disapowzment
Well-Known Member
Gene keep a close eye on this one. You'll need to delete it every couple of weeks. CansIn2022 (Gerrit) is on here now.
do you have any near-term (before the new production facility) plans to kick out more lower-abv, more-reasonably-priced draft options like you did with lizard king? i find that the reason i wind up buying your beer less than the initial set of batches is the bomber premium (though i did crush the **** out of nelson on tap at logan arcade). i know cans are coming, but more releases like lizard king (whether as heavily promoted or not) would be awesome in the meantime.
do you have any near-term (before the new production facility) plans to kick out more lower-abv, more-reasonably-priced draft options like you did with lizard king? i find that the reason i wind up buying your beer less than the initial set of batches is the bomber premium (though i did crush the **** out of nelson on tap at logan arcade). i know cans are coming, but more releases like lizard king (whether as heavily promoted or not) would be awesome in the meantime.
Lizard king artwork is rad, can't wait to see the cans in store and the return of Glaucus.
Any plans to bring back flower child or the fruited berliners?
"5) Are you actually going to can or you just trolling Chicago?"
I guess that's up to you to figure out... I can't tell if this is a serious question or are you trolling me?
Yes. We stopped with Berliners in the current space because we don't have the room (time) to do them without screwing up our current production schedule. They'll be back... hopefully in cans...
I think maybe I was just trying to subconsciously not draw attention to it... it's very deflating to think we've made progress somewhere to find yourself hitting a brick wall. And I was too busy with the production facility to give much thought about the head ache that is the bottle shop.
Thanks for the response and that would be awesome. I can't think of any other local brewers putting out a product like that, would be a go to summer brew no doubt.
On the tap room, It's a rough go to get your balls busted for trying to communicate with consumers about something you're excited about as a business, be completely transparent about the delay and still take ****. I don't quite get that.
I loved how (at least in my memory, which is probably flawed) publicly you spun that where the ninja lost out to the unicorn or something. the scurvy vs marilime law thing was also hilarious to me(from the public view of things)"6) Can you talk about why the Ninja series name went away? I'm assuming you got hit with a C&D? From Westbrook maybe?"
Yes, and not from Westbrook. It was a very amicable dealing.
How much R&D goes into each new beer? Do you make test batches first? Or just come up with a recipe you think will work and brew and bottle?
Do you guys have any plans to keep increasing this percentage, and if not, is there a reason? Is kegging your beer more expensive than bottling it? I would think it's cheaper but I honestly don't know.we have traditionally been less than 5% of our packaged volume in draft. We've been increasing that percentage over the past several months leading up to the launch of cans. Currently were around 15% or so I think.
Maybe this is related to kegging being more expensive, but after you get the cans rolled out into market, is there a chance we'll see a decrease in price on draft pours at all? I know it's ultimately up to the establishment pouring them, but the price of trying some of your beers on tap around town is approaching that $1/oz mark (mostly talking about the DIPAs being poured in small pours for $8-10). I was looking forward to going out to try Lizard King during the release, but then saw it was $7 for a 10-12oz pour at LP Binnys (which I think consistently prices their drafts pretty fairly).
Serious question though, why the 16 Oz cans in a 4 pack rather than 12s in a sixer?
hahah because I said so is a perfectly reasonable answer, and the it fits more for self distro is another.Because I said so Jeb. I don't know I flipped a coin... seriously though, we went back and forth on it. I honestly can't remember the reason we finally settled on 16oz format. One plus for us is that because we are self distributing, (24) 16oz cans fit in a case (yes it's slightly taller), opposed to (24) 12oz cans... thus each case we deliver is moving (6) units or 3 gallons of beer opposed to moving (4) units or 2.25 gal.
I'll try to get a few more answers in today or tonight.
Do you guys have any plans to keep increasing this percentage, and if not, is there a reason? Is kegging your beer more expensive than bottling it? I would think it's cheaper but I honestly don't know.
Maybe this is related to kegging being more expensive, but after you get the cans rolled out into market, is there a chance we'll see a decrease in price on draft pours at all? I know it's ultimately up to the establishment pouring them, but the price of trying some of your beers on tap around town is approaching that $1/oz mark (mostly talking about the DIPAs being poured in small pours for $8-10). I was looking forward to going out to try Lizard King during the release, but then saw it was $7 for a 10-12oz pour at LP Binnys (which I think consistently prices their drafts pretty fairly). For some styles I don't balk at that price, but for a pale ale, it just made me "settle" for a Daisy Cutter or any of the other local pales at $5/pint.
As you can see, I'm really looking forward to the cans coming out in 7 years.
Seriously though, thanks for taking the time for this. I think the AMA section is one of the best parts of the site.
If I can get Lizard King, at 6%, to $9.99 for a 16oz 4-pack I'll be happy
I really appreciate the insight into this stuff, so thank you for this great response. And I really like where you guys are headed. Like others have said, I wouldn't blink twice at a $10 4pk of your beer.Yes and no to the first part. It is less expensive to package but also the margins on kegging are much slimmer. At our small output it didn't make a lot of sense for us to keg off a lot of beer. As we reposition it makes increasingly more sense to keg our beer. Draft essentially works as advertising and we didn't need to do a lot of that to get started. As we take the next step we know it's important to have that kind of access to our product. And we'll be able to do it economically too with the increased economies of scale with the new place.
Yea Daisy Cutter is cheaper than Lizard King on draft because it's 5% pale ale. Lizard King was almost 7% so it cost a little something extra to make. And I can't speak to the hopping practices of others but I know we are probably on the high end there as well. Also that economies of scale thing comes in... were on our 3rd year and are at 2,000 bbls / year. Half Acre and others are in a different ball game completely. HA is at 15k bbls last year, Finches at 10k I think, Rev did 50k+... our prices will come down as grow. But Lizard King was a venture into an area where we aren't established yet and it's coming out of our current facility so it's costing us more than it would if it was being produced at the new place. We're working our way there. If I can get Lizard King, at 6%, to $9.99 for a 16oz 4-pack I'll be happy.
I failed out of spanish class so I'm guessing Mañana doesn't mean next week like I thought?
Give him a break. He's trying to get the canning line up and going so we can buy NvU in cans.
CansIn2022, I have a some questions that hopefully you'll answer:
7) Do you have any regrets so far since you've started the brewery and if so, what are they?
just gotta be in the 'write' state of mind to express them...
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