Newest Threads

**landshark** · 01-22-2013, 01:03 PM

I clicked the link, it just went to Beer Advocates forums page. I looked around a little bit trying to find it.

BUT... Any forum with a thread dedicated bragging about being a beer snob and people outright dissing any beer they don't find to taste, even great beers. Sam can tell them to go drive splinters under their toenails in hell for all I care anymore. Sam is like a god among men.

**Xpertskir** · 01-22-2013, 01:35 PM

Here is the rant...

"It’s pretty depressing to frequently visit this site and see the most negative threads among the most popular. This didn’t happen much ten years ago when craft beer had something like a 3 percent market share. Flash forward to today, and true indie craft beer now has a still-tiny but growing marketshare of just over 5 percent. Yet so many folks that post here still spend their time knocking down breweries that dare to grow. It’s like that old joke: “Nobody eats at that restaurant anymore, it’s too crowded.” Except the “restaurants” that people **** on here aren’t exactly juggernauts. In fact, aside from Boston Beer, none of them have anything even close to half of one percent marketshare. The more that retailers, distributors, and large industrial brewers consolidate the more fragile the current growth momentum of the craft segment becomes. The more often the Beer Advocate community becomes a soap box for outing breweries for daring to grow beyond its insider ranks the more it will be marginalized in the movement to support, promote, and protect independent ,American craft breweries.

It’s interesting how many posts that refer to Dogfish being over-rated include a caveat like “except for Palo…except for Immort…etc.” We all have different palettes which is why it’s a great thing that there are so many different beers. At Dogfish we’ve been focused on making “weird” beers since we opened and have taken our lumps for being stylistically indifferent since day one. I bet a lot of folks agree that beers like Punkin Ale (since 1995) , Immort Ale (wood aged smoked beer) since 1995, Chicory Stout (coffee stout) since 1995 , Raison D’être (Belgian brown) since 1996, , Indian Brown Ale (dark IPA) since 1997, and 90 Minute (DIPA) since 2000 don’t seem very weird anymore. That’s in large part because so many people who have been part of this community over the years championed them and helped us put them on the map.These beers, and all of our more recent releases like Palo Santo, Burton Baton, Bitches Brew continue to grow every year. We could have taken the easy way out and just sold the bejeezus out of 60 Minute to grow but we like to experiment and create and follow our own muse. Obviously there is an audience that appreciates this as we continue to grow. We put no more “hype” or “expert marketing” behind our best selling beers than we do our occasionals. We only advertise in a few beer magazines and my wife Mariah oversees all of our twitter/Facebook/dogfish.com stuff. We have mostly grown by just sharing our beer with people who are into it (at our pub, great beer bars, beer dinners, and fests) and let them decide for themselves if they like it. If they do we hope they tell their friends about. We hope a bunch of you that are going to EBF will stop by our booth and try some of the very unique new beers we are proudly bringing to market like Tweason’ale (a champagne-esque, gluten-free beer fermented with buckwheat honey and strawberries) and Noble Rot (a sort of saison brewed with Botrytis-infected Viognier Grape must). One of these beers is on the sweeter side and one is more sour. Knowing each of your palettes is unique you will probably prefer one over the other. That doesn’t mean the one you didn’t prefer sucked. And the breweries you don’t prefer but are growing don’t suck either. Respect Beer. The below was my favorite post thus far.

This thread is hilarious. Seriously, Bells, Founders, FFF, Surly, RR, DFH, Bruery, Avery, Cigar City, Mikkeller are all overrated? Since I’m from Ohio, I’ll pile on and add Great Lakes, Hoppin Frog, and Brew Kettle to the list. Your welcome.

Hopefully soon we will have every craft brewery in the US on the list."

**Xpertskir** · 01-22-2013, 01:43 PM

He should never have even justified these people with these words...

Hes clearly an ego maniac that cares what some trogladyte living in his mothers basement thinks about his beers. He should just sit back and count the money he makes from people who apparently like his beers..not me, BTW.

**scottland** · 01-22-2013, 02:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xpertskir

He should never have even justified these people with these words...

Hes clearly an ego maniac that cares what some trogladyte living in his mothers basement thinks about his beers.

No, he was just defending his brand on a very high profile site. As said before in this thread, lots of new craft beer-drinkers go to beeradvocate looking for 'advice'.

**bchurch** · 01-22-2013, 02:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by scottland

No, he was just defending his brand on a very high profile site. As said before in this thread, lots of new craft beer-drinkers go to beeradvocate looking for 'advice'.

Right on, that company is his baby, I would do the same in his position. I don't frequent the beer advocate website just for the reasons he's describing.

**scottland** · 01-22-2013, 02:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bchurch

I don't frequent the beer advocate website just for the reasons he's describing.

Ditto, I try to distance my self from it as much as possible.

**KeyWestBrewing** · 01-22-2013, 03:15 PM

I think the biggest reason he had to defend his brewery and my pet peeve is that people are missing the whole point of what Dogfish Head is about. It's about making something different and pushing boundaries. If you don't like what they do, that's fine, but just because they push being creative and being different doesn't mean their beer sucks if it doesn't suit ones palate. He was also defending more than his own company with his statements. Do I think Sam Adams sucks because I don't like most of their beers? Of course not. I just realize that some of their beers arent for me. It doesn't make them overrated or mean they make bad beer.

**patthebrewer** · 01-22-2013, 05:29 PM

Yes I agree with him...he's obviously passionate about beer (like all of us), he's stuck his neck out over and over to grow his business, and been sucessful. Lately it seems that some people believe that if you suceed you've some how sold out, or aren't interested in your product anymore. I submitt that he has suceeded because he does give a sh*t about his customers. Personally I think the guy has shown that he has B*lls, and I like the creative inventive brews they constantly bring to the market place. I think most of us here understand him better because we brew.

shoreman · 01-22-2013, 06:49 PM

He hit the nail on the head with his response and I've always been a fan of Sam's enthusiasm and his brewing ideas.

CityOChampBrew · 01-22-2013, 07:00 PM

To me BA is douchebaggery at it's best and I applaud Sam for even giving them the time of day by posting what he did