Odell Brewing Cloud Catcher Milkshake IPA On Its Way

Anything that isnt glowing yellow is an English ipa now. Get with it.

 

Classic beers never grow old

 

Odell does describe their IPA as being a traditional IPA from England and Americanizing it.

 

It’s an Americanized English ipa as said by Denver10, it’s branded that way and says it even on the label. It also tastes like an english ipa with American hops instead so it fits the description.

And I’m also sorry to say but classic beers do get old without updating. Nothing wrong with Odell’s core line, everything is well made across the board, they’re just “fine” though. Nothing amazing about them. Their barrel series and sours I haven’t been impressed with at all besides the price point is cheap. I’ve tried probably 10 and never considered a repeat purchase.

In today’s market nostalgic classic beers that are only “fine” aren’t good enough. We are inundated with superb quality beers with new breakthroughs every month of better and better beers. I can’t imagine buying Odell beers regularly. I don’t wish them ill but in even a weaker beer market like Las Vegas for the knowledgeable craft beer nerds their product won’t get bought here. I fear for the midsize breweries distributing everywhere. Unless you’ve got impeccable, can’t miss stuff you’re just collecting dust on shelves.

 

I think you're confusing "breakthroughs in quality" with trendy styles in fancy packages. Because all I see are popsicle kettle sours and vanilla bean "ipa's". Nothing about the new beer trends scream "better " to me, Just different.

 

You might be right that Odell will struggle in some markets. But it won’t be because of the quality or style of their beers. It will be because the beer scene is so hyper focused on new beers from local breweries. Bigger regional breweries are struggling outside of their home market all over the map.

 

I'm no expert, but i dont think you can strictly go by ABV to determine the calories for a beer with lactose. I bet the OG and FG are a little higher than normal and the residual sugars will make the calories a bit higher.

 

Odell is more than just fine, IMO.

I get the issue with selling outside their home base, but I think the same stands for the Bells, Founders, Deschutes, Firestone Walkers, etc. Odell fits right in with those guys, all of whom I think are brewing beer that is far better than fine. Cutthroat is my favorite porter, St. Lupulin is near the very top of pale ales for me, Myrcenary was long my favorite double IPA, and while I rarely drink Scottish Ales if I do it is generally going to be a 90 Schilling. Their beers might not be sexy, but they are good (and some I would personally consider to be great). And, as you did mention, you can count on their beer being well made.

As for their cellar series releases.....that was never my bread and butter either. Their sours and wild ales never did it for me but some of their barrel aged offerings lately have been definite winners. Bullet Proof was a great bourbon barrel stout, IMO. BA Lugene was good too.

I am obviously biased here as I have drank more Odell beer than any other Colorado brewery beer over the years. They were long my favorite brewery and only reason they aren't any more is because I moved and am guilty of seeking out local stuff, which Odell no longer is for me.

There is that other thread addressing Annheuser Busch and how their line of "craft" is on its way to being the largest selling "craft" brand on the market. For me, a big takeaway from that is that our beer buying patterns are only one piece of the beer market, and a smaller piece at that. Our habits are probably what the smaller breweries thrive one. But for a bigger company probably benefits more for the non-beer advocate type drinker. We might seek out that new sexy beer that just hit the local shelves like crazy, but for every one of us there are multiple others happy to buy a well made, affordable beer they can find easily enough at their local, which would, IMO, give a company like Odell as good a chance as any to succeed outside of their Colorado market.

 

If it doesn’t taste like dessert in a can it’s out dated.

 

So we agree they aren't making an English IPA... why'd this take so long?

 

Turns out it is going to be 6.8%.

 

That’s more like it. Seemed strange to me that it’d be the exact same abv as drumroll, yet labeled an IPA

 

love me some O'Dell Irish Pale Ale

 

https://www.odellbrewing.com/beer/cloud-catcher/

 

This is a good point. I can think of no brewery’s flagship which has changed as much over time as Odell IPA.

Really, during this decade it has become a (very good) west coast IPA, to my palate, very gradually and by virtue of small tweak after small tweak. I have no way of verifying this, but I doubt very seriously that the Hop bill and schedule remotely resembles what it was in 2008, let alone 1998.

 

I think that Odell is a solid brewery and I wish them well here.

As has been discussed in a few posts the contemporary US craft beer scene is very dynamic!! There are lots of sub-segments of the overall craft beer market and each of those sub-segments are behaving differently from each other and changing quickly in a relatively short time span.

I have posted repeatedly and I will mention it again: the market for the larger, distributing craft breweries are hyper-competitive in the US right now. Sierra Nevada has been struggling for the past couple of years but maybe with recent changes in their year-round portfolio 2018 will be a bit better for them? Odell expanding “something like 10% per year” as mentioned by @ManBearPat is still quite challenging despite their modest expansion goals.

The US craft beer industry is expanding at an outrageous rate of about 3 new breweries opening every day! Needless to say the vast majority of these new breweries are small and will be serving the local market. Despite the fact that these new breweries are small they collectively represent a notable increase in beer production. Is this sort of growth sustainable? I suppose over the next few years we will collectively find out. I have started to think that the new business model for these new craft breweries is the hometown/neighborhood brewery; folks will walk (or drive a short distance) to drink beer at their hometown brewery.

Most folks have a limited budget for purchasing beer. If they are spending a majority (or all) of their beer budget locally this means there is little money left over to buy beer from the larger, distributing craft breweries (e.g., Odell, Sierra Nevada, Stone,…).

Well, that is the way I see things.

Cheers!

P.S. The other important consideration: Shane Welch (@Sixpoint) posted in a previous thread: “By almost all measures the aggregate beer market is not growing, and its actually shrinking.”

@KOP_Beer_OUtlet @RobH @rotsaruch

 

I'm in agreement. I would imagine the distributing craft breweries you mentioned who want to continue to scale are going to have a harder time going after the those who have access to the fresher, local stuff and will have to grow via converting the macro lager population.

 

Another potential market for the larger, distributing craft breweries is the non-US market. Stone has addressed this via opening a facility in Berlin to serve the European market with their hoppy beers. Maybe there are growth opportunities for US craft beer in other regions as well (e.g., Asia, South America,..)?

Cheers!

 

It made its way to Buffalo Wild Wings in Casper. Well executed example of the style.