32% ABV beer (Tactical Nuclear Penguin)

Yakima 728
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Ask and you shall receive. You can google 'boston beer company market share' or the like to get their figures. Here's the first hit: http://www.wikinvest.com/stock/Boston_Beer_Company_(SAM) I'm at work so I can't do the digging properly. I remember numbers from a few years back being under 1% overall market share (with Sierra Nevada, Yuengling and a few others nearby in the third tier range) and something like 20% of the craft beer market. Here's another hit from CNN: http://money.cnn.com/2008/08/07/magazines/fortune/beer_koch.fortune/index.htm

I do not like the Cherry Wheat, but I don't hold them at fault for brewing it. As for the fruit syrup, there are plenty of worse things going into commerical beer as well as homebrew. Magic Hat, for instance, uses apricot flavoring for #9 with much success, and the canned fruit purees that work so well for homebrew are far from fresh fruit.

As for distribution, being on the east coast I do find Sam pretty much everywhere, with not much of the other guys. But when I visit my brother in CA, Sierra Nevada is just as prevalent (althouth they have Sam as well). They've been around for a couple decades now and have had plenty of time to get their name out there. Again I'll refer you to them having tv ads, and Sierra Nevada (and everyone else) relying on word of mouth, festivals, and trade publications.

If you read/listen to some Jim Koch interviews (there are plenty of them out there), he comes across as a really humble guy, and all their employees seem to love working for him. I find that to be craft brew all the way.
 
Sedge said:
Ask and you shall receive. You can google 'boston beer company market share' or the like to get their figures. Here's the first hit: http://www.wikinvest.com/stock/Boston_Beer_Company_(SAM) I'm at work so I can't do the digging properly. I remember numbers from a few years back being under 1% overall market share (with Sierra Nevada, Yuengling and a few others nearby in the third tier range) and something like 20% of the craft beer market. Here's another hit from CNN: http://money.cnn.com/2008/08/07/magazines/fortune/beer_koch.fortune/index.htm

I do not like the Cherry Wheat, but I don't hold them at fault for brewing it. As for the fruit syrup, there are plenty of worse things going into commerical beer as well as homebrew. Magic Hat, for instance, uses apricot flavoring for #9 with much success, and the canned fruit purees that work so well for homebrew are far from fresh fruit.

As for distribution, being on the east coast I do find Sam pretty much everywhere, with not much of the other guys. But when I visit my brother in CA, Sierra Nevada is just as prevalent (althouth they have Sam as well). They've been around for a couple decades now and have had plenty of time to get their name out there. Again I'll refer you to them having tv ads, and Sierra Nevada (and everyone else) relying on word of mouth, festivals, and trade publications.

If you read/listen to some Jim Koch interviews (there are plenty of them out there), he comes across as a really humble guy, and all their employees seem to love working for him. I find that to be craft brew all the way.
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Thanks for the links. That's some good info. Having been a student, Yuengling is pretty much the standard for everyone I know. I had no idea it held such a low market share. Maybe it's just the ads for Sam Adams where Koch looks full of himself. He smiles too much. :p
 
WillPall said:
Thanks for the links. That's some good info. Having been a student, Yuengling is pretty much the standard for everyone I know. I had no idea it held such a low market share. Maybe it's just the ads for Sam Adams where Koch looks full of himself. He smiles too much. :p
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His job is, arguably, to brew beer.

I'd smile all the friggin time too. :D
 
There is no definition of a craft brewer. To me, I don't think craft brewing has anything necessarily to do with size. I think it has to do with what you are brewing. If you brew a wide variety of beer, are trying new variations all the time, and are using good ingredients then I'd call you a craft brewer. Sam Adams seems to fit my definition.

The problem is that the larger a brewer gets, usually the more they have to standardize their beer in order to keep their market share. People often form a bond with a given product and don't want it to change, so that means little change when you're trying to deal with a large group of people. This leads from craft brewing to what I call manufacturing brewing - brewing a couple products in mass quantities consistently and little/no innovation in the product.
 
My two bottles
tnp.jpg
 
Tonedef131 said:
I hate them for capitalizing on gimmicky unbalanced disasters that they call beer. How do you not hate a brewery that freeze distills an average strength beer and thinks charging $50 for 330ml bottle of it is okay?
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Don't like it? Fine, don't buy it then, and quit whining about it. Sure, it is ten times more expensive than the beer it's made of (Paradox), but then again, it probably takes at least four bottles worth of Paradox to make one bottle of TNP, it's been oak aged for a longer time and the freeze distillation process probably costs a few bucks as well.
 
