15 Brewers with the most beers in Top 250 list

Talk Discussion in 'BeerAdvocate Talk' started by AyatollahGold, Jul 6, 2018.

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  1. AyatollahGold

    AyatollahGold Initiate (0) Nov 28, 2016 Indiana

    On this slow day of work* I have decided to come up with a list of the top 15 breweries that have the most brews in the top 250 list as of today. Just want to hear what people think and lead to discussion.

    *the reason I'm doing this instead of drinking a beer.

    The top 250 list is made up of beers from 82 breweries, but here are the top 15 that have the most beers on it.

    Hill Farmstead - 22
    Trillium - 19
    Treehouse - 18
    Toppling Goliath - 8
    Cantillon - 8
    Russian River - 7
    The Bruery - 7
    FFF - 6
    Prairie Artisan Ales - 6
    Perennial Artisan Ales - 6
    3 Fonteinen - 6
    Alpine - 5
    Cigar City - 5
    Fremont - 5
    Funky Buddha - 5

    Are there any you are surprised are/aren't on there, or any you think should/shouldn't be on there? How many have you had brews from?

    Cheers!
     
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  2. insearchofhops

    insearchofhops Initiate (0) Apr 3, 2014 Massachusetts

    It's crazy how top-heavy this list is with HF, Trillium, and TH all. When you consider how many breweries there are in the world the fact that just 3 are responsible for almost 25% of the top 250 is staggering.
     
  3. AyatollahGold

    AyatollahGold Initiate (0) Nov 28, 2016 Indiana

    I was surprised Alpine made it, not because they don't make solid beers but because all of these new breweries now and only hearing negative things since the Green Flash buyout.
     
  4. MNAle

    MNAle Initiate (0) Sep 6, 2011 Minnesota

    The beers from those three each represent a higher percentage of the Top 250 than they do of their own beer list (current + archived). Each of the top 3 have more than twice the number of beers in their past and present than does the #4 brewer (TG).

    I'm not sure what that means, if anything...
     
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  5. JackHorzempa

    JackHorzempa Grand Pooh-Bah (3,181) Dec 15, 2005 Pennsylvania
    Pooh-Bah Society

    I think that Hill Farmstead is the best brewery in the world.

    I recognize they obtain the most love for their hoppy beers but they make a number of outstanding beers of other styles. They make a number of Saison brands which are all outstanding IMO. They produce a German Pilsner (Mary) which is very, very good. They produce a Robust Porter (Everett) that I think is outstanding. And so on...

    Cheers!
     
  6. islay

    islay Savant (1,187) Jan 6, 2008 Minnesota

    I think this list indicates that scarcity and reputation drive very high ratings more than the beers themselves. People are primed to give hard-to-attain beers from respected breweries particularly high ratings. That's something of which both raters of these beers and viewers of the Top 250 should be aware.
     
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  7. JackHorzempa

    JackHorzempa Grand Pooh-Bah (3,181) Dec 15, 2005 Pennsylvania
    Pooh-Bah Society

    There is one post already about the scarcity hype aspect.

    From the OP:

    “Hill Farmstead - 22
    Trillium - 19
    Treehouse – 18”

    I have had numerous brands from Hill Farmstead and the majority of those brands were outstanding. The remaining beers were either excellent or a few ‘just’ very good.

    I have only had one brand from Trillium and Tree House but those beers were very good – excellent.

    From my perspective these breweries deserve the love they are getting simply based upon the products they make.

    Cheers!
     
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  8. kdb150

    kdb150 Initiate (0) Mar 8, 2012 Pennsylvania

    Trillium I don't get at all. So many other Hazebrews blow them out of the water, and their range is not especially impressive either. I am probably being unfair to Toppling Goliath as I've only had one beer of theirs, but it was decidedly mediocre, so that may not be that well-deserved either, just a hype/rarity thing.

    Hill Farmstead and Tree House probably are trading on their rep for having that many top-250 brews, but they've mostly earned their rep. Though Hill Farmstead had a noticeable drop in quality when they expanded, and I don't know if they've really gotten back to what they used to be.
     
  9. JayORear

    JayORear Grand Pooh-Bah (3,034) Feb 22, 2012 Pennsylvania
    Pooh-Bah Society Trader

    Exactly. The hype/quality thing is a perennial chicken/egg question that can never be proven one way or the other, but you can't deny that the majority of these breweries make excellent beer. I'm slightly partial to Russian River myself, but I've visited HF twice and had many, many of their beers. I have no problem with them owning 22 beers of the top 250. The Alpine thing is problematic for reasons already noted . . .
     
  10. JayORear

    JayORear Grand Pooh-Bah (3,034) Feb 22, 2012 Pennsylvania
    Pooh-Bah Society Trader

    Curious about what you're basing this on.
     
  11. Sweatshirt

    Sweatshirt Initiate (0) Jan 27, 2014 New Hampshire
    Deactivated

    Not really. The NE homerism was super strong already and when TH and Trill hit it reached a fever pitch.

    Everyone in NE wanted thier own Heady and finally they had it. DDH Fort point rated through the roof before it was the beer it became or even got good. Gotta get that trade value high.

