Henry T's opening a brewery.....(My thoughts)
Posted: Tue Dec 23, 2014 1:49 pm
http://www2.ljworld.com/weblogs/town_ta ... -brewery-/
As a general thought on Herny T's. Based on my experience eating there, the current "beer program" is awful. The servers I had very little if any knowledge of the beer menu let alone the ability to talk about anything. The time I was in there I had 2 different beers from a large Kansas City brewery and both were labeled "Imports" on the menu. They arrived to the table flat telling me the bar management doesn't understand the serving system or monitor it for quality control. Finally the pale ale tasted of butter which tells me the keg has be sitting under the bar for a very long time. If they have a hard time pushing a flagship beer from the region's largest brewery how do they plan to push there own "cheaper" copies?
In my experience and research in the craft beer industry this mindset has lead countless breweries to fail. Anyone remember Barnyard? They were literally limited to a specific cost of materials per gallon because the investment group that owns the Pool Room had this mindset. The margins are so tight in this industry that the path to success is paved with passion, dedication, and creativity. Making cheap copies of existing beers is not a sound business idea."...certain types of beer should be cheap. The big brewers are removing that idea from the culture. Part of our angle is to brew something, if not identical, better, and then charge less for it."
Seems like a smart business plan. Sure hiring "consultants" sounds like a smart idea however, the consultant brewery is itself still very young with less than 5 years of operation.Gerrity admits that he doesn't have a brewing background.
As a general thought on Herny T's. Based on my experience eating there, the current "beer program" is awful. The servers I had very little if any knowledge of the beer menu let alone the ability to talk about anything. The time I was in there I had 2 different beers from a large Kansas City brewery and both were labeled "Imports" on the menu. They arrived to the table flat telling me the bar management doesn't understand the serving system or monitor it for quality control. Finally the pale ale tasted of butter which tells me the keg has be sitting under the bar for a very long time. If they have a hard time pushing a flagship beer from the region's largest brewery how do they plan to push there own "cheaper" copies?