In defense of OG breweries.

[hoppyhoppyhippo]

Allagash is one of the best breweries in the world and I'll stand by that. They release primarily White and other "safe" beers to the market but they make so many great beers. Their Coolship line are some of the best beers I've ever had. Coolship Red and Resurgam are especially nice, but so is Belfius, on a more traditional fruit sour in Pick Your Own. What was James Bean and is now Barrel and Bean is a fantastic beer for it's style.

All those breweries are great. Personally I try and drink local. Support people who live near you. It doesn't hurt that I live Close to Hill Farmstead, The Alchemist, Burlington Beer Co. and Schilling which provide me with a steady supply of top shelf beer.

 

[applescrap]

I see a lot of hate/"meh" about breweries that used to serve us well. Bells, Stone, Boulevard, Sierra Nevada, Ommegang, Allagash. There are more for sure.

Sound off in support of these breweries (No time for hate)! I'm not an Anti-NEIPA guy, but I'm sorry, breweries seem to be just jamming hops into stuff now and sending it out even if it's oxidized and not a good product.

Just had Sierra hazy little thing or whatever, i liked it. Plenty of love here for my hometown, new Belgian, odells, coopersmiths, hc berger (now ft Collins brewery, and further out avery, left hand and Oskar blues. I remain very sad that new Belgian seemed to reinvent themselves to safe. The new beers are meh comparatively and I wish they would have upped it a little. Oskar blues remains relevant, milk stout has kept left hand relevant. They could do better imo. But yeah sure lots of love for some og breweries.

Why the ab sidebar? But yeah I ll say it again, I stand with the 230,000 red blooded ab employees most of whom are American. Never understood why all the love for the single brewery owner, at least a couple I have met are pricks.

 

[Nubiwan]

Craft brewing is too big of an industry now for me to fight for any underdogs. Supporting is a broad term. I do not buy a lot of beer because I brew my own. So I am not their best customer! When I go out I have one or two but that does not dictate what shows up in the taps.

Looking at the beer landscape right now, it would be tough not to "sell out". Too much, too loud, too many is what I see on the supermarket aisle. My cousin and I have always joked about starting a brewery but it makes me cringe. It seems your packaging and social media strategy is more important than your beer to succeed. So I do not see it as selling out. It was and is a business venture that involves making a cool product we all love. Not a fan of buyouts and flavor flattening but this is an expensive business/world and sadly the money does the talkin' even at the distributor/bar level.

Local smaller brewery caters only to our small town, but is upping their volume, both for local, and national distribution plans. If it is on tap, then good chance I'd buy it to support the local economy. Plus they have a good selection of tastes, as opposed to the commericals. I buy their bottle stuff and they are quite consistent as well for taste. Not sure I should be surprised by that, but I am.

I mentioned in a different thread how I was recently at their tap room, which is very popular, yet there was something very odd about each of the three pints I tasted. A dull bitterness that simply tasted like their pipes had not been cleaned throughout the 3 beers I sampled. I thought it was bad form to be honest. I had another of their pints (same style) in a different location the same evening, and it was delicious.

Now, I am just a part time beer drinker, at best, but I do notice how, even with the simple extracts I make, my bottled beer is much fresher tasting than almost anything I buy in a bar. I enjoy it a lot more, and I have been complimented on it by friends who care to try it.

 

[Nubiwan]

Half a dozen of these smaller breweries have opened up within an hour of where I live, and we drove out to one about 3-4 months back. It too appears to be quite popular, and well supported - at least locally. This was back when I was just getting back into my own brewing.

They had your standard mix of stout, pale, wheat, and something else, and sold the obligatory sampler trays. I have to say, I did not like a single one of their beers, and honestly wonder what they were doing to make beer taste so bad. Perhaps they were just trying to be too fancy with their brewing, but I found none of them palatable at all. I can accept just about anything remotely beer like, as long as it has a little fizz., but here I'd honestly have settled for a budweiser before drinking any of their ale. I was with 4 adults, and none of us liked the beer. My wife asked for a wine. They didn't have any.

If we did not leave our individual beers on the table, at least half full, then I am betting I finshed them all off out of a sense of duty.

 

[deadwolfbones]

Sierra Nevada, Founders, Deschutes, Odells, Allagash, Lagunitas, and Bell's are all still amazing breweries in my book. I love Ommegang too, but the GoT stuff feels a bit tacky (even if the beer is good).

 

[deadwolfbones]

I used to buy Anchor pretty regularly but got ticked off at them after the second Anchor bottle busted while capping. Ggggrrrr!

Unless you've got a bench capper, don't bother with the Anchor bottles.