What makes a brewery great?

Personal Favorite Breweries:
Nebco and Treehouse Brewing

Why?
Both places make me feel 'at home'. Great groups of friendly people who respect their trade and are serious about quality, but do not take themselves too seriously. Their beer catalogs speak for themselves, but I think an even greater factor for me is that going to each of these respective establishments is fun.

 

Atmosphere is the biggest thing. If they make you feel welcome when you enter into the building its makes a good brewery great.

 

What makes a brewery great?
1) Quality - I don't buy from breweries who produce shit.
2) Assortment - I like to try a whole assortment from brewers I like, not just Saisons or Stouts.
3) Availability - I can't buy what I can't buy.
4) Costs to buy - There are 4 breweries in the world who I refuse to ever purchase something from and 3 of them are because of the price they ask for. I'm not spending $30 on a bomber. I don't care what it tastes like.

 

Practice.

 

I thought you were spot on and also thought that victory was one of the top brewery's in the world.

 

For me its quality/price i don't care if it's the greatest liquid thing on the planet im not paying $30 a bottle.

 

There's a difference between calling something great and calling it "the best," singular. The former is an honor, the latter is a contest.

They used to until they got knocked over by a hurricane. Presumably they could make those again, but imagine the geek-rage if HT production got halved to make room for Pappy's Porter and Shut the Hell Up! blond.

 

Of course people are going to give you negative feedback when you suggest anything is "the best" anything around. Have you seen any of the Heady vs. Pliny threads? My conclusion from reading them could just as easily be that both beers are boring and mediocre. However, I didn't see a whole lot of people contesting your opinion that Victory is a great brewery. I share that opinion.

What makes a great brewery? I would suggest that your criteria are fine, although I would throw out availability. There is no question in my mind that some of my favorite beers scored extra points because I drank them at, or near their source. I don't think "resistance to travel" should be a category for determining great beers and brewers.

 

A great brewer makes an array of quality ales and lagers that both tip their hat to classic styles and push the envelope of experimentation. They do this while simultaneously rewarding their workers with quality pay, benefits and opportunities for growth in stable and long-term positions. In addition, they are mindful of their overall negative environmental impact on the community and work to mitigate or eradicate said impact. They are also aware of their business choices and practices and how they impact the local community. They endeavor in fund-raising for charitable causes and they collaborate with other brewers by sharing technology and best practices.

"It can't be done," you say.

"Sierra Nevada," I say.

 

Let me clarify my post so The Alchemist fanboys can relax, I don't care they make all 5 great beers. They make as much beer as a large homebrewer. Distribute that on a national scale and you can call them great.

Yeah, you're a real Vermont local eh? Being from Connecticut and all.

 

no, you don't.
that would be called bias.

 

To me a great brewery is one that makes a variety of great beers.

I'd put Victory's beers more in the 'very good' bucket than the 'great' one.

But I don't think lack of diversity necessarily stops a brewery from being great, otherwise a lot of the great Trappist breweries wouldn't qualify. I'd say the measure is, which one gets you the most excited for their next release? What brewery, knowing nothing about the beer in your hand except who brewed it, would get you the most excited to drink that beer?

I suppose being overpriced is a consideration, but a smaller consideration than the quality of the beer.

For me that would include breweries like Founders, Jack's Abby, Unibroue, St Bernadus, maybe Troeggs, breweries that have rarely let me down even on blind buys of new taps.

 

Actually, I think most people would consider them to be great at brewing what they brew with the consistency that they do. It's quite amazing when you really think about it, to produce the same beer year after year, in such mass quantities. Don't underestimate what they do.

 

BMC is great at the business of brewing. Let's leave it at that.

 

Agree, agree, agree. Founders makes some outstanding beers that have lasted as perennial favorites. So Founders has the four qualities to make a great brewery:
1) Quality beers
2) Good distribution (relatively speaking)
3) Great outreach/customer service.
4) A fun and warm brewpub/restaurant where BA's will make a trip there as a destination.

 

Does said brewery make a berliner weisse?
If yes - they are the awesome sauce in my book.
If no - they suck. (Unless they have plans to try brewing one.)

Little to nothing else matters to me. Except for a couple exceptions...and bacon. What are we talking about again?

 

if someone can make a bacon (or pig cheeck) berliner, I want to see @stakem head assplode

 

I still love my comment.

 

For me, it's a brewery making beers I love. That's about all I need honestly.

 

distribution? brewpub? tasting rooms? lol
these things have nothing to do with being great. imo.
it's about the quality of beer they brew. not where they distribute. lol.