Wicked Weed Opening a Fourth Brewery

Yes, similar price to Crooked Stave and Cascade, but not nearly as good quality IMO. They're also more than RR's by a fair margin, along with most of the Belgian lambics/gueuezes. That's not to say WW is bad by any means--I generally enjoy their beers. But they push out so many sours so quickly that many blend together and aren't memorable. Even their best ones over the years I don't know if I'd put on the same level as Vlad, Bourbonic, Consecration, Tilquin, etc. If I didn't live 3 miles from their taprooms, I don't know if I'd ever try their sours because they have a new bottle every couple of weeks usually for $14-16 at least.

 

This growth doesn't seem sustainable, but more jobs in WNC isn't a bad thing

 

They are growing their distribution footprint tremendously. Their farmhouse program is putting them on the map quickly. I wouldn't be surprised if they built another facility in another 5 years.

 

And they're yet to come to South Carolina. WW blames our laws, but yet they're in Atlanta. Wasn't aware that laws in SC are worse than in GA.

 

Gotta generate cash flow to finance all the debt for expansion - the GA market probably allowed for much faster sales growth than SC.

 

This ^^

 

Totally agree, seems like a logistic nightmare. They must be making some serious money or have lots of wealthy investors!

 

This place = cash cow. They are raking in money. Clearing so much just at the main brewpub itself.

 

I work for a manufacturing company that has a similar facility layout as WW, as our 4 plants are all withing 5-15 miles of one another. Unlike WW, a lot of our product moves from one facility to another back to the first and then on to a third. Even with that, we rarely run into major logistical problems. I think WW's situation would be even simpler because they won't be sending the same item through multiple locations. Whats made at the Funk House won't need to travel to any of the other facilities, unless its headed to a tap at the Funkatorium or the main brewpub. Same with the Candler production facility.

 

^^ They also have/had some box trucks they used to distribute around the state. Now those can be used for warehouse transfers, maybe even create a job or two.

 

Their special release sours are a bit steep, yes, but I find their tap room prices to be more than reasonable.

 

Agree 100%. I can't shell out $20/bottle for their 500ml sours that are good, but not outstanding. They do create more different brews that just about any brewery I have ever seen. Seems like two new beers a week.

 

Ill pay $20 all day for the Golden, especially if they jacked up the fruit in that one too.

 

By my count they've released a new bottled product once every ~11 days (on average) since March 1, 2014.

 

Man, Wicked Weed has really blown up. Seems like just yesterday Serenity hit the bottleshops for the very first time. I used to be able to buy every new WW release as soon as they hit the shelves, but it is getting hard to keep up with all the new stuff they're making. I thought they would slow down with the new releases as WW gains popularity and expands distribution, but they seem to be picking up speed if anything.

Just saw an article about another new one today:

 

Their farmhouse program is putting them on the map? Man when I think of WW that's the last thing I think of. Their clean beers are their best IMO and then people associate them with sours, but I've not heard much talk about their farmhouse beers. I did like the JK collab though, because well, it tasted and smelled like a JK beer.

 

I learned my lesson with WW and I tend to stay away from the canvas series beers unless I hear enough good buzz about one (puzzle pieces is a good example). For the most part they have been underwhelming, and they definitely feel rushed. I loved AoD and Dark Arts'15, and will be getting red angel this year. I also really like their clean side stuff.

 

I was thinking that all of the Canvas Series were Farmbouse but they have them listed as Wilds. For the most part, they have a lighter body and are not as sour as a lot of their other sours. Those are the beers that have Ive seen a higher demand for than say Oblivion and the Angels.

 

If you mean Black Angel, then maybe. But if by 'Angels' you mean, Red, White, Golden, and Darkness... You're way out in left field