Right Brain Brewery's 1st ever bottle release on Black Friday

Per their website:

I have no idea on pricing or bottle counts, but I'll swing by to grab a bottle or two. Gotta support the local guys!

Anyone else going to stop in?

Where did they end up opening their new brewery? Loved the old location when we were up last summer, but I heard they closed that one

They are on 16th Street now, a block east of Cass St. They should have a map of the location on their website. Vibe is much the same, but they have a lot more room now.

The new brewery is cool, but I was never at the old one. I had a growler of CEO stout not that long ago and this year's batch is awesome. I also heard they had something in the back sitting in barrels that they were going to release in bottles soon as well. Maybe they are using this as a trial run. Hopefully a bottle finds its way to me.

The barrel aged beer is their Looping Owl, which I've had on a tap a few times. I'd buy out their bottle release if my wallet could afford it. I LOVE that beer. I want the CEO Stout to show them my support, but I will end up opening it with someone else who actually enjoys stouts. The Looping Owl I will be buying because I love that beer.

I thought that the Looping Owl was pretty decent, but I preferred the Sour Owl a bit more.

Sour Owl is the shit. I drank about 7 glasses of it when I was there.

I love both. If they bottled both, I'd remortgage my house...

Sour Owl is definitely solid.

I'm slow, does this mean Looping Owl bottles are also going to be available also then?

I have a growler of the either Looping Owl or Dead Owl at home, can't remember, both were solid.

And if you want to send me your CEO Stout bottle that would be great because it was fantastic.

Looping Owl will be available at some future date. This is all about CEO.

I can get you a bottle. By mid January I need to head to Detroit, and can divert as needed to make a trade. Just lemme know if you need me to help you out with this.

Btw, according to their FB page, the limited edition package is:

-2 bottles of CEO
-1 lb of coffee
-1 coffee cup
-maybe some other swag

Limited to 100 packages. This is what I will be going after.

Thanks. I'm still debating making the trip over from Grayling that day. Does RB typically do growler fills of their "special" beers or just the regular stuff?

They do growlers of anything on tap. Their premiums just cost a little more. They might be $18 or $19 I think? Plus a growler, though they will fill anyone's growler.

Ok, I FINALLY got 5 bottles. I'm so annoyed with how they rolled this out that I did not buy any bottles for myself, just for a couple people who wanted me to help them out.

Cliff notes of the drama:
-Friday: Showed up to get bottles. I'm told they won't sell any until ALL of their limited edition packages are bought.
-Saturday: Go back. Limited Editions are gone. I'm told they don't have any single bottles. Upon further review, they do have them, but don't know when they will sell them.
-Sunday: Drove back AGAIN because this morning they posted they have bottles for sale until they are sold out.

1) If you have a bottle release, you should make individual bottles available instead of forcing people to buy a limited edition package if they are not interested in that. The package was overpriced imo, and this was a cheap way of forcing the sales.

2) Do not tell me to come back when they are gone if you are not going to sell me bottles when I come back.

3) If you have a product to sell, and you have a customer ready to buy the product, and an employee of your company told said customer to come back to but the product, DO NOT TELL THAT CUSTOMER YOU CANNOT SELL THEM THE PRODUCT.

I had to make 3 separate trips, totaling over 60 miles, because of these mistakes. I was able to take care of some other errands while out, so the trips were not a total waste, and I don't mind the trips because I'm able to help out a friend and another BA'er, but this is unacceptable. I so want to support the local joints trying to expand their business, in particular when I think they make a quality product, but experiences like this make that incredibly difficult. I have a friend coming to town next weekend, and I will likely suggest we go elsewhere. RBB has another release coming up in February, and it will either redeem them or end my support completely most likely.

anyway, here's a pic of the bottles:

from what i have gathered from talking to people up in TC that place is known for being unorganized

It was great when Joe was handling the brewing. Russ is doing a decent job, but it seems like they need a brewery manager to kinda organize everything. I like a lot of the brews they are producing, but this bottle release was handled all wrong. If production is the direction they want to head, and it seems it is, they need to iron out these bottle releases.

That is false advertising and pretty shitty. Sounds like they have a lot to learn, hopefully they got bad feedback they can learn from. Did you give them any feedback? I would email them directly.

How much were the bottles of CEO stout? Any word on bottle count?

bottles are $7.50 each. I don't know what the bottle count is. Given my experience thus far, I don't know that I'd trust any number I got anyway.

Ok, next RBB bottle release is 12-21-12. I believe it is for Looping Owl, since it's the only other bottle I've seen them get label approval for, but they have not confirmed this. I am going to give them another shot, mostly because I love that beer and I can almost overlook the previous douchebaggery as noted above.

Got any CEO left? I totally missed your offer above until now...doh!

I can call them when they open. If they have any, I can go get you some.

Confirmed on their FB account that the release on 12.21 will be Naughty Girl Stout in 22oz bottles.

Sounds interesting.

So I'm told...



Naughty Girl Stout will be released in bottle at the brewery at 3PM on Dec. 21st. They will also be releasing a new bottled brew every Friday beginning January 4th leading up the the February 8th Imperial Release. The Imperial Release will be 4 separate brews in a limited edition 4-pack. Bottle Release schedule is: Fire Starter Chipotle Porter, Jan. 4th - Northern Hawk Owl , Jan. 11th - Looping Owl, Jan. 18th - Pig Porter, Jan. 25th - Dead Kettle , Feb. 1st. The Imperial Release on Feb. 8th will include; The Second Coming, Debauchery, Fat Lad & Igor Takes A Digger.

If there is not a blizzard on Feb 8, I think I may drive up for that release. I also heard that CEO bottles may see some limited distribution.

I have a couch for you to crash on if needed...

Does anybody know anything about the February 8th beers? I'm usually familiar with Right Brain's offerings and I haven't heard of any of them.

I've never had any of them. A couple sound familiar, but I know I've never tried them.

Debauchery is a wheat wine that they had on tap a few weeks ago and was around 9% if I remember correctly. Second Coming is an IPA that they've had on tap a couple times at the new place and is in the upper 7% range. Fat Lad is an imperial stout that they used to make at the old place and was around 8%. Not sure about Igor.

Looks like Right Brain will be distributed in Michigan very soon according to a local shop. Late January.

Uhhhh, it's distributed in a michigan now. CEO Stout is available in stores.

Picked up a CEO last night for the first time and am drinking as I type. Good stuff.

Glad they are getting out there.

Where please?