And if things aren't bad enough for Alpine Beer Co.

Greenflash/Alpine has halted all beer production at the original Alpine brewery in Alpine Ca., the last bastion and hope of tasting anything OG Alpine and then today fired Alpine Beer Co. assistant brew master Kevin Brown, one of the original 5 Alpine employees who helped in creating Nelson IPA, Exponential Hoppiness, Keene Idea and many more iconic ABC beers. To top it off Greenflash founder and CEO Mike Hinkley has stepped down from his role. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out. A disaster on every level.

Cheers,

Bud

Greenflash was always about being an inch deep and a mile wide. They had a very insignificant presence in a whole lot of markets. In today’s world of craft beer clutter that is a sure recipe for disaster. Alpine never had a a chance under that stewardship.

Bad news for those that loved OG Alpine. Unfortunately, I only tried the Greenflash versions, which I found quite uninspiring.

The only potential upside I see is less mediocre/bad Greenflash beer taking up way too much shelf space that could house better craft brews.

Understatement for sure. Such a disaster, never thought I would see Alpine beer as shelf turds.

Cheers,

Bud

Not surprising, the Green Flash acquisition has been a nightmare from the beginning. My hope is that when the inevitable fold happens the Alpine brand reverts to the original owners and they decide to start it back up again.

Never been a fan of Green Flash and was happy that I was able to go to the original brewery recently and get some “real” Alpine bottles. The team was very helpful in letting me know the beers that were brewed onsite. Will enjoy those last few bottles and hope the Alpine team has a second coming and kills it. I have a Green Flash T-Shirt that I won in a local beer bar raffle and that will now be used to carry a big load of fresh dog shit to the trash can this week. No more GREEN TRASH in my life!!

Coda: Dang. This is really really sad. And pathetic.

I remember visiting Green Flash way back in the day — 2004 or 2005, I think. They were brewing out of an industrial park garage, and had four taps coming out of the wall. The beer was good at that time. I actually continued to enjoy some GF brews until they did away with the OG “West Coast IPA,” which was always a solid Go-to beer for me. I liked their Hop Head Red, too.

Then, things changed. The "West Coast IPA’ persisted in name only, as the recipe was changed to a DIPA. The price of the packs remained the same, but the quantity of those packs decreased from 6 to 4. Not a happy camper here about that one. GF became an on-tap-only beer for me, which effectively relegated it to Almost Never status, as there was usually something better to choose. Then, even more recently, they seemed to go bonkers with a head-spinning impossible-to-keep-track-of array of mediocre beers. They became dead to me. Then they all-but-ruined Alpine … and, now, they have completely killed Alpine. [Coda]

UPDATE : The original brewery is re-opening, I was told that they closed for "upgrades " Whatever.

Cheers,

Bud

I never liked Green Flash. Alpine was ok but not a favorite. The fried green beans at Alpine were awesome though and made the beer worth it.

Did the “upgrades” mean firing the employees? What is their status?