The freezing and concentration process is a long standing tradition. "Gimmicky" seems to imply that some people here think the entire Eisbock category is crap, I guess. Picking on a brewery for charging more money for putting out more effort seems ridiculous.
And, since people seem to be arguing over Sam Adams, here's something to consider-- until 1997, almost the entire production for Boston Beer Company was made through contract brewing. Neither Jim Koch nor any of his employees brewed a single bottle that any of us ever drank. Someone at Pittsburgh, or a handful of other breweries made them under contract. Nothing wrong with that, but it certainly makes you question Mr. Koch's "street cred."
 
Sam Adams is still a craft brewery. They make many many different brews that most people dont ever get to try. Most people have never even seen or tasted their Pale Ale.
 
Joe C said:
To bring this back up to the top - I ordered 2 bottles.
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Do you remember how much the shipping was on two bottles? I was thinking about ordering two (splitting with a friend) but wasn't sure if shipping would push us over our price budget.
 
ziggy13 said:
Just out of curiousity, how much does a bottle of Utopias cost, and how much does a case of Sam Adams Imperial Series cost?

There are two awesome bars with over 500 kinds of beer in stock. They are in Philly, owned by the same guy...they should definitely pick those up. I'll be damned if I can think of the name of the places though. Someone on here knows what I'm talking about though. Their list of brews in stock is literally a book.
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you would be talking about the foodery and the foodery II in philly. unreal selection. the foodery II is right next to standard tap.
 
standard tap has a nice list as well. There really are a lot of places with a crap load of beers in Philly. Monk's Cafe has the 'Beer Bible' list.

Sam Adams Imperial Series is around 10 for a 4 pack in Delaware at Total Wine. I'm not sure about Philly cause of the case laws and crap. Probably will get charged a little more than normal for a bottle.
 
I agree on this although I like beer to be stronger around 8 to 10 % after 15% or so it's not beer anymore it's wine on the edge of liquior........... However I'm always up for trying the utopia and penguin at least once. To ensure proper opinion.
 
Resurrecting this thread because I called Binny's, the Chicago beverage chain, and the location near me has couple bottles of Tactical Nuclear Penguin and Sink the Bismarck (41% abv).

I'm think of pulling the trigger on one of these two mostly because I'm depressed and I hate winter. Has anyone tried either of these beers yet? Are they any god at all?
 
Just picked up a bottle of the Tactical Nuclear Penguin for $80 up here in Alaska. They only had like 4 or 5 bottles, and I think thats all in the entire state. They also had the Sink the Bismarck for about $110 a bottle. I figure I better at least try it, of course with some good friends!
 
How was it? I found that there is 3 bottles here in Calgary but at 65 bucks a bottle...

That can buy a lot of other craft beer.
 
The thread lives.

We just tried our 2010 TNP (i think) version. I really couldn't drink it even as a sipper. It tasted like charred caramel to me, really smokey. I think the freeze distillation concentrated the oak barrel tannins way too much to be drinkable. You could use it to make a very good (and expensive) steak sauce though.
 
I had both the Tactical Nuclear Penguin Imperial stout and Sink the Bismarck IPA last weekend.

Personally, I think the IPA tasted better. It was very bitter, and for being 41% ABV, it was NOTHING like a whiskey. We had some scottish whiskey last weekend as well, and that was whiskey. THe IPA was beer. Uncarbonated, strong alcoholic beer, but it was definitely beer.

Same goes with the TNP, but it had a licorice/roasted coffee flavor to me that was OK, but not awesome IMO. Similar to a Jager but not nearly as sweet. I hate Jager!

The strong alcohol taste was apparent in both beers, but not overwhelming like a whiskey can be. I don't drink whiskey, or any other hard alcohol for that main reason. I expected it to be alcoholic, how can it NOT be? I also expected no carbonation, which lended it to more of a wine/barleywine comparison, but I still think they pulled off these two beers quite well and kept the flavor profile in the beer category and less in the barleywine/liquor category.
 
Personally I don't see how eisbocks are considered beers, because they're basically just distilling but with freezing instead of boiling.
 

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