How Many of You Stick to the "I'll Never Buy this Beer Again" Thing?

Not really for me but my wife hisses like a cat everytime she walks past a 10 Barrell or Elysian beer and she doesn't even drink!!!! I may have reconsider if inbev continues their conquest of gobbling up craft breweries.

 

I have a pretty short list of breweries that I have had multiple offerings from and just been completely turned off. I will likely never go back to them on my own, but if someone offered me a taste of something I wouldn't turn it down. I give every brewery at least a fair chance in that I will try 3-4 of their beers before I give up on them. I can't think of any one brewery that I would absolutely never drink anything from again. Individual beers? I could name at least 100.

 

I had a Lunch yesterday to confirm my ill feelings for it. Upon first sip, it reminded me why I stopped buying it.

 

What happened with Green Flash? I think their beers are amazing, and I visited their brewery last year and had a great time. Someone spill it.

 

I don't buy Goose Island - there's something really depressing about the the major craft brewer in the area choosing to do what they did. Not that I begrudge the individuals at GI for doing what they did, as it's their business. But, the punk kid of me is still very much alive and I don't like to see representatives of local culture choose to be enveloped by larger businesses.

 

Nah. Life's too short to carry grudges against brewers. Beer is supposed to be fun, not a *****.

 

I do not and have not and will not buy any AB/InBev including Bourbon County

 

For me, it's about quality. I'll shell out some dough for a seriously good beer regardless of who makes it. If Budwieser magically started tasting good, I'd buy it. (Fat chance of that ever happening though!!)
On the other hand, service is what I look for when I'm at a brewery. I'll never go back to Russian River for example because the service sucks! But I'll still buy their beer elsewhere.

 

If the beer sucks then not buying again is a pretty easy pledge to keep.

 

Life's too short to purchase from people that are douchebags. Beer is supposed to be fun!

 

Bwaaaahaha

 

Interesting that while people bitch and moan about a beer company selling our or the company being rude almost for sure are using a product from Apple or Samsung to proclaim their dislike for the big evil corporations.

 

I can say I'd never buy Bud Ice. It breaks me out into hives. I have more higher than morals then that.

 

Don't buy budweiser ever, but have been buying bourbon county for 5 years now.

 

To be very honest, I'd buy / trade for beer that I love, not for supporting a brewery. I don't buy / trade for beers that I do not love, not out of vengeance for the brewer being unsympathetic. It sure is great when a brewery has a nice attitude, but it's the quality of the beer I'm after.

 

OK, the cynicism behind the OP's question has gotten to me and I'm going to make a "personal" post, which I tend to avoid. Plus I had insomnia (written at 4 am, decided to post hours later).

I've been buying beer - legally - for well over 40 years now. Sometime in the early 1970s, I got interested in the industry and saw how the large national breweries were growing at the expense of the locals and regionals. (My interest might have been a result of the closing of one of my favorites, once among the largest in the country and one of the few which tried to buck the ever-lighter "light lager" trend, P. Ballantine & Sons).

In that mid-late 70s period, #1 and #2, AB and Schlitz, combined had a now-laughable 30-35% of the US market, with Miller expanding quickly (mostly at the expense of the latter's missteps, and on the strength of the "new" light beer style and backed by big tobacco money of Philip Morris). I resolved to not buy the products of those three (Coors, which would climb to #3 by the 90s, was then a regional brewery, albeit the largest one in the country, but still only marketed west of the Mississippi).

So during those 5 decades of "avoiding" purchasing those brewers' beers (I don't like the term "boycott" used for a personal decision like this one, feeling it should only be used for a mass/organized action) I can think of about 2 dozen times I broke it. I'd say that's a pretty good average of "sticking to it" for the length of time involved.

Almost all of the purchases were for new products of styles other than the standard "adjunct light lager" or "light beer", because I think it would be hypocritical to criticize a brewery and its beer while never having it. And they were all "one and done" beers - none were every regular or even second-time purchases.

Somewhat ironically, my purchases of AB and MC products have increased as I've spent more time on the beer corners of the internet, mid-90s to now, first on the old newsgroups and now on BA and other forums.

