Rahr BBAWW $16 this year....what?

I hope that's the case.

 

I agree with quietdomino's sentiment. I know lots of breweries have potential, but until the masses can see that, it might as well not exist. Look at how fast Karbach, Lone Pint, Lakewood, Community, ABW, and Hops and Grain hit the market. Rahr has been around for a long time to still be in the "just you wait and see!" phase.

Heck, Saint Arnold can be a bit pedestrian, but I'd take almost any SA beer over any Rahr beer. I've yet to have a Rahr beer better than Elissa even. It may exist, but those beers are essentially home brews to the masses.

 

From what I heard about BBAWW, bottling was not done from a master blend, but each barrel was bottled individually. So, there could be some broad variation in all sorts of things from bottle to bottle.

As far as the anniversary party goes, I enjoyed it. There were a number of one off beers there, and it would be nice to see the same innovation in their everyday lineup.

 

Iron Thistle is top notch for what it is. They were barely sold in the city of Dallas before 2010 so for as old as they are they were incredibly small. They were content with sticking to the whole German thing until recently, which are typically boring beers to beer nerds.

 

Look at Revolver just down the road. Make a phenomenal beer and it flies off the shelves, and then make hit after hit. As far as local breweries go, Revolver and Martin House surpassed Rahr on Day One and haven't looked back.

I think the price of BBAWW is what hacks me off the most. Rahr has been around forever and is now riding the coattails of everyone else's success while not doing anything to improve its own quality.

Hopefully, it can change.

 

The way you feel about Rahr is how I feel about Revolver. I think blood and honey is just trash as is the rest of their lineup. Different strokes for different folks.

Martin House is doing great things though.

 

I've never once thought, "Those Live Oak folks are churning out bad to mediocre beers".

And Rahr has been around quite widely since about 2008. I tried everything they had that I could find thinking something would be decent. It never was. My breaking point was when Stormcloud hit. I haven't bought any of their beers at a store since that purchase. I try their beer at festivals, beer dinners, and bars from time again and have always thought their beers weren't up to par. Even for the style.

I hope they prove me wrong one day.

 

I bought Tenderfoot this year and enjoyed it enough I bought another. I cant say that for any other Rarh beer. Rarh is the Southern star of the north. They produce meh year round beers, and every once in awhile hit on a seasonal.

 

How the hell did I put myself in a position of defending Rahr...

I like Ugly Pug, fresh... on tap... like it and happy to have it when I am at a restaurant that doesn't have much else. Iron Thistle is their overall best beer in their regular lineup. I think it even improves with age, most disagree. Try it and get back with me. I've tried all your damn Karbach beer

 

You got broken taste buds then bud.

 

I'd have to agree.

 

It's a good thing I got nothin' but love for @mattisloco !

 

I, for one, like this beer! It's not a delicious as in previous years, but I am enjoying it. I will happily discard of any extras that might be cluttering up my fellow BA's cellars.

 

If it makes you both feel better, my palate is completely different than most. It annoys the hell out of me.

 

Everybody has some wacky tendencies. I have yet to taste a Founders beer that I liked.

 

So you are saying you are a bit off?

I've known that for a while and am okay with it.

 

That IS wacky.

If all you are drinking are Backstage Founders beers I can get it as they are pretty polarizing. lol

 

You clearly haven't gone far enough down the Rabbit Hole.

And real talk, I'm very selective on which DFW breweries I support - less than a handful (post 2012 onward) stand out to me. Rahr has plenty of potential and you can make the exact same arguments both for/against them as other big ones like Real Ale/St. Arnold depending on what beers are accessible to you.

 

Not exactly. They allow local homebrewers to come to their facility and brew on their 5 gallon pilot system, so each year they end up with 40-60 homebrew/pilot recipes at their anniversary party.

 

I agree with a lot of what @mattisloco is saying, I've been to Rahr for a couple of their brewery only releases, one of them was last year's Oktoberfest 5k. They had 2 huge barrels of oak-barrel aged oktoberfest, it was phenomenal. Their oktoberfest by itself is not that great, age it in oak barrels for a few months and it really gave the beer a great distinct flavor. I do also like Ugly Pug, I think it's a decent beer for the style.

I'm actually not a fan of their regular winter warmer, something just doesn't taste right to me. The first time I had BBAWW it was pretty decent back in 2010, then 2011 got thinner, 2012 was even thinner, and 2013, well it was by far the worst vintage over the last 4 years.

I will say that if I'm introducing someone to craft beer for the first time and I want to give them something that is not going to be overly hoppy or out there, but just something pedestrian to get them to see some of the different styles, I've pointed them to Rahr because they have a variety of different beers. Once they've tried the beginner level (e.g., Rahr), then I will direct them to the more experienced offerings from other breweries and they usually are able to notice the difference.

Rahr does have a place in the industry, I just feel they missed the boat on this one, seems like lots of QC issues. Do they need to experiment more, probably, do they need to try to mass produce the experimental beers to see how they are received, yes.