We Sent a Brewer to Disneyland's New Brewery. Here's What He Loved and What He Hated

[Initech]

Puffy pink ears, polka dot ears and even ears painted in flames. Wherever you turn at Disneyland, you find those iconic mouse ears.

Everyone here is drunk on the ears.

Luckily, Disneyland now has something else to imbibe: beer. Many beers, in fact, at the theme park’s first brewery.

In the Magic Kingdom, where big people act like little kids, it’s a relief to take time for a grown-up pleasure — or two or three or 40, which is how many different beers were on offer on a recent afternoon at the new Ballast Point Brewery in Anaheim, California’s Downtown Disney.

TPG, of course, decided that we needed to check it out, and who better to join us than Brett Lawrence, the lanky, opinionated owner of nearby Towne Park Brewery?

We strolled into Downtown Disney through a metal detector fronted by a sign prohibiting alcohol and costumes on guests 14 and older — mouse ears notwithstanding. Awaiting were more beers than there have been Disney Marvel movies. Ten hoppy ales, seven “rich and malty”; five each “crisp and bright,” “tart and sour,” and R&D special batches; eight barrel-aged boozers — with that much selection, a guy could get as confused as he would browsing gift shops brimming with ears. Lawrence wasn’t having it.

“That’s a lot of damned beers. I don’t know what to pick. I feel overwhelmed, man.”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/foodanddrink/beerandcider/we-sent-a-brewer-to-disneylands-new-brewery-heres-what-he-loved-and-what-he-hated/ar-BBTdqxF?ocid=spartandhp

First off, no brewer would ever say something that blatantly stupid. Second, how the hell can you take a brewer to a brewery and they don't know what to order? Seriously they don't have a favorite style of beer? They don't immediately have beers that they want to try on the menu? Not a sour or an IPA or a stout or a porter or a brown ale? What the fuck???

[Basement Beat]

1. You're right...

that sounds way too bizarre. You would think they would have a couple of go-to beers to try whenever trying out somewhere new.

[Initech]

2. If you're a brewer and you're overwhelmed by too many beers, you're in the wrong business!

[jmowreader]

3. I get the guy's point

Forty beers is too damn many beers. Even if you're a brewer it's too damn many beers. And my bet is, half of it is IPA. Come on dude: does anyone except a hardcore beer geek like IPA?

I liked his solution to the problem: he told the barkeep to bring him an assortment of beers, and let the guy pick them out.

[Initech]

4. I take it he's never been to a Yardhouse though.

Or any other bar / restaurant that has over 100 beers on tap. Sure it is a lot but still... no such thing as too much beer!

[jmowreader]

5. If you can't sell through every keg in the rack in a week, you have too many beers

I would go broke in the draft-beer business. My feeling is that a keg of beer has, AT MOST, a lifespan of two weeks once it enters the premises. It can stand ready to be tapped for a week, and once it's been tapped it's good for a week. So, two weeks. If you can't move a half-barrel (99 pint glasses) of a particular brew in one week, that one needs to be sold as bottled beer.

And that's where you run into big problems with having a brazillion different tap handles. Unless you have a super diverse clientele you're not going to move a keg of fruit IPA or a keg of gose before it goes bad.

[Initech]

6. I would think it would depend on the beer.

Beer is brewed to be poured into kegs and it can usually last way more than a couple of weeks. Because I'm sure what places like the Yardhouse do is they store them in a giant refrigerator and then they use half-kegs for their more exclusive beers and then they use the full kegs for their beers that they know will move at a volume like Budweiser, Stone IPA, Stella, etc.