    To this day waltz into the Tree House thread and say Julius isn't that good and watch what happens. I think the locals make good beer (besides Tree House mostly nowadays) but to make up this percentage of the top 250 is so fugazi it's laughable.
     
  12. chipawayboy

    chipawayboy Pooh-Bah (1,977) Oct 26, 2007 Massachusetts
    Pooh-Bah Society Trader

    HF got their act together about a year ago and all the IPAs/Pales etc are back in pre expansion form. Shawn Hill admitted when they expanded the new well/scale up completely F’d w his mojo. All is well again — and the selection of beers between bottles, cans and growlers has been absurd on a weekly basis.
     
  13. ScaryEd

    ScaryEd Grand Pooh-Bah (3,459) Feb 19, 2012 New Hampshire
    Pooh-Bah Society

    Actually, you waltzed into the TH thread and called Julius "garbage". Which is utterly stupid and trollish and you knew the reaction you would get.
     
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  14. islay

    islay Savant (1,187) Jan 6, 2008 Minnesota

    I've had multiple beers from Trillium and Hill Farmstead, none from Tree House. I found the Trillium beers very good for what they are (which isn't exactly up my alley) but not quite outstanding. I'm a big fan of Hill Farmstead's work in the farmhouse ale space, but the best (and only the best) of what I can find locally in that arena can hang right with it (think Dave's BrewFarm, Olvalde, and Fair State on a good day). I've made the 2.5-hour drive to Toppling Goliath multiple times, and I think it's legitimately one of the top handful of breweries in the Upper Midwest, but, to my palate, tiny Sisyphus in Minneapolis if anything outperforms Toppling Goliath style-for-style with a similar (but more diverse and thus by my standards superior) slate of beers.

    For the record, I think that Minnesota and Wisconsin breweries on average are below-average. I'm not trying to say that what's available locally to me is special but rather that none of these breweries is particularly special, that there are obscure breweries all over the country doing equal or superior work to the craft breweries with the best reputations. Also, there are plenty of not-particularly-outstanding breweries that put out an amazing beer or two, but people will never give those beers their due because the reputations of the breweries that make them aren't strong enough for reviewers to be willing to go out on a limb.

    So I'll posit that these breweries may legitimately be quite good (with the caveat that some of them have built their reputations on silly NEIPAs for which I have little respect) but nowhere near as good as their domination of the Top 250 would indicate. More people need to be willing to say, "This is good, but I've had better." The problem is that when you're paying an arm and a leg in trades for these beers, fawning with fellow beer geeks over them during bottle shares, or flying half-way across the country to try them in person, it can be hard to admit that you wasted your time and money on merely good (not OMG GOAT) beers.

    One need only glance at the New England forum to see the hype train chugging for these breweries. If you don't think that hype influences ratings, you have your head in the sand. No matter how good beers from these breweries actually are, it's almost inevitable that they'll be overrated due to the social dynamics clearly at play.

    This is a related factor. For the most highly hyped breweries, DISSENT WILL NOT BE TOLERATED. It's hard to get a complete picture of how people feel about certain beers or breweries when anybody who doesn't try to one-up all others with exuberant praise (or worse, heaven forbid, express active dislike of a beer from one of the chosen breweries) is chased away by self-appointed guardians as a "troll."
     
  15. kdb150

    kdb150 Initiate (0) Mar 8, 2012 Pennsylvania

    Tasting the beer. What else would I base it on?
     
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  16. Sweatshirt

    Sweatshirt Initiate (0) Jan 27, 2014 New Hampshire
    Deactivated

    Or I gave my opinion that I am fully allowed to give. One of the two. I had also given much softer opinions in those threads that were dismissed as trollish as well.

    When you can sit back and put away your rabid fanboyism that won't tolerate any opinion that isn't yours...let me know and we can talk about TH. Until then jusy remember to wash your undies everytime they announce a subpar silent.

    This ladies and gentlemen is why the TH hivemind has flourished. Any other opinion other than "OMG amazing" is "stupid and trollish".

    Can't sell beer you can't hype so anything that doesn't follow that narrative is mocked to oblivion.
     
  17. leantom

    leantom Initiate (0) Nov 20, 2011 Indiana

    Combination of scarcity (i.e., only people from the geographic area get to try certain beers on a regular basis) and a significant plurality of BAs being from the northeast.

    I'm from NJ, but I have to admit that a lot of beers out in the Midwest are just as good as, if not better than, many Northeastern beers (I recently moved to Chicago).
     
  18. Kavinci

    Kavinci Initiate (0) Apr 20, 2016 California
    Trader

    Why no Monkish in the top 250?
     
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  19. AyatollahGold

    AyatollahGold Initiate (0) Nov 28, 2016 Indiana

    Nice one I didn't even think about. From a quick glance it looks like their highest rated brews don't have the amount of ratings it would take.
     
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  20. JackHorzempa

    JackHorzempa Grand Pooh-Bah (3,181) Dec 15, 2005 Pennsylvania
    Pooh-Bah Society

    And I will posit that you are not quite correct here.

    Cheers!

    P.S. Drink some Tree House beers and get back.
     
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