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I'm a nobody, not sure with my two beers a month anyone gives a **** about me or beer I make but...

lurchingbeast - no joke, a crushable beer Designed for cocktails ain't exactly a bad idea.

vav - competition amongst the newest dogs has been interesting to say the least. The guys launching with a ton of pale ales are gonna have it hard because Chicago has like 3 (now 4 with CansIn2022 ) world class ipa Brewers with a price point to kill everyone else. i think us and a few others are in a slightly better spot because were not trying to make a **** ton of IPA's and are exploring weird, obscure, twists on classics or simply **** we like to drink. Pete walks into bars to sell a farmhouse or brett kolsch, and the beer guy looks at his lines with 5 pale something and buys. at the very least, all brewwrs have been super cool and nice on the surface, though I'm sure everyone talks **** or hates on others, at least it ain't said in public.

Also bomber fatigue has set in and it's a tough sell. Add in some suspect labels or names, it gets even harder. That's Why were Doin 375's & 4-packs and are trying to do some weird watercolor art/labels.

And as for what do we target...basically we reached out to our distributor to go to places and we soon realized we gotta do this **** ourselves. The three browmigos sat down and mapped out places we buy beer and places we ate. Pete did a **** ton of legwork and got us amazing accounts from girl & the goat to local option to the big three in chicago (temple, WLV, the place formerly known as castle vav). The **** sold and people dug, and I hope it's due to beer and not the charity aspect or people having a man crush on Pete. demand has now exceeded supply, and we've had to turn down places which will piss them off so when we have our own pub/prod. goin early next year, we're gonna have to win back over the smaller accounts. #growingpains

Written while sitting on a toilet in buffalo
 
I'm a nobody, not sure with my two beers a month anyone gives a **** about me or beer I make but...

lurchingbeast - no joke, a crushable beer Designed for cocktails ain't exactly a bad idea.

vav - competition amongst the newest dogs has been interesting to say the least. The guys launching with a ton of pale ales are gonna have it hard because Chicago has like 3 (now 4 with CansIn2022 ) world class ipa Brewers with a price point to kill everyone else. i think us and a few others are in a slightly better spot because were not trying to make a **** ton of IPA's and are exploring weird, obscure, twists on classics or simply **** we like to drink. Pete walks into bars to sell a farmhouse or brett kolsch, and the beer guy looks at his lines with 5 pale something and buys. at the very least, all brewwrs have been super cool and nice on the surface, though I'm sure everyone talks **** or hates on others, at least it ain't said in public.

Also bomber fatigue has set in and it's a tough sell. Add in some suspect labels or names, it gets even harder. That's Why were Doin 375's & 4-packs and are trying to do some weird watercolor art/labels.

And as for what do we target...basically we reached out to our distributor to go to places and we soon realized we gotta do this **** ourselves. The three browmigos sat down and mapped out places we buy beer and places we ate. Pete did a **** ton of legwork and got us amazing accounts from girl & the goat to local option to the big three in chicago (temple, WLV, the place formerly known as castle vav). The **** sold and people dug, and I hope it's due to beer and not the charity aspect or people having a man crush on Pete. demand has now exceeded supply, and we've had to turn down places which will piss them off so when we have our own pub/prod. goin early next year, we're gonna have to win back over the smaller accounts. #growingpains

Written while sitting on a toilet in buffalo
Yeah drop that buffalo homeboy
 
I'm a nobody, not sure with my two beers a month anyone gives a **** about me or beer I make but...

lurchingbeast - no joke, a crushable beer Designed for cocktails ain't exactly a bad idea.

vav - competition amongst the newest dogs has been interesting to say the least. The guys launching with a ton of pale ales are gonna have it hard because Chicago has like 3 (now 4 with CansIn2022 ) world class ipa Brewers with a price point to kill everyone else. i think us and a few others are in a slightly better spot because were not trying to make a **** ton of IPA's and are exploring weird, obscure, twists on classics or simply **** we like to drink. Pete walks into bars to sell a farmhouse or brett kolsch, and the beer guy looks at his lines with 5 pale something and buys. at the very least, all brewwrs have been super cool and nice on the surface, though I'm sure everyone talks **** or hates on others, at least it ain't said in public.