Six pack of Michelob at a local bar late one night when visiting my old roommate because the liquor stores were closed.
Busch Bavarian 16 oz cans and some corn nuts when I moved into my apartment in Los Angeles (neither product was avialable "at home" in NY, NJ, NE at the time).
Bought the Miller Reserve beers in mid-90s - Stout and Amber Ale, and that Fredrick Miller super-premium a bit later.
Budweiser Brew Masters Reserve swing-top bottle.
Bomber of Budweiser American Ale - it was so dull I couldn't believe it was a good example and bought a fresher sixpack (I was right the first time).
At least one of the Michelob Brewing Co. "crafty" style beers (did they have a variety pack maybe?).
Michelob when it went back to the All-Malt recipe.
Rolling Rock first batch from Newark to compare it to the Latrobe-brewed Rolling Rock bought at the same time.
Bud Light Platinum. (Not sure why - one of those "only thing on the shelf at a crummy store" and it "was in the news" maybe the blue bottle got to me).
24 oz. can of Miller Fortune (same as above, plus I never had a 24 oz. can of beer).
Tried a few Goose Island beers when they first hit my market - can't recall if that was pre-AB or not. No interest at all in BCBS or any "rare"/limited beer.​

I did drink at least two Coors products when I lived on the West Coast - I remember a quart bottle with a screw-on wide mouth cap and, I think, probably had my first Coors on tap on a rainy afternoon in a tiny bar in the Napa Valley while driving from NY to SF (although it might have been my first draught Olympia). Before that, I did have a can of bootleg Coors on the east coast that my old man paid a then-outrageous $5 for!

And, once Coors got to the east coast by the mid/late 80s after I'd move back, I did buy a sixpack of each of their "new" products:

Herman Joseph
Winterfest
Masters III
Killian Red Ale (pre-lager)
Blue Moon White
Coors Gold (when it was a near "super-premium" not the discount brand it is now).​

Never bought a "Light" beer from any brewer, or an "Ice" or a "Dry" beer. Never bought any of the Miller, Schlitz or Coors economy brands (Meister Brau, Red Dog, Milwaukee's Best, Old Milwaukee, Keystone, etc). When I drank adjunct light lagers, it was always from local and regional breweries - Straub, Ortlieb, Stoney's, Utica Club, Matt's, Stegmaier, Rheingold, Schaefer, etc, were semi-regular purchases when fresh ales weren't available or I wanted a break.

My biggest "exception" is Pilsner Urquell which I continue to buy regularly despite SABMiller ownership . Oh, well.

Oh, and the bumperstickers I had printed up circa late 1970s :

 

The only brewery I've ever gone to the trouble of "formally" declaring I will not drink again is No-Li, a number of years back when they were still Northern Lights. Where I live there's lots of great regional draft and bottled choices, and within a year, several new local breweries opened up that I like, so I've never had to break that oath.

For what it's worth, Northern Lights had never been a go-to for me anyway, just something I would often drink because I felt guilty about not supporting more often what was (at the time) the only local brewery. But the beer was always no more than average, the service at their place usually bad, and finally an interaction with the owner over a service issue pushed me past the point of no return.

 

Regarding the breweries bought out by InBusch, etc, I guess I do a soft boycott. Truth is, I never had that many Elysian beers, anyway. I've never seen BCBS where I live, and I'm not sure there's anything else from Goose Island that I can't buy a fresher beer of the style from a local or regional brewery. I have had a couple of GI beers but it was a long time ago and they did nothing to be memorable. If there was a "must have" available, I would probably buy it. but that hasn't been the case.

 

There aren't that many examples of small, independent, local companies producing excellent examples of consumer electronics (specifically home entertainment, personal computing, or telecommunications) that are superior to those produced by Apple or Samsung. Nor are those companies showing the kind of growth which provides much of a threat to Apple and Samsung.

Or to put it a different way: If you want an IPA, there are thousands of companies who make those in the United States alone. If you want a smartphone, there are far fewer companies making those.

 

I claimed that Lagunitas would lose my (limited) business after the whole Hop Hunter fiasco. To this point I haven't purchased a single thing from them, but I can't say I'll go the rest of my beer drinking life w/out having another Lagunitas beer. Good thing is that I don't really crave any of their beers, so it's not a big sacrifice on my part.