Reasons for Not Patronizing a Brewery

@jesskidden since you mentioned Coors, are you familiar with the book Brewing A Boycott? https://uncpress.org/book/9781469661032/brewing-a-boycott/
I haven’t gotten my grubby little hands on it yet, but it’s on my radar.

 

This is about a pretty shitty brewery (which I can’t tell if it’s still open), but I’ll tell it for fun …

Barley Island (Noblesville, IN)
My wife and I stopped there for lunch. I remember her liking their beer Sheet Metal a lot in the early 2000’s. … I think we were the only patrons in the restaurant, maybe one or two others. We placed our order and shortly thereafter start hearing the cook cursing out the waitress. It was very loud, with f-bombs and throwing things. The waitress still had tears in her eyes when she brought our beers. If I recall correctly, the cook did not want to make scotch eggs. … I haven’t seen Barley Island in northern Indiana in a few years. They also don’t seem to have a website anymore. Regardless, I have not patronized them since the incident.

 

Huh?

 

"She was very knowledgeable when it came to brewers in the area and recommended Eppig Brewing"

 

Cant blame the cook Scotch eggs are a pain in the ass to get right!

 

Still not an excuse to verbally abuse a waitress/co-worker.

 

As bizarre as it is I have actually come to love this scent note from certain IPA's. I knoq I am going to like it if it has the dank cat pee smell

 

I really wish that was true

Enjoy

 

Trivia night.

 

For me, it's when beer comes second to politics. We all have our opinions, but I hate when businesses pander to groups while shunning out others that don't believe the exact same thing as the rest of the mob.

 

It's why I had to stop using my IWW Red Card as ID as proof at the door.

 

I do like to patronize breweries that are accessible to public transit. Such as the No. 2 Bus in San Diego, which makes a North Park brewery crawl sooooo much easier.

 

My business partner went to a brewery tavern, since closed, that sported a big Confederate Flag inside.

Now, I do understand that the issue is charged, and there are opinions (they're wrong, but anyway, people have opinions). But mind you this is in Upstate New York, and not just regular Upstate which was definitely not rebel country, but in an area notable for it's rich history of abolition and the underground railroad. To make matters worse, there are two Union Cemeteries near by (this is outside Watkins Glen). So this is every bit as political as you may imagine it to be. Families whose ancestors fought and died to save the Union, literally buried around the corner. Not a very good way to attract customers.

Needless to say, did not stay. Beer sucked too. Closed down after a year two. Good riddance.

 

I live in a town with 15+ breweries within easy driving distance. One sold to Coors. I wouldn't say that any of them are on a hard - Do Not Go Here - list, mostly just a handful that I don't even think of. Mostly because I've never found their beer to be worth drinking. I only have a couple qualms that will put you on my nope list...

• Hand Soap - yes, the hand soap in the bathroom. I don't care how great your beer is, your service, your food, your atmosphere. If the hand soap you stock in the bathroom smells like baby vomit or roses and the smell doesn't wash away easily, then I won't go back. Respect your beer enough to not make me try to smell it through the soap in the bathroom.
• Overpriced - I am looking at you Rogue, the beer is mediocre at best, nothing mind blowing, but it sells for $2 more per serving than any other joint nearby... no thank you.
• Untrained Staff - whether you have a restaurant attached or not - Steelhead - your staff needs to know about beer. Simply saying it's an IPA tells me nothing about the beer. Train your staff to talk about your beer in a meaningful way before you let them interact with customers.

 

This is the one that really drives me crazy. Places will have 8 ipas on tap and when you ask about one the server just says, "it's pretty hoppy".

 

I'm digging this thread a great deal. When I joined BA (about ten years ago now) it was all "Who cares what the brewer does, says, etc., so long as the beer tastes good, I don't give a shit." Now I'm seeing all sorts of people with stuff like "If a brewer treats their employees poorly, I won't buy their shit no matter how good it is." Hell yeah.

 

I'm all for fact-filled beer menus (to the point of "TMI"), but I don't expect the waitstaff to do the job of memorizing the entire thing, anymore than I would in a restaurant.

"I'm thinking of having the beer stew. What cuts of beef are in it? Is it grassfed beef? What types of onions? How are they sliced? Do you add garlic - whole clove or powdered? What potatoes are used? How much salt is added? Is tomato paste added? Is it thickened with flour or corn starch?"

 

Hopefully it wasn't a Norwegian flag mistaken for a Confederate flag.

Seriously. There's a B&B in southwestern Michigan run by folks of Norwegian descent... people were complaining about them flying a Confederate flag, but it was a Norwegian. Yeah, people can be clueless.

B&B had to take the flag down because they were getting threats.

(Guess it happened in Washington State, too. )

 

Here is a tangent of stupid on stupid people.

A while ago, in the thread about the meaning of BA avatars, someone complained that my avatar is a German Cross and therefore, I'm a Fascist. Or so. But the cross is 8 point, and a stylized Maltese Cross. Which, like my Maltese family line, has been around for centuries. Since the 12th century. The cross. Not my family. We're merely 16th century Maltese.

But if you want to believe the people who corrupted one symbol for another, feel free. I'm not about to apologize for someone's ignorance.

Norwegians are well known to be Confederate sympathizers. It's true.

 

Their old brewer. I won’t say his name. Whiles back during the Philly riots for Walter Wallace iirc.....he spouted publicly a bunch of very anarchist and political hate speech and such. Now I honestly don’t care what people do. I don’t care for politics and all that. I won’t get into my opinions. But. My point of this is that I’m surprised they recovered so fast because he is an excellent brewer and while the industry is full of amazing brewers, I though they’d be done for sure. I don’t know the full story. That’s what I heard. I like the guy personally and think he just got caught up in the moment.

they also sell heavily on the shore since going canned. Pineapple Hefeweizen. Turtle power. Etc