What's your beer flight serving preference?

And Leftovers. I try to concentrate on the beer but I usually bring home the main course and they do a prime rib that's great! Sometimes the beers are awesome! Never disappointed for a couple of years they've done this, about 3 or 4 times a year, that the wife won't miss it.

 

I think it's an over-generalization to say that breweries hate doing them (though probably not of how much bartenders hate doing them!). Part of the way you can control how many you have to serve is how you price them and how free customers are to choose the individual beers. There are breweries in my area that both seem to encourage and discourage people from ordering flights simply by how they manage those variables.

 

I had six 4 oz. samplers at a brewery this past Saturday and it cost $24.

This is a WAY better deal!

Yup, see what I wrote above. I won't say which brewery it was, but needless to say that would deter most.

I say most, because, well I'm richer than most.

 

Am I the only one who quickly glossed the list and assumed "Fruity Pebbles Cereal Mini Pizooki" was the beer and not the dessert?

 

I didn't read it until now. I also noticed that an IPA is the "palate cleanser".

I would think you'd want a Pils or a Helles or...like a water and some crackers?

 

I guess the breweries around here aren't as savy at managing the process then. Flights generally cost just a little more than a pint for the same amount of beer (4 4oz samples) and you're free to chose the 4 you want.

 

Gotcha, and yeah that does seem to make it look like they feel obligated to offer them. Pricing and options are sort of all over the place in my area and there are places that seem to sell a lot more than others.

Nightshift is pretty much the flight king around here and given how busy they are, I can only imagine they must think flights are important to their numbers or identity. I'm honestly kind of surprised they haven't tried to steer people away from them as they've grown bigger and busier.

 

At the Lovejoy location you can get their custom flight (4 pours of 4 oz.) or you can choose two samplers at a time, but not a custom flight. A 4 oz. pour costs ~$4 if I recall correctly.

So a dollar per ounce...

 

Interesting. I wonder if that will migrate back to the mothership in Everett eventually or whether they're happy to just have things differ at each location.

 

I don't drink beer on flights. I don't want to have to pee while on an airplane if I can avoid it.

 

I actually kind of like the two sample option. It's easier to walk around with, and I don't feel like I HAVE to pick just four. I can just keep going back up. Mystic switched to this format awhile back as well.

That being said, in both instances it gets VERY expensive VERY quickly.

Aisle seat bro.

 

I really like flights. I enjoy tasting beers I haven’t tried before. The best option which occasionally occurs is that 4 or 5 oz. pours are offered for $2-$3. Quite often the higher alcohol content beers are more expensive. Second option I like is select 4 to 6 pours of 4-5 oz. A small number of breweries will do ½ pours. That’s ok but not optimal. Unacceptable are those that only have fixed flights which usually means their year-round beers. I go their once and don’t return. Likewise, those that do not have flights get visited once. Living in the Twin Cities, Minnesota area I have lots of choices. Because of my desire to try new beers, I tend to visit those that do small batch brewing and rotate frequently.

 

Wrecker/Cleanser

ToMAto/ToMAHto

 

Yup, I agree with all of this.

I HATE fixed flights. I'm cool with any small pour, even half pours offered. Fixed flights or no small pours are something you can't do in today's market.

Too many breweries today and you could get burned with a terrible beer that the brewery is doing as a small batch.

Also, many of these breweries have massive tap lists. I'm not going to try to guess which one is good.

 

And I thought you would recommend the Stadium Pal.

Cheers!

 

I don’t do flights, I’ll ask for a sample if something is new. But some places do half pours too, but 3-4 oz is too small a size.

 

I always fly with a Window Buddy.

 

I quickly browsed this thread to see what the largest flight was reported. It looks like we have a new champion flight from Short's here in Michigan. It is a flight of all 20 beers that are on tap: (It's party time!)

 

IIRC, Russian River has a 24 glass taster tray.

 

That's like going to lunch at Costco, but less subtle.