Also bomber fatigue has set in and it's a tough sell. Add in some suspect labels or names, it gets even harder. That's Why were Doin 375's & 4-packs and are trying to do some weird watercolor art/labels.

And as for what do we target...basically we reached out to our distributor to go to places and we soon realized we gotta do this **** ourselves. The three browmigos sat down and mapped out places we buy beer and places we ate. Pete did a **** ton of legwork and got us amazing accounts from girl & the goat to local option to the big three in chicago (temple, WLV, the place formerly known as castle vav). The **** sold and people dug, and I hope it's due to beer and not the charity aspect or people having a man crush on Pete. demand has now exceeded supply, and we've had to turn down places which will piss them off so when we have our own pub/prod. goin early next year, we're gonna have to win back over the smaller accounts. #growingpains

Written while sitting on a toilet in buffalo
How did you go about finding your contract partners? What does licensing look like for a contract brewer?
 
How did you go about finding your contract partners? What does licensing look like for a contract brewer?
Back when we started looking...prior to Pipeworks launch around 2011, they were few and far between. We approached argus and they just stopped contracting, we approached a few others they told us to piss up a rope. I posted on Probrewer and some weirdo that used to run Flatlanders said he was opening a contract brewery in zion. We signed on and then watched him drag ass for like 2 years. As soon as they get up and running, we soon realized why **** took two years. He failed to submit our labels and formula approvals a few times. Glycol would turn off, electricity was cut, he'd pull yeast prior to callin me, etc etc. fortunately 1090 was a savior, bought him out and allowed us to keep the contract we previously had. It's not the happiest marriage but theyve allowed us to do **** that only a handful of breweries would tolerate from brett, barrels, blends, etc etc. we've tied up a ton of their equipment with weird transfers, crashing and blends, and they've been mostly cool.

Also as a side...1090 does make some super really good brews that I think get over looked.

As for licensing, distribution, taxes....the illinois state law is like flaming nonsense for contract brewers. But honestly, I don't do much back office **** so I have no idea, just know it's super unclear.
 
I'm sure you've said before, but where are you looking to open the brewpub?

(InB4 between Chicago/Montrose & Cicero/Lake Michigan)
 
or people having a man crush on Pete.
theres a distinct chance at this. im sure he must really enjoy weirdos trying to touch his beard all the time.

as i've told you let me know when you find space I'll help out as much as i can with ya'll building out.
 
Have you guys kicked around (actual, all-kidding-aside) plans to implement some sort of a membership/reserve society at some point?
 
this things still going on, I was hoping it would die -

ChicagoGuy - maybe in the future to help fund a foeder or something. as a beer nerd they're pretty awesome as you can get some of your limited stuff into the hands of the people that support you and will probably enjoy it the most. as a shitty business person, getting your product into the same hundred hands every two months probably isn't best. but the brow is bad at business so I can see something in the future. since we have no spot & have a distributor, I think releasing stuff in some club would violate the terms of something I think. I'll get back to you in a year when our feet our planted, we got some weird ideas for coolships & various farm stuff...stay tuned.

powz87 chicken fingers, piss jugs, shitmobiles....as you know, all in my wheelhouse. oddly enough, dont enjoy cheeseburgers like the Pillsbandy Doughboy aka Lord of the Onion Rings aka the cheeseburger walrus.

jeblikesbeer - you got a spot, as long as you don't mind being paid in veggie facon burgers and high fives. (Btw - uptons bacon seitan is quite delicious and I'm dying to pilot an almond milk facon stout....tentively called meat is murder)
 
this things still going on, I was hoping it would die -

jeblikesbeer - you got a spot, as long as you don't mind being paid in veggie facon burgers and high fives. (Btw - uptons bacon seitan is quite delicious and I'm dying to pilot an almond milk facon stout....tentively called meat is murder)
point one - no it wont die nick
point two - are you a veggie? i mean i was raised one but i get hungry from time to time...
I like said form of payment and i didnt even expect payment
point three - please do the almond milk stout i'm super curious how that'd turn out plus then my GF could try a milk stout!
 
