Brewery Pet Peeves (2023)

If you're selling the beer for less at your brewery, it would be no big deal at all for the retailer to replace your beer with another breweries beers on his shelf. With competition for retail shelf space as stiff as it is these days, a brewery really tries to keep good relations with their retail accounts.

 

Spite? No. General business sense? Yes. If the local brewery is selling the beer for less than the local bottle shop, then it's not profitable for the bottle shop to keep that beer on their shelves.

 

So taproom beer sales are being set by a price-fixing cartel. Ugh.

But I still have my doubts about the underlying logic. If we're talking about an established local brewery, then it's likely popular enough that pulling the product would be a bad idea. And if it's not local, then the brewery likely isn't geographically close enough to give your customers a meaningful alternative to the retail store. Fledgling local breweries might fall into a murky middle zone where they could be replaced on the shelves without too much consequence to the retailer. But for most breweries, this still sounds like more of an excuse to justify high taproom prices than a real phenomenon.

Still not convinced. It strikes me as highly improbable that a meaningful number of all potential buyers of a given beer in a given area are going to make a special trip to the brewery just to save a buck or two.

I get it, breweries are gonna do what they are gonna do and enough of them behave in this way that there must be a reason for it, and my complaints aren't changing it. But this thread is about pet peeves, and pet peeves don't have to be rational. I'll shut up now.

 

Oh I totally get you. Its $17 for their glass and fill, just plan $12 for bringing your own.

 

I'm kind of the opposite. I don't have a TV so one of the reasons I go out is to watch a sporting event I want to see. Although, at other times I do choose a place that doesn't have a TV if I don't want to deal with that noise.

Could, but we all know it's significantly less likely. I've had at least two encounters with police when I was completely transparent about the fact I'd been drinking. One was a young cop hassling me about my front reflector needing to be a full light and I was drunk enough to get a bit combative with him and told him multiple times he should arrest me so I could see the look he got for bringing me in on a bike light charge. I got a fix it ticket for not having a bike light. No way I'm driving away from an encounter like that.

The risks to Public health and safety as well as your personal health, safety, and legal well being are much much lower if you choose to bicycle after drinking vs driving.

The solution is a tote bag. They make ones that fold up into tiny little balls and you can keep clipped to your keys.

 

No. Not even a little bit.

 

Obnoxiously intoxicated people who can't control themselves.

 

Yup. plastic grocery bags were outlawed over 10 years ago around here, and everybody has a pile of reusable bags. I never leave the house without at least 1. I've got a couple of the ones that fold in on themselves that I leave in my winter coat pocket https://www.chicobag.com/ . A lot of times they're free at events. Warmer weather I just carry my cloth ones.

 

Plus take into account that if the brewery undercuts the store price and the store reacts and drops the brewery's line of beers, then the customer who regularly buys that beer at the store because it's not convenient to go to the brewery, both the store and the brewery lose that on-premises sale.

 

This one might just be around here but…drag show events. I can’t think of a better way to not entice me. I don’t care what your fetish is, but I’ve lived in a few different regions and never saw the public seeking more drag shows.
Very strange

 

I've got 2 relating entirely to brewery taprooms:

1. The apparent fear of using acoustic paneling/noise dampening in cavernous spaces
2. Crap furniture

I understand most places are going to have polished concrete floors for good (spill) reasons. But that plus the exposed ceiling plus barren concrete/cinder block walls that a lot of breweries seem to love makes it absolute hell to hear when a spot gets full or they have music/TVs turned up. I'm only 28 and still struggle to hear in those conditions. Put up something for noise reduction. Places like Turning Point and 3 Nations are especially guilty of this.

Crap furniture is self-explanatory. I don't expect an armchair with my own sidetable but metal cafe chairs with the weird cut out back are the absolute worst and they're seemingly at every brewery around me in Dallas.

 

My big complaint about drag shows is that the taste in music is often terrible. I hate disco/dance music. Drag brunches are becoming a thing a round here now with a few different places (1 new brewery will be offering them soon, but otherwise it's a bar.restaurant thing), and that confuses me a bit.

 

Loud and/or strange and dissonant music. I know a brewery that does this and it throws off the vibe. Seems to go with the hipster component that has married itself to craft beer culