Augie from Carton Brewing

[drgarage1]

Hey, augiecarton, come on down! You're the next contestant on TalkBeer AMA!

 

[augiecarton]

hello everyone, what would you like to know?

 

[drgarage1]

How did you get started in brewing?

 

[Auror]

How'd you get introduced to cream ales?

 

[augiecarton]

How did you get started in brewing?

I gave Jesse a home brew kit as a thank you gift for being helpful at my wedding. He started brewing, we started playing around with beer. Then Boat, then CBC. In a nutshell.

 

[augiecarton]

How'd you get introduced to cream ales?

My name's Carton milk is never far from my mind.

 

[ForkAndSpoonOperator]

My brother has been looking into opening a small-scale brewery down in Gloucester County. He swears up and down that he's "contemplated every eventuality", but do you have any words of advice for a brewer looking to get started, both generally and specifically in NJ?

 

[mattafett]

My name's Carton milk is never far from my mind.

Do you have a tattoo of a milk bottle??


































I do.

 

[Os]

when are we going to throw some back, Augie!?!?

 

[augiecarton]

My brother has been looking into opening a small-scale brewery down in Gloucester County. He swears up and down that he's "contemplated every eventuality", but do you have any words of advice for a brewer looking to get started, both generally and specifically in NJ?

I'd have to know the scopeoif his plan and means. Since we opened the laws have changed in NJ. At this point I see it as feasible to follow a Lawson's /Barrier/Cape May model of bitng off what you can chew, making great beers (very important)

Do you have a tattoo of a milk bottle??


































I do.

my tattoo is of the old Hannah Barbera cartoon Augie Doggie, my last name is Carton, but my first name is Augie after all.

 

[augiecarton]

when are we going to throw some back, Augie!?!?

You act like I've ever said "no"

 

[Os]

You act like I've ever said "no"

touche'!

on another note... what's the canning schedule like these days? Boat cans are in high demand!

 

[augiecarton]

My brother has been looking into opening a small-scale brewery down in Gloucester County. He swears up and down that he's "contemplated every eventuality", but do you have any words of advice for a brewer looking to get started, both generally and specifically in NJ?

I was typing something on my phone that got posted before I was finished and I can't seem to edit it. So start there and finish with:
the old joke is "the best way to make a small fortune brewing beer is to start with a large one" I say that because it's no way to get rich. That being said it's a ton of fun. These days at a small tasting room scale, taking advantage of the new laws, I think you can string together a tight few years of building a reputation without going broke. Once you have a good reputation the rest should get more obvious. Who doesn't want to be Lawson's/Barrier/Cape May?

 

[augiecarton]

touche'!

on another note... what's the canning schedule like these days? Boat cans are in high demand!

We can what can when we can can. We are working on it. I'd love everyone that wants a boat to have one whenever they want it, it's the only way the beer really works. But, three years ago a bunch of bars committed to the crazy idea of a super hoppy session beer, back then people were still buying buzz more than flavor, we can't let them down now because cans are in demand. Baby steps, baby steps.

 

[gregkoko]

We can what can when we can can. We are working on it. I'd love everyone that wants a boat to have one whenever they want it, it's the only way the beer really works. But, three years ago a bunch of bars committed to the crazy idea of a super hoppy session beer, back then people were still buying buzz more than flavor, we can't let them down now because cans are in demand. Baby steps, baby steps.

Send them to NYC Augie. It's cool I'll personally by out whatever stores get them

 

[Os]

Send them to NYC Augie. It's cool I'll personally by out whatever stores get them

you heard the man.. not enough yet. You can't just move to NY and take all the boat w/ you

 

[gregkoko]

you heard the man.. not enough yet. You can't just move to NY and take all the boat w/ you

 

[lazerviking]

Augie, your beers are currently available in New Jersey, New York, and Philly. Do you have plans to increase your distribution footprint in the near term, or are you focused on providing more beer to your existing markets? What is your growth (or lack-of-growth) strategy?

Carton, Kane and few others seem to be at the beginning of a new stage of brewing in New Jersey. How do you see the NJ beer scene changing or growing over the course of the next few years?

 

[augiecarton]

Augie, your beers are currently available in New Jersey, New York, and Philly.

Carton, Kane and few others seem to be at the beginning of a new stage of brewing in New Jersey. How do you see the NJ beer scene changing or growing over the course of the next few years?

i will answer your second question first with this little video I Drink Good Beer just did for The garden State Brew Fest

Do you have plans to increase your distribution footprint in the near term, or are you focused on providing more beer to your existing markets? What is your growth (or lack-of-growth) strategy?

