The San Diego area thread

[Xul1]

Anaheim is probably a money pit right now.

This is a massive factor. Jacob did an AMA in the League FB group over the weekend and, when asked whether this event will change his thinking on cash-on-hand/black swan events, said "If Anaheim had opened on its original timeline, we wouldn’t be having this conversation." There are a ton of aspects to the situation, and the rate of expansion is certainly a risk factor, but that's exacerbated by the fact that this particular black swan event basically killed draft/on-premise business overnight. Oakland was absolutely crushing it for them since opening, so the investment in expansion was paying off until it wasn't. Anyone who has gone hard on the satellite tasting room model is going to be feeling this in a big way.

Ultimately, damn near every brewery is in some varying level of **** at the moment. MT's exposure due to being in a period of major growth is an increase in that, but the fact that they have locations in every major metro in CA for their customers to pick up orders, coupled with the fact that they're relatively well plugged into distribution into grocery stores/major retail chains, also helps somewhat. That's obviously a gross oversimplification, but there are far too many unknown variables to really quantify or contextualize it.

How the varying levels of **** play out for any given brewery depends heavily on how long draft beer is a non-factor for revenue generation and how quickly they can maximize their revenue for packaged beer, both by re-tooling their planned output and connecting it with their customers. It's been pretty incredible to watch breweries roll out online ordering, delivery, and shipping in a matter of days, especially given both the financial stress of the situation, as well as the emotional stress of living through a modern plague and having your livelihood depend on continuing to interact with the public.

I hope that as many of San Diego's breweries as possible survive, but it's going to be a brutal path. That said, make a real effort to support the ones you care about, and especially the people behind them to whatever extent you can right now.

 

[rcubed1]

Fieldwork is probably in the same boat as well.

MT is going to have to layoff/furlough employees soon if they haven't already.

 

[riko1]

MT sent an email last night saying that while salaried staff has dramatically reduced take-home pay, there haven't been any involuntary layoffs yet and the employees still have health care.

 

[arren]

Maybe all these hipster millennial companies should just pull themselves up by the bootstraps and talk to someone who really knows what it takes to run a brewery, like this guy https://hinkleybsc.com/

 

[Xpotential]

Maybe all these hipster millennial companies should just pull themselves up by the bootstraps and talk to someone who really knows what it takes to run a brewery, like this guy https://hinkleybsc.com/

The man with the golden touch. Look at all he was able to accomplish, in just the last 5 years.

 

[Xul1]

Maybe all these hipster millennial companies should just pull themselves up by the bootstraps and talk to someone who really knows what it takes to run a brewery, like this guy https://hinkleybsc.com/

The only way I could see his consulting being worthwhile is paying him for advice on what not to do.

 

[amk1]

Maybe all these hipster millennial companies should just pull themselves up by the bootstraps and talk to someone who really knows what it takes to run a brewery, like this guy https://hinkleybsc.com/

That's a troll site, right? I cannot believe that's a real site and he thinks his "expertise" carries any sort of credibility.

 

[riko1]

The downside to restaurants/bars selling growlers is you have people who may not be well trained on filling them. Tonight I got a growler from a place and the bartender touched both ends of the fill tube multiple before connecting it to the tap and putting the other end in my growler, used a spoon laying on the bar to spoon foam out of it, put the growler directly onto the tap at one point and used a bar towel to wipe foam off the top of the growler with the cap still off.

I don't think I'm comfortable drinking it now...

 

[Xul1]

I don't think I'm comfortable drinking it now...

I wouldn't, the bar towel on the open growler's rim pretty much sealed that one for me. I don't blame bars for doing whatever they can to survive right now, but that's the sort of thing that would make me question where else they're acting without thinking.

 

[rcubed1]

The downside to restaurants/bars selling growlers is you have people who may not be well trained on filling them. Tonight I got a growler from a place and the bartender touched both ends of the fill tube multiple before connecting it to the tap and putting the other end in my growler, used a spoon laying on the bar to spoon foam out of it, put the growler directly onto the tap at one point and used a bar towel to wipe foam off the top of the growler with the cap still off.

I don't think I'm comfortable drinking it now...

No, no, no, no....

 

[Sage1]

While that’s indeed terribad practice, FWIW (and this is coming from a total germaphobe), there’s absolutely no evidence you can get COVID-19 from food or drink – the pH of your stomach destroys the virus’s lipid envelope before it can propagate anywhere else. I follow a food safety professor, and he’s said multiple times that a food service worker could cough directly on your food and there’s basically zero chance you’d get COVID-19 due to that (although obviously there’d be the chance of other diseases, which you might worry about with that growler). Your lungs are where you really need to keep the virus out of.

 

[riko1]

Yeah, while COVID-19 is the obvious and most serious concern, I'm also concerned about other illnesses and just the generally poor handling of it.

 

[Xul1]

Tangential to the point about bars filling growlers, I've been a bit fascinated at how many social media posts I've seen with people genuinely excited to get growler fills of Pliny the Elder. It's regularly available in bottles with incredibly recent packaging dates - why would a growler from a keg of unknown age at an establishment that's not set up to do fills regularly (e.g. no CO2 purge and questionable procedures) be exciting? I get the novelty aspect of it, but people talking about how much "fresher" it tastes out of a growler have me wondering if they understand how dissolved oxygen works.