What's planned for the tail end of summer?
this thangs still goin, huh, well if anyone cares......

parklife in 4-packs this week = a wheat ale, with fresh lemon & fresh mint. Not as sweet as probably wanted from some shandy but we didn't set out to make a radler/shandy but just a nice, refreshing summer beer. I was scared it was too lemon heavy and mint light, but after carb and a couple weeks it came close to previous summer pilots & I dig it.

cobrastyle - out this week in 375's. our farmhouse robyn blended with dark matter coffee that was barrel aged in a spent barrel we gave them that house our brett-peach beer who's that girl. A mild touch of brett, oak, wine & lacto is present in the coffee and it blended for one beautifully weird beer that we love and wish we had more of but 2 bbl of coffee beans translates to like nothing. We want to do this one often but its always gonnna have to be small batches.

hey citrus - a lemongrass saison should be out as soon as the TTB approves our labels in bombers (around 7 bucks). it was a homebrewing contest winner made with farm dried lemongrass, limes & lemons. The insanely lovely yeast comes from the homebrewers own blend and ripped cultures. It has a wild yeast profile, close to french saison but with a bunch of other belgian stuff goin on. i've picked up some almost brett notes, and the lemongrass is f*ckin beautiful with the beer/style.

white light / white heat - A split 4-pack we'll be brewing this week. one low abv apricot wit with green cardamon and one higher abv wit with peppers & orange peel. should be out in about 4 weeks, again dependent on this new yahoo at the TTB.

brewing horizon & schedule -
a salted wee heavy
a green tea saison (I swear I didn't steal the idea from fantome..wink..wink)
a dubbel with our robyn yeast
a homebrewer stout (either marshmellow or coffee, probably both)
a grisette that I can't wait to brew

in barrels -
milk eyed mender in oat koval whiskey
farmhouse with seedling farms blueberries in a red wine barrel with a simple brett strain
farmhouse with seedling farms raspberries in a red wine barrel with a complex brett strain

and as soon as peaches come in season some more who's that girl


EDIT - I forgot the awesomely weird hippy kombucha moscow mule we did with unity vibration came out last week. Brewed because dan deacon wanted a gluten free beer and dan deacon should get what he asks for. Out in 375's now and more should be coming in a few weeks if it's sold out or you can't find it as there was only like 25 cases.
 
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this thangs still goin, huh, well if anyone cares......

parklife in 4-packs this week = a wheat ale, with fresh lemon & fresh mint. Not as sweet as probably wanted from some shandy but we didn't set out to make a radler/shandy but just a nice, refreshing summer beer. I was scared it was too lemon heavy and mint light, but after carb and a couple weeks it came close to previous summer pilots & I dig it.

cobrastyle - out this week in 375's. our farmhouse robyn blended with dark matter coffee that was barrel aged in a spent barrel we gave them that house our brett-peach beer who's that girl. A mild touch of brett, oak, wine & lacto is present in the coffee and it blended for one beautifully weird beer that we love and wish we had more of but 2 bbl of coffee beans translates to like nothing. We want to do this one often but its always gonnna have to be small batches.

hey citrus - a lemongrass saison should be out as soon as the TTB approves our labels in bombers (around 7 bucks). it was a homebrewing contest winner made with farm dried lemongrass, limes & lemons. The insanely lovely yeast comes from the homebrewers own blend and ripped cultures. It has a wild yeast profile, close to french saison but with a bunch of other belgian stuff goin on. i've picked up some almost brett notes, and the lemongrass is f*ckin beautiful with the beer/style.

white light / white heat - A split 4-pack we'll be brewing this week. one low abv apricot wit with green cardamon and one higher abv wit with peppers & orange peel. should be out in about 4 weeks, again dependent on this new yahoo at the TTB.

