Modern Times closing its Portland, Oakland, Santa Barbara and LA locations

At the end of the week… seems like they have a new leadership and they were financially in quite a bad way, so cuts were necessary. The other locations will still be there.

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Closed the place entries. If someone has any of them backlogged feel free to ping me (or reopen, rate and close again if you can ofc).

https://www.ratebeer.com/p/place/76694 - The Belmont Fermentorium (Portland)
https://www.ratebeer.com/p/place/84645 - The Dankness Dojo (Los Angeles)
https://www.ratebeer.com/p/place/96632 - The House of Perpetual Refreshment (Oakland)
https://www.ratebeer.com/p/place/96635 - Academy of Recreational Sciences (Santa Barbara)

Never been to any of their own places, but have liked their beers; in fact I had a can on Saturday (12th Feb).

<*))))))><

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Yeah, heard quite some positive things about them. If this helps them stay afloat and keep the quality level high…

Managed to hut the Dankness Dojo a few weeks ago. Well worth it.

I wonder if the sexual harassment and assault allegations hurt them badly. They had some of the worst accusations in the beer #metoo.

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Yep. Only heard about this because they do a few cider collaborations. It’s reads like a Venn diagram.

More likely they over extended (+covid of course). I would say that over extending is the no. 1 reason why craft beer breweries go under/are forced to sell out.

I’m sure this didn’t help, but I doubt it is the main reason. Most people outside of the beer nerds have never heard about the accusations + a lot of people will not just care enough to stop buying their beer.

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I agree. Most likely lenders were not getting paid as they probably were pretty leveraged to pay for expansion. I wonder how well Other Half will fare in its expansion plans or all the other NY breweries that now have 2+ locations.

Also, I admit I did go there post-#metoo… that said, while only beer nerds might have known, beer nerds are likely their sole market for $35 bombers of pastry stout…

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Gotta grab that market share.

Seems like every big brewery down south has 2-6+ locations & there’s always a closure on the horizon. It’s a gamble for sure.

Have only seen a couple of their pastry bombers in EU webshop (no hyped things), so I assume they still manage to sell them on the US side… I assume that most of their money comes from the regular beers (pale ales & ipas).

Their regular canned beers are available in Southern Californian Trader Joe’s, usually pretty cheap too. No idea if they are nation wide in Trader Joe’s.

<*))))))><

Beer at Trader Joe’s is usually cheap.

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Yeah @weihenweizen, and they let you split four/six packs and just take one.

<*))))))><

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The cans are also in EU webshops (as implied before). EU webshops also sell their expensive sour beers - which I assume they have trouble selling on US side.

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Naw, trader Joe’s in southern cali is sooooo much better than what we get in DC area. Could be just because the bigger breweries around here aren’t as high quality as those in Socal. Not sure. I really only buy the Xmas stuff from unibroue from them, and rarely anything else. In San Diego and LA there were always tons of great beers at Trader Joe’s

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Really here they only carry a bunch of this random stuff they contract like trader Jose Mexican lager then a bunch of Hardwood pancake Xmas bourbon barreled gingerbread stouts.

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Spencer Trappist is closing.

Yup. Bizarrely, I’ve had their Holiday Ale, their IPA and their Imperial stout but not their regular Trappist Ale.