We won't contract so what we make is what we make. Early in our first year we added the 4 45bbl tanks that put our space at capacity and have been running at that capacity since. We are working on a way to grow and keep doing things the way we like to do them which really isn't a process that can be rushed, but we are working on it.
In the mean time on a grand scale we view NJ, Philly, and NYC as our community, I often joke that every one knows Philly and Manhattan are two very important suburbs of Red Bank. We set up two very limited distro arrangements with 2 great small distributors, American in BK and Bella Vista in Philly and we give them small amounts of beer so that we are getting feed back from all of our neighbors, even those not necessarily predisposed to NJ as residents.
Other than that our focus is on our home, NJ top to bottom. We chose the places that Boat Cans are available hoping to get it spread around the state as smoothly as possibly, so places should be about half an hour from each other, hopefully not much more than 20 minutes from any NJ resident. As we can do more we will fill in the holes that exist.
Right now there are something like 7,000 liquor licenses in NJ and we are at about 2000 barrels. 2000 barrels is 4000 half kegs, so if we put all our beer for a year out on one Friday about half of NJ's bars would have our beer for about one weekend. we have plenty to do in our own back yard for quite some time.

 

[jakeox]

I was typing something on my phone that got posted before I was finished and I can't seem to edit it. So start there and finish with:
the old joke is "the best way to make a small fortune brewing beer is to start with a large one" I say that because it's no way to get rich. That being said it's a ton of fun. These days at a small tasting room scale, taking advantage of the new laws, I think you can string together a tight few years of building a reputation without going broke. Once you have a good reputation the rest should get more obvious. Who doesn't want to be Lawson's/Barrier/Cape May?

I noticed that you referenced Cape May twice in this thread. I visited their taproom last week for the first time and was pretty impressed, especially by their IPAs and their new Berliner Weiss. Yet they don't get a lot of buzz here and on other beer nerd forums. Are they well regarded in NJ? I know their distro doesn't get very far yet.

 

[augiecarton]

I noticed that you referenced Cape May twice in this thread. I visited their taproom last week for the first time and was pretty impressed, especially by their IPAs and their new Berliner Weiss. Yet they don't get a lot of buzz here and on other beer nerd forums. Are they well regarded in NJ? I know their distro doesn't get very far yet.

Jersey is jersey, its all different here. The loudest voices aren't always right. By our nature we have a good bit of skepticism for any superlatives like "best" so web buzz isn't a great measure. They are good guys making solid beers and they have had to grow their operation twice so far, that is an actual litmus you can look at when someone asks if actually committing to building a brewery is a good idea.

 

[augiecarton]

OK non NJ people that have a hard time making it for Sundays at the brewery 3 things coming up outside NJ:
Sunday June 1 I'll be brewing at Bierfkraft in BK all afternoon
Wednesday June 4th I'll be drinking at 12 steps down and Friday June 6 i'll be at Perch Pub both for Philly Beer Week

 

[gregkoko]

OK non NJ people that have a hard time making it for Sundays at the brewery 3 things coming up outside NJ:
Sunday June 1 I'll be brewing at Bierfkraft in BK all afternoon
Wednesday June 4th I'll be drinking at 12 steps down and Friday June 6 i'll be at Perch Pub both for Philly Beer Week

At a bottle share outside of Philly on the 31st, but if I make it back to BK early enough I'll swing by and say hi

 

[augiecarton]

So in August we will roll out an American Pale Ale, let us know what you think:

HOPPUN
ABV: 5.3% | IBU: 33 | SRM: 8.5

You can play boundary-pushing flavor games all you like but you should never turn your back on fundamentals. HopPun is born of playing with the most straightforward of beers- the hoppy American Pale. We push around experimental hops 06300 and HBC342 with Super Galena and Mosaic, soften the edges with a traditional pale malt bill and then tie it all together with the fruity esters of British yeast. Look for the tutti-frutti/berry side of modern hop aromatics in a pleasant drinking straightforward Pale. Drink HopPun and keep the chops sharp.

 

[augiecarton]

we are 3!!! party at Boyle's in Monmouth Beach is Thursday and the beer with which we mark this milestone is the old Bigger Boat recipe tweaked with Sorachi & Lemon drop hops and some Yirgacheffe coffee. Let us know how it goes.


SS 2014 YIRGACHEFFE (Need a Bigger Boat Series)
ABV: 8.2% | IBU: 60 | SRM: 9

While playing coffee games last winter, even though they didn’t work for that project, we found ourselves attracted to the bitter lemony notes of cold brewed Ethiopian Yirgacheffe from our partners at Fair Mountain Coffee Roasters. While playing our usual hoppy games recently we were similarly inspired by the lemony bitterness of the new "Lemon Drop" hop from our friends at Hopsteiner. With "SS 2014 Yirgacheffe" we bridge our “Need A Bigger Boat” recipe from 2012 to these flavors with the helping hand of the lemon notes of Sorachi Ace hops. Drink SS 2014 Yirgacheffe (Need A Bigger Boat) because we only turn 3 once.

