Vita.MN "The Lists" 2012

Maybe a bit harsh. There are lots of things I like, it doesn't mean I am going to become a professional at them. I was a pretty good volleyball player and wanted to continue in the sport, but I didn't apply to be the coach at UCLA. Opening up a production brewery with no production brewing experience is going to be difficult (I don't know for sure they that had no experience, but all their website says is "Lucid Brewing was established by a couple of hard core beer geeks.") They are not the only culprits, but they have had the most successful PR campaign so they are going to get the majority of the attention.

 

I don't think it is harsh to hope a brewery that makes awful beer doesn't stick around to make more awful beer.

 

I dont think Lucid makes awful beer. I guess I just dont understand how a person would hope to see a business fail. Thats cool if you dont like the beer, you dont have to, but to wish financial ruin uppon them? Some community we have here.

 

Well, I just looked at the FB pages for Surly and Fulton and they didn't either. Didn't look at Twitter though. Probably for the better though as more than twice as many people 'like' Surly than Summit.

At the end of the day a Vita.mn list simply isn't something to really worry about, in my opinion.

 

vita.mn tells me what to drink.

 

Vitamin water?

 

How should you read the poll then? Should you drink from the best brewery? Or the best beers? That is the kind of deep though provoking question that Vita.mn just can't answer. I think a City Pages poll is the tiebreaking answer.

 

drink until your liver explodes

 

Beer advocacy at its finest. Because your perfect palate doesn't like a beer, that brewery should go out of business. Got it.

And people wonder why most brewers hate coming on this site. Something that's supposed to be a community of like minded people supporting each other and it always gets reduced to garbage like this.

I'm not saying we all have to hold hands and sing kumbaya while saying we like beers and breweries that we don't like but for crying out loud man, keep it civil if you can't keep it classy.

I can't help but think how great this site would be if we made it worth a brewery's while to come and interact with us and instead we get venom spewed from people that make people in the business wish this site never existed.

Yeah, I know I shouldn't be surprised that people act like toolbox douche canoes on the interwebs but sometimes I gotta spout off so that people don't think jackasses are the only ones that read stuff around here.

 

First, I do think the dude saying he's looking forward to them going out of business is being overly harsh.

However, I don't think that's at all the reception most brewers or brewery reps get when they post on BA. In general, they get a very warm reception, and people are super appreciative of getting info straight from the horse's mouth.

I think Lucid really screwed up with the bottle release of Cammo. This was supposed to be their beer for the beer geeks. The release got hyped, and it wasn't very good (I'd say there's pretty clear consensus on this). But as with most breweries, I'd doubt that beer geeks are their biggest consumers. So they might be just fine. Personally, though, I have plenty of other exciting breweries/beers I want to try, rather than going back to one that's let me down already.

Lastly, I can't help but think what opinions would be if someone from Lucid had posted on here saying something like "Yeah, we screwed up with Cammo bottles" and provided some explanation. I suspect there'd be a lot fewer negative attitudes toward them.

 

I for one, want to try to some of the other lucid offerings, hopefully they are more enjoyable, I think that one less than great beer isn't necessarily reason to write them off.

 

I've had a Camo bomber twice - the first time I picked it up myself and was not impressed. It wasn't the worst beer I've ever had but not one I was eager to try again.

Then my wife picked up another bomber a few weeks ago (she forgot I/we had tried it before a few months ago). I told her it wasn't very good. Imagine my surprise when we popped it and it was much better than I recall. I don't know if they changed something with their recipe or their bottling line or what but it defintely caught me by surprise.

I haven't had the Summertide yet but I do like saisons as a style so I may give one a try...

 

The BA community knows what we want. When it's good, we say it's good. When it's bad, we say it's bad. That being said, any brewery worth it's weight in hops doesn't get their feelings hurt over a few negative comments or critiques. That being said, it's a damn shame someone would want a local brewery to close down over a few bad beers. Tell em it sucks and they can do better, and sit back and wait for them to show us what they got.

 

I 100% agree with this sentence, if little else you wrote. I'm probably not agreeing with it in the way you intended, however.

 

Did this crack anyone else up?

STAY CLASSY YOU BUNCH OF D-CANOES!!!

Ah. The Internet. An endless source of amusement.

 

And sometimes the BA community says a good beer is bad and a bad beer is good.

 

I definately agree with that too. But beauty and beer Appreciation Is in the eye of the beholder (or in our case, beer holder). I happened to love the hot mess Named "Brett Beer" by NB and The Lost Abbey, and was surprised at the negative reviews on BA. Think those breweries got all but hurt about some customers talking negatively about it? Nah.

 

Well to be fair, that comment was only made towards the applicable crowd so if the shoe fits, wear it. If not, I wasn't talking to you I know, not rational necessarily but I get frustrated.

That being said, I don't have a problem at all with people having negative feedback about beers but do you know what it seems to me is the overwhelming method of said criticism? "I don't personally like this beer so I'm just gonna say it sucks". No details, no feedback, just "it sucks" or "drainpour".

Most won't take the time to tell you why they didn't like it and when they do it's in counterproductive hyperbole anyway ("it was a just a hot mess of imbalanced pisswater that induced my gag reflex with each sip")

I've tried the Cammo on a few occasions and while it might not be my favorite IIPA, I never once thought that it sucked. I actually thought it was pretty good and bought it a again. Admittedly, I didn't take the time to go back and search for it but what I'm failing to see usually is what somebody didn't like about it.

Was it something that could be a result of improper storage (light struck, old beer, etc)? Did you not like the hop varieties they used? Did you not like the balance of it? I'm not saying you need to give a two paragraph review in the forums but if you say something along the lines of "too bitter for my liking" or "I thought the finish was too dry" it is at least productive.

Brewers should not be insulated from criticism. But what good is it for them to read a thread full of generic comments about how their beer sucks or it's all drain pour without saying why you didn't like it doesn't do them a lot of good? If you're noticing off flavors that can be corrected or anything else that can actually help tweak a recipe, help somebody out.

And don't forget the most important thing of all, taste is subjective. The vast majority of beer drinkers on the planet think that your (I'm using that term in a general way, not directed at anybody specifically) favorite beer sucks and could list many reasons why.