 

[rcubed1]

Tangential to the point about bars filling growlers, I've been a bit fascinated at how many social media posts I've seen with people genuinely excited to get growler fills of Pliny the Elder. It's regularly available in bottles with incredibly recent packaging dates - why would a growler from a keg of unknown age at an establishment that's not set up to do fills regularly (e.g. no CO2 purge and questionable procedures) be exciting? I get the novelty aspect of it, but people talking about how much "fresher" it tastes out of a growler have me wondering if they understand how dissolved oxygen works.

Agreed, it’s novelty and I don’t get it.

 

[Brent212]

ha, just about to crack open a pliny bottle dated 3/17. the social media posts got me in the mood, but yeah, not sure why I'd get a growler when fresh bottles are often readily available.

 

[riko1]

Agree that novelty is a big factor. I also think there are people who just think draft beer tastes fresher for whatever reason. The only real upside I see is that it's generally cheaper in growlers than in bottles.

 

[sdreaper]

Uncertain if you guys are as nerdy as I am, but we occasionally do social distancing happy hour and have a Zoom chat going where we just check up, talk ****, and drink beer. I won't post the meeting id publicly, but if anybody is interested then hit me up. It varies based on the day, but there is usually one going on by 8pm, almost every day.

 

[rcubed1]

It’s like my life circa 2011-2015 all over again.

 

[LSUPT]

I'm more worried about the nasty old growlers that people are bound to be bringing into places personally. Seems like places should have to use new glass since there's no way to control where it has been or how many people have handled it before the bartender touches it.

 

[sdreaper]

I'm more worried about the nasty old growlers that people are bound to be bringing into places personally. Seems like places should have to use new glass since there's no way to control where it has been or how many people have handled it before the bartender touches it.

I have a few glass growlers and am legit afraid of what may have ventured in (fly/spider/etc) since I have used/cleaned them. Basically just been using crowlers or else those nice miir double-walled stainless 32oz that a few beer memberships gave out as their merch item.

 

[LSUPT]

I have a few glass growlers and am legit afraid of what may have ventured in (fly/spider/etc) since I have used/cleaned them. Basically just been using crowlers or else those nice miir double-walled stainless 32oz that a few beer memberships gave out as their merch item.

Same here. I just about threw out all my old growlers before all this happened, haha.

 

[blackzag05]

Uncertain if you guys are as nerdy as I am, but we occasionally do social distancing happy hour and have a Zoom chat going where we just check up, talk ****, and drink beer. I won't post the meeting id publicly, but if anybody is interested then hit me up. It varies based on the day, but there is usually one going on by 8pm, almost every day.

shoot me the meeting ID. I got time.

 

[Tyrsis]

I have a few glass growlers and am legit afraid of what may have ventured in (fly/spider/etc) since I have used/cleaned them. Basically just been using crowlers or else those nice miir double-walled stainless 32oz that a few beer memberships gave out as their merch item.

I can pop in. But it will be 10 here, which means I will be d r u n k

 

[sdreaper]

The only one we had yesterday was during the day to celebrate a birthday. I'll let you all know what is up this evening when I get more info.

 

[arren]

Tangential to the point about bars filling growlers, I've been a bit fascinated at how many social media posts I've seen with people genuinely excited to get growler fills of Pliny the Elder. It's regularly available in bottles with incredibly recent packaging dates - why would a growler from a keg of unknown age at an establishment that's not set up to do fills regularly (e.g. no CO2 purge and questionable procedures) be exciting? I get the novelty aspect of it, but people talking about how much "fresher" it tastes out of a growler have me wondering if they understand how dissolved oxygen works.

It's also important to note that not everybody who's into beer in San Diego is as "clued in" as we are. I still run into a decent amount of people who are into the beer scene yet still get pretty excited when they see Pliny on tap in town. ****, one of my coworkers was saying how excited he was to find bottles of it way up in Tahoe; his IG post was littered with comments like "omg jealous!" and "you're so lucky!" Meanwhile, I'm sure all of us know where to get a bottle of it right this very second.

 

[schmaltzy1]

I can pop in. But it will be 10 here, which means I will be d r u n k

You wait until 10pm to get drunk? I start drinking at 10am. This pandemic, layoff, staying at home, teaching my 9yr old son, baking, cooking, cleaning, got me feeling like a drunk Marry Poppins with a nicer ass...

 

[Tyrsis]

You wait until 10pm to get drunk? I start drinking at 10am. This pandemic, layoff, staying at home, teaching my 9yr old son, baking, cooking, cleaning, got me feeling like a drunk Marry Poppins with a nicer ass...

I start drinking at 6pm, the second I get off my computer for work.

I'm actually bored of it at this point, and that is scary

 

[arren]

I'm actually bored of it at this point, and that is scary

same, i'm getting bored of coffee and bored of beer

 

[sdreaper]

I'm getting bored only because I am forced to do everything I would normally do anyways. So....a slight lack of free-will.

But I like drinking beer, drinking mead, doing that inside, playing video games, watching movies, and distancing myself away from other humans.

 

[sdreaper]

Going to give that O'Brien's beer-dinner-at-home a try. I am going to get a pre-cooked one because my culinary skills are drastically subpar.