populated areas in the country and all of NJ, to boot. I'd actually wager that Morris County and the surrounding area one of the areas in the country with the LEAST amount of breweries per 100 people or some similar metric. Magnify is 30 min away, Conclave 40-45, Carton and Kane an hour. That's without traffic. I'm not getting emotional about it. You said that you didn't "really respond" to anything I said and I showed otherwise. Yes, I should have clarified "very nearby competition <30min" to "nearby competition >30min". Just because I didn't specify enough doesn't make the point "bullshit" though. All you had to do was ask for elaboration on what I'm referring to distance-wise.

My point simply is that - as far as brewery environments go - Summit/Chatham offers a lot of leeway in that the place will be packed even if they're producing Beach Haus-style beers, which was the comparison that came to mind quality-wise for me. I'm not a fan of the trend in craft beer where mediocre offerings and a good location (see: Beach Haus) is enough for success, so if I'm coming across as passionate it's just because of that. I tend to notice that breweries in sparser areas are forced to rely on their product quality to do exceedingly well (to the point of selling out especially) -- something I wish applied to all.

 

I did read that also but never heard of a brewery completely turning the menu over. We shall see. I am rooting for them and hope they are good as I live about 15 minutes away so it would be a nice option to have.

 

Whoa now. That's harsh haha. You really disliked their beers THAT much? I'll have to get over there this weekend and try more. Oh, wait.

But yeah, it was the Lil Shimmy whatever. I certainly wasn't blown away, but it had a very nice nose. Good body. The saison I had was good too - also had great feel to it.

 

Well - keep in mind I didn't have the Lil Shimmy at all (it wasn't on tap), and I talked to someone who was equally harsh as I concerning the other stuff (with similar criticisms) -- and he went back and liked Lil Shimmy a lot! So I think maybe I just went on the worst day and had some of the weakest offerings. I'll be returning - prob in a month or so, since I can imagine their return weekend as being just as crowded as the first one.

what I had was the Shimmy Ye, Juicy Busey, Rugged Snuggle, Diamonds and Pearls w/ coffee (fantastic!), and Mr Pinkerton. yeah, Shimmy, Juicy, and Snuggle were pretty much Beach Haus territory for me, unfortunately - which is harsh, but they just didn't vibe with me at all. I think Shimmy wasn't 7.2% either - as listed - considering the thinness (it was very likely a lot water-y than intended, or so I hope; it legit resembled seltzer water with a hop or two thrown in as a garnish). the lack of body was what I had an issue with for Shimmy and Snuggle (Snuggle wasn't even carbed), while the Juicy was sooo yeast-forward with no hop presence, so it was in no man's land between trying to be traditional saison and hoppy saison. Diamonds and Pearls w/ coffee was excellent. Pinkerton was fine and a cool pink color but was just a very basic wheat beer (peppercorns involved in brewing didn't stand out, nor did any tartness, as was described). none of these beers were terrible - I finished them all (at $10.50 for 20oz I felt obliged to lol) and went back for a pint of the Diamonds and Pearls - but three of em were a chore to finish, like Beach Haus' stuff, and Pinkerton was just ok. I expected better than 1/5, even for a new brewery. forgot to mention as well that, despite it being 30 min after opening, the Shimmy and Snuggle weren't even cold... not quite room temperature, but def not what one would serve beer at.

Beach Haus' hoppy beers are

my friend also said Mini Horse with Kicks - the saison they tapped the second weekend - was good too. I didn't have that one either, so if you that Kicks and the Lil Shimmy I think we're looking at different reference points anyway haha.

But yeah as far as the staff goes, it was one of the more friendlier brewery experiences I've been to. Great space too, and it's not like they're the first brewery to have carb issues. So considering there's good people and a good location, the consistently good beer will hopefully come.

 

This thread got interesting!

 

Anyone try the FESS UP or the BIGGENZ?

I saw they were posted as available as of the 3rd and still hoping this place pulls off some great hoppy brews eventually or stouts so I can take the trip out. fingers crossed.

 

Line times improved and there were no carb issues.

Biggenz was pretty good - had a nice body to it - though it was very malt-forward, sorta similar to Forgotten Boardwalk's Shiver IPA. Reminded me of that beer quite a bit in general, so def too malty for me, but still a great improvement on Shimmy Ye. A "play it safe" IPA that should appeal to people who aren't big on hops - if you check Untappd there's a bunch of people saying "not an IPA fan but i like this" and others saying too malty - so def not a hoppy, dank IPA. Still hoping they release a hop bomb at some point. Malts still seem to dominate their list.

The pale ale was very lemon-y and crisp. Wit and cream were both enjoyable. Enjoyed the visit and am happy with the improvements, as beer and ljne management was improved. Wouldn't travel hours to taste any of these beers, especially as the IPA lags behind those put out by Magnify/Conclave/Kane/Carton prominently, but a fun spot to hit up locally, as the staff is wonderfully friendly and the space feels welcoming.

 

I thought the gem of the weekend was the Chuggington Brown Ale. Tag You're Wit was pretty good, as well.

 

"Happy Father's Day Weekend
Here at Twin Elephant we embody the beauty of diversity in beer and also try to do the same in life whether that be in regards to diversity, race, religion, idealism, politics, etc. To that end we are going to be donating a dollar from each flight purchased this Sunday to support the families of the victims of the recent tragedy in Orlando Florida. Our staff has volunteered to donate their tips to the same cause.

This weekend we will be pouring our usual sizes of 4, 8 and 16 oz. in the tasting room as well as doing growler fills of certain beers. Growler fills will be limited to 64oz. per person per day and please check the website to see which beers are available for growler fill. Sorry for the inconvenince, but please know we are doing everything we can to ensure in the near future patrons of the taproom are able to try all our beers and bring home a growler fill of which ever ones they enjoy the most.

Beer List
Squints - Hoppy Session Saison - 4.2% ABV
Tula-Bear - Oatmeal Brown Ale - 5.4% ABV
Juicy Busey - Hoppy Saison - 7.5% ABV
Jammit - Belgian-Style Ale W/Raspberries - 5.1% ABV
Diamonds and Pearls (Sumatra Coffee & Caco Nibs) - Milk Stout - 5.3% ABV


Our hours will be the same as our normal hours:
Friday: 4pm - 10pm
Saturday: 12pm - 10pm
Sunday: 12pm - 6pm

We've also implemented some draft equipment that will hopefully ease the wait time to beer! Hope to see you in the tasting room this weekend, cheers!"