No more Pretty Things beer

:-(

I noticed a while ago that the small breweries that are making it are cultivating a community around them - opening tap rooms, having "clubs" with special goodies, food truck nights, perhaps trivia and game nights - all much more than just the beer. I love going into my "member" brewery and they will chat with me about how many growlers I can pack into a pannier, etc. Call it the "Cheers Effect" - they know me there.

Aeronaut hosts regular food truck and bike community events and is now a gathering hub for cyclists. Slumbrew has a tap room and a year-round beer garden. Even though Night Shift is out in Everett, just try to find a place to sit on a weekend - and they are letting Idle Hands sofa surf their taps and brewing space until their space is ready, and there is a distillery down the street, too. These are destinations. Mystic cut its own niche with sours, wilds, and saisons and has its own regular features. For whatever reason, Pretty Things didn't go there

I get it. They had a tough time getting into larger establishment places. But instead of being smart and promoting their beer, they took their marbles and ran to the ABCC.

All they did was alienate themselves more. Nobody would touch them after that. They pissed off every bar owner in the city.

I went to an small event where the owners gave a talk once and it seemed like, in my opinion, they had an unstable model where they did not own their own brewery (unless that changed??) so if that were still the case that could be a real disadvantage.

It is a crowded market and competition is fierce. Someone else mentioned that many small breweries are creating their own demand by having people on site and selling direct. Living in Chelsea I see how that has helped Mystic first hand as they build up their name recognition and the more popular the tap room becomes the more I see it in non Chelsea/Everett stores. A step ahead of them is Nightshift , which is always busy. Part of the success that Mystic and Nightshift has had has been wrapping themselves up in their local community. I know in Chelsea when Mystic first opened (and still) it is not uncommon for Chelsea people to stop by the brewery and buy several bottles for presents during the holidays.

Then sometimes businesses do everything right and they still close. The food , bar and restaurant industry is tough. How many times have you seen a restaurant that you think is doing fine just go bust? OR it succeeded but only because the owners put in ungodly numbers of hours. Even if an owner lucks out and makes decent money off of a project it still comes with tremendous strain and I have seen many restaurant owners step back and take normal business and desk jobs elsewhere for the same money and a 40 hour week.

It is to bad, I liked most of their beer.

I have to imagine that gypsy brewing is really tiring. If you don't know whose gear you're going to use from one batch to the next necessarily then there's a lot of fitting your stuff to their process and tons of quality control.

I wish they'd held out until Dorchester Brewing came online. I think that could have been a good match for a "permanent" home for them. But if they never wanted to settle on a brewery, then they had a tough road and I imagine that drained them. Probably a bit financially and definitely mentally. Combined with their frontal assault on the bullshit practices of the larger alcohol business locking down taps, I imagine they had a look around and realized...they don't need this level of anguish because they were fine before making Pretty Things and they'll be fine after too.