Green Flash's Travails

I read over the weekend on my Twitter feed that Green Flash Brewing was closing its new (2016) brewing facility in Virginia Beach, effective immediately.  The news was a shock.  The West Coaster and today's San Diego Union Tribune have articles on the closure and other moves Green Flash is making to preserve its brewing business, including a new investment partner.  The Full Pint offers some good advice, which includes rethinking Alpine Beer Co., which Green Flash acquired in 2014, getting in the special release can game, and opening more satellite tasting rooms.

There is a common theme running through all three articles. Green Flash lost its knack for making good beer.  Somehow the brewers of Hop Head Red and Le Freak revamped its beer lineup and reformulated its recipes to a point where it has no signature beer and therefore no brand identity.  I noted this in January after Green Flash's first corporate shakeup.   Green Flash's loss of beer vision coincides with the 2015 departure of Chuck Silva.  Green Flash's IPAs used to have a hop aggressiveness that matched or surpassed breweries that marketed their hoppy IPAs.  Now Green Flash has something called Soul Style IPA. 

I agree with The Full Pint's suggestion to focus on Alpine's amazing line-up of IPAs, and to brew some special release canned beers. People want hazy IPAs, so make and can them.  I like the satellite tasting room idea, too, especially if it has a crowler machine and is close to my neighborhood. 

I have written more than once on this blog that if a brewery makes good beer people will want it.  It is a simple concept, but making good beer once again, more than anything else, needs to consume Green Flash at this point.  It's a brewery, its product is beer, and somehow making good beer got lost in the focus to grow.  I want Green Flash to succeed, and I'd really like a Hop Head Red.