 

[Os]

wish I could make it... Boyle's with your staff is always a great time


augiecarton, for 3 years, you've really grown quite rapidly and gained much deserved acclaim... do you expect that rate of growth to continue, or will you be focusing on the markets you already cover first?

 

[Os]

it looks like you may have touched upon the question above a bit on an earlier post...

on another note, I know you have had some NJ Collabs and something with Barrier... any fun upcoming collabs planned? any that you'd really like to happen some day?

who is your favorite brewery right now, outside of Carton of course...

 

[augiecarton]

it looks like you may have touched upon the question above a bit on an earlier post...

on another note, I know you have had some NJ Collabs and something with Barrier... any fun upcoming collabs planned? any that you'd really like to happen some day?

we have like 8 collabs all planned and agreed to yet none of the collaboration partners nor we have the time or tanks to sort them out. little guy problems, we are working on it.

who is your favorite brewery right now, outside of Carton of course...

too hard to answer completely but i'll try highlights
people i respect the hell out of for innovating and not just bootlegging their own version of Heady or BCBS
Bruery, Cascade, Dogfish

People i respect the hell out of for doing the leg work that lets me just fool around creating whatever turns us on and not worry about paying the bills with something with mass appeal
Sierra Nevada, Brooklyn, Dogfish, Russian River, Avery

People who's beers i work into a round of drinking even if there is other cool stuff around and I've had it before
Alchemist, Hill Farmstead, Against the Grain, Crooked Stave, Cigar City

People i have become too friendly with to fairly judge their beers but still think make amazing beers
Other half, Peekskill, Kane, Cuzme, Finnback, Barrier

obviously all these cross over a couple of these headings and there are about 3,000 more. in fact there is no brewer who's beer i don't want to taste, every time, but i am comfortable with this list because with no real thought these guys popped into my head in like 2 minutes

 

[axeman91821]

Also, can you can some BDG please?

 

[augiecarton]

Also, can you can some BDG please?

which should we stop canning boat or dub?

 

[axeman91821]

which should we stop canning boat or dub?

Don't make me choose I just know that I'd love to have a stash of BDG to drink with dinner.

 

[gregkoko]

which should we stop canning boat or dub?

Never stop canning Boat.

NEVER

 

[augiecarton]

Don't make me choose I just know that I'd love to have a stash of BDG to drink with dinner.

growing... right now we have 2 brites and a visit from Iron Heart 1ce a month. More than that and run the risk that all the awesome bars that took the leap of faith to put on all our weird beers over the last 3 years might run out of something like BDG. For now cans get the short part of that deal but we are working on it.

 

[Auror]

we are 3!!! party at Boyle's in Monmouth Beach is Thursday and the beer with which we mark this milestone is the old Bigger Boat recipe

If nobody else will say it, I will.

We're going to need some Bigger Boat.

 

[augiecarton]

If nobody else will say it, I will.

We're going to need some Bigger Boat.

 

[Newmoneyloons]

So being the food inspired beer company you guys are. my question which i know is a total 180 and far out idea but when is carton going to open a brewpub so these food inspired and food forward beers can be paired with outstanding food?

 

[augiecarton]

So being the food inspired beer company you guys are. my question which i know is a total 180 and far out idea but when is carton going to open a brewpub so these food inspired and food forward beers can be paired with outstanding food?

NJ law keeps us from holding any other type license than the one for manufacturing. ((this same law kept me from loaning some money to help Twin Lights Tap come back from Sandy (man i miss that bar)) What i would love is the same rights the NJ wineries have to open 10 "tasting rooms" in NJ where i could do food and just our beer. But i would also buy the liquor license you need to be a brew pup, but as of right now that's also not allowed. PLEASE WRITE YOUR NJ STATE LEGISLATORS i promise we will all have fun together if you can sort it out.

 

[coldafpipes]

Plz send kegs to Vermont.

 

[drgarage1]

Augie, can you give me some idea of the pounds per barrel of hops on Boat Beer? I had my first one last night and thought it was incredible, and such a more satisfying session brew than alleged session IPAs. I make a homebrew session brett IPA that uses the equivalent of 6 lbs/barrel, so I'm curious to see if we're in similar ballparks.

 

[augiecarton]

Augie, can you give me some idea of the pounds per barrel of hops on Boat Beer? I had my first one last night and thought it was incredible, and such a more satisfying session brew than alleged session IPAs. I make a homebrew session brett IPA that uses the equivalent of 6 lbs/barrel, so I'm curious to see if we're in similar ballparks.

All in about 4 pounds per barrel. We've backed off a touch since the hop rocket. It' was blowing it out.