brewing horizon & schedule -
a salted wee heavy
a green tea saison (I swear I didn't steal the idea from fantome..wink..wink)
a dubbel with our robyn yeast
a homebrewer stout (either marshmellow or coffee, probably both)
a grisette that I can't wait to brew

in barrels -
milk eyed mender in oat koval whiskey
farmhouse with seedling farms blueberries in a red wine barrel with a simple brett strain
farmhouse with seedling farms raspberries in a red wine barrel with a complex brett strain

and as soon as peaches come in season some more who's that girl

My god! This is a whole lot of "holy **** I can't wait." Especially Cobra-Style. Looks like I'll be making a post work beeline to DaviHaw's establishment some time this week hopefully.
 
hey citrus - a lemongrass saison should be out as soon as the TTB approves our labels in bombers (around 7 bucks).
giphy.gif









Just kidding...will still buy it and thanks for it not being over $10.
 
I don't have a question per se but Cobrastyle is kicking my ass right now. Tell me all about the inspiration behind it.
 
I got really ****ed up at a small house party in Posen. Tell your wife **** hasn't changed.
 
I don't have a question per se but Cobrastyle is kicking my ass right now. Tell me all about the inspiration behind it.
So I'm admittedly what my wife refers to as "a coffee *****." And like craft beer, i love seeing what else and what flavors can be extracted with a simple coffee bean. as you may know, dark matter has been experimenting with a wide array barrel aging. Around this time last year, they released a Lolita barrel aged coffee. My head simple exploded; the fruit, the wine, the brett & lacto, all came out so much in a cold extraction....it tasted like fruit tea. At that point I talked to them about using it in a farmhouse or saison or something because it was so good and I thought that fruit tea coffee would scream paired with the blondeish farmhouse we do. during the discussion to buy Lolita beans, we were emptying our barrel full of brett, peaches, and red wine (who's that girl) and asked dark matter if they were interested in trying to do a weird 360 degree beer. They agreed (and we also threw coop hot sauce in their but that's another story).... So when the coffee came out like 9 months later from aging, we and dark matter almost wept. They made espresso and did a cold extraction and their barrel dude simply said "this is the best barrel aged coffee I've done." We sat down with the already made robyn experimenting with blend ratios. When commercial brewwrs make coffee beers usually they recirculate beans or add at end of boil, but since this coffee is in the farmhouse vain and the beans had lacto & brett on them we said **** it and did a simple blend at bottling since dark matter makes cold brew kegs that are sanitized. out came a lovely farmhouse with coffee flavors that are unlike any generic coffee flavor in a beer I've ever had. It's like coffee fruit tea farmhouse.

Wow that was long and pointless....I could've just said fantome did it and I wanted to do a belgian with a light, fruity coffee.
 
So I'm admittedly what my wife refers to as "a coffee *****." And like craft beer, i love seeing what else and what flavors can be extracted with a simple coffee bean. as you may know, dark matter has been experimenting with a wide array barrel aging. Around this time last year, they released a Lolita barrel aged coffee. My head simple exploded; the fruit, the wine, the brett & lacto, all came out so much in a cold extraction....it tasted like fruit tea. At that point I talked to them about using it in a farmhouse or saison or something because it was so good and I thought that fruit tea coffee would scream paired with the blondeish farmhouse we do. during the discussion to buy Lolita beans, we were emptying our barrel full of brett, peaches, and red wine (who's that girl) and asked dark matter if they were interested in trying to do a weird 360 degree beer. They agreed (and we also threw coop hot sauce in their but that's another story).... So when the coffee came out like 9 months later from aging, we and dark matter almost wept. They made espresso and did a cold extraction and their barrel dude simply said "this is the best barrel aged coffee I've done." We sat down with the already made robyn experimenting with blend ratios. When commercial brewwrs make coffee beers usually they recirculate beans or add at end of boil, but since this coffee is in the farmhouse vain and the beans had lacto & brett on them we said **** it and did a simple blend at bottling since dark matter makes cold brew kegs that are sanitized. out came a lovely farmhouse with coffee flavors that are unlike any generic coffee flavor in a beer I've ever had. It's like coffee fruit tea farmhouse.

Wow that was long and pointless....I could've just said fantome did it and I wanted to do a belgian with a light, fruity coffee.

I'm pretty sure Cobrastyle is the reason I woke up at 2 the other night and couldn't go back to sleep until after 4. I guess at least I got some stuff done for work...
 
I'm pretty sure Cobrastyle is the reason I woke up at 2 the other night and couldn't go back to sleep until after 4. I guess at least I got some stuff done for work...
Sorry bout that...straight blending with cold press has a **** ton more caffeine than usual coffee beers. Your like the 4th person to say something...did you dig it at least?
 
Sorry bout that...straight blending with cold press has a **** ton more caffeine than usual coffee beers. Your like the 4th person to say something...did you dig it at least?

I did. The coffee and fruity flavors blend nicely. To me it was a very un-beer beer--really unique. I don't remember Robyn being that fruit forward (unless some of that came from the beans aging in the barrels), so I'm going to have to revisit that. If I saw another bottle I'd probably pick it up for a weekend afternoon beer.
 
So, how you feel about Contract Brewing in larger amounts as you grow your business? What do you look for in a Contact Brewing partner?





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well....as we spec out and try to land real estate as well as shake trees looking for gold & money we're kinda stuck contracting/alt-proping for a while. but I also envision utilizing a contracting/alt agreement for a long time when we have our spot so we can make green tea saisons and weird small batches while not continuing to make giant batches of robyn or some other large batch beer we do to maintain shelf & draft space. I'd love to stick to small batches in house and maybe work with contract brewer to make a 50bbl batch of something we've been doing 11 bbl batches of for mass production.

the biggest thing we look for with contract/alt-propin is flexibility & craftsmanship. we make a few beers with brettanomyces & so many folks are afraid of it. brett cleans & dies like any cerevisiae strain (it aint pedio or lacto). it really isn't the wild some folks think it is. also we utilize decoction & step-infusion mashes, again another contractor issue because of time & work. lots of contractors look for a simple IPA for some simpish beer that they can zip out in two weeks. if we can find someone who charges a decent amount, allows us/them to make strange and twisted classic brews, and will work with us if a beer has to sit in a tank for 4 weeks its a perfect match. but ultimately it boils down to cost and workin with us when I show up with 2bbls of soaked sourdough bread to make a kvass.

also access to ingredients would be nice, hops are simply f*ckin impossible to obtain unless you have these giant contracts and make 15K bbl of beer a year.
 
I have been carrying two of your beers in a plastic bag for the last mile in the heat, the bag swinging and occasionally hitting my leg. Are they safe to open in the quiet car?

Bottles are Hey Citrus and the Moscow Mule Kombucha collab.
 
Gave up on train beer, and drank it from a glass when I got home. Awesome stuff. Cheers!
thanks for buying and diggin. Ya, I had no answer for you on either of those. Hey citrus was forced carbed but the residual yeast left in their was a completly new strain so I have no idea how it'd react with a little warmth, agitation and left over sugars. as for moscow mule, the hippy slurry left in every bottle (aka scoby for kombucha lovers) has had some strange reactions especially since the base of the "beer" is really just cane sugar & tea. I've seen some gush, some barely crack, some with head retention, some with zero. But its naturally carbed with zero added sugar ala a wild, so they are super unpredictable.
 
thanks for buying and diggin. Ya, I had no answer for you on either of those. Hey citrus was forced carbed but the residual yeast left in their was a completly new strain so I have no idea how it'd react with a little warmth, agitation and left over sugars. as for moscow mule, the hippy slurry left in every bottle (aka scoby for kombucha lovers) has had some strange reactions especially since the base of the "beer" is really just cane sugar & tea. I've seen some gush, some barely crack, some with head retention, some with zero. But its naturally carbed with zero added sugar ala a wild, so they are super unpredictable.
Well thanks for a response. It seems like a silly question one might see on Yahoo answers but I didn't want to wear sticky kombucha beer on Metra and ruin the fun for everyone else.
 
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