Whack Vibes Only. When unsoliclited feedback inspires a beer.

Ever heard of the saying, if you have nothing good to say then say nothing at all? No? Well, the long and short it is, the world seems obsessed with only sharing negative sentiments. Meanwhile, unfortunately, the world could care less about positive comments. Which of course only hurts the morale of those who received it. But, what if those negative comments inspired a beer? Here’s one example. 

Back in 2023, on a normal day, a manager from a nearby pizza spot who (no doubt) has draft and canned beer at their business, stopped by Bottleworks. As any customer would, they walked around the shop, reviewing the various canned and bottled beers, ciders, and wines, and made their way to the back of the store to the draft selection. After reviewing the selection of draft beer, they left only to drop Bottleworks a line on their social media accounts. Oh and the message, well, let’s just say it wasn’t complimentary or supportive. 

For starters the manager, who visited Bottleworks, went as far as telling the quarter-decade old bottle shop, the beers for purchase were ok. In fact, they went as far as stating Bottleworks’ vibes were “whack”. 

Rather than allow the comment to get them down, the staff at Bottleworks, took action. Reflecting on the moment, General Manager Brandon Wiley shared the complete breakdown including their rebuttal. 

image from our Northwest Beer Guide Instagram feed. Copyright 2023.

This beer is our rebuttal to a fly-by-night pizza joint masquerading as a beer bar.  A manager from said establishment sent us a message on Instagram claiming that our selection is alright but our vibes were whack. Unbeknownst to most their manager had been permanently banned from our establishment earlier this year for inappropriate behavior towards myself and a female colleague.

I'm not one to take it on the chin, so we transformed their words into a positive force. On the same day we uncovered the truth, we created limited-edition shirts featuring their critique front and center, with all proceeds going to NAMI Seattle, a mental health organization.

Alex from Break Thru reached out to us shortly afterwards about making a beer to commemorate this incident. Thus our whack beer was born

You’re probably wondering, what’s the name of this beer? Oh! About the beer, it’s called Whack Vibes Only! As it turns out, BreakThru and Bottleworks had been in ongoing discussions to collaborate on a beer for some time. And well, here’s Alex Ellig from BreakThru recalling the moment that led to THAT beer. 

A BreakThru/Bottleworks collab has been in talks for probably 2 of the 3 years BreakThru has been in existence. Many things stood in the way, whether it was lack of brand exposure making it worrisome a large volume of product could move through the shop (still relatively an issue, we get more DM's from New York and New Jersey about our beers than locally), timing on both parties, or the 6 month hiatus I recently had to take due to our host brewery installing a new brewhouse and my return to full time brewing work to help support my family. 

The inspiration for the beer is pretty obvious by looking at it I think, and I'd rather not share words about a third party issue. But what I will share is in Brandon and my early talks about the beer he only asked if 1. Do my Double IPA's sell as well at singles? The answer is typically better, and wanted to make a hop profile that was complex and outside the "let's make another Citra IPA because it sells" mantra.

For their part, Alex Elig had a lot to share on what makes this beer and the many beers they make a passion project. The full response is attached below. 

Finally released in December, Bottleworks and BreakThru promoted the release on their respective social media accounts. What’s more, both businesses sold cans, cases, and draft from their respective locations. And the reviews? Well, one only needs to visit peer-review websites like Untappd to see many love Whack Vibes Only. In fact, the collaboration has maintained a 4.2 out of 5 on Untappd since its release. Not bad for a collaboration that started over an unsolicited comment.

If you want to learn more about Whack Vibes Only and BreakthThru’s process to make this beer, we’ve included that below.

More reflections by Alex Ellig on what went into Whack Vibes Only. 

I take pride in the amount of work done in my beers from grain selection, to water chemistry, pH values, all of which are done intentionally to be capable of absorbing the massive hop loads used. For all my beers the first goal is to keep the color (SRM) value as low as possible. I think one thing overlooked in so many hazies is the color produced by some specialty grains gives you a deep orange, muddy color that isn't appealing no matter the glass shape. So selecting an extra Pale Pilsner malt as a base is key. After that I have my own personal preferences towards a blend of some UK base malt, wheat malt, and flaked products. I've found this combination, along with the color attribution from the heavy dry hopping process gives a visually appealing yellow/gold thick, opaque haze. 

Hop selection is obviously important to the flavor profile of the beer, but it's also the component most craft beer drinkers at least know something about so it serves as your first chance of marketing to your customers. Some hops have better attributes for hot side additions versus dry hopping and hop oil analysis has always been a big component for my selection of what goes where. For this beer we wanted to have layers upon layers of flavors ranging from citrus, to tropical, to dank and herbal. This can only be achieved by using multiple hops (4-5  in my experience). Hot side selections were based off which hops oil contents had the lowest values in volatile oils that can come off harsh from being exposed to high temperatures. We landed on a particularly great lot of Centennial from Crosby Hops, as well as a little Amarillo and El Dorado to round it out. That combo alone could have made a great beer, early fermentation sensory samples brought forth aromas and flavors of lime skittles and orange flavored tang (yes, the astronaut drink). 

Double Dry Hopping is another wonderfully abused buzzword but I don't believe it should be used unless you're truly doubling your hop load on a traditional recipe. I read an article about a beer that used to be called Juice Box from a certain Portland Brewery and they advertised dry hopping at 4#'s per bbl so that's where my beers started being dosed at and only has gone up over the years. Depending on the oil composition of the hops used Double IPA's land between 7-9#'s per bbl for me. Combine that with the large hot side additions and we landed right around 10#'s per bbl of hops in Whack Vibes Only. 

Finding balance in the flavors was achieved from adding some Citra (yeah I know I've been talking trash about it), Strata, some really great NZ Rakau from Freestyle Hops, and one of my favorite littel secrets; Hydra. Hydra is a hop from Michigan only grown by a small group of farmers that gives off wonderful flavors of Tart citrus fruit, mandarin orange, and green grape. Alas, the heavy hitter Columbus Cryo was added in the last stage of hopping to allow all the bright, tropical flavors to shine, then be cut through by dark berries and dank hop resin. I say it time and time again, if you don't like Columbus, you don't like IPA!

The finished beer pours beautifully out of the can a bright, opaque yellow that produces a thick white head. My favorite part of experiencing this beer however is that every sip seems to bring on something new and different, enticing you to go back in for another taste. It was an honor to design this beer for one of the most respected bottleshops in the state, and I think we achieved everything we set out to do with Whack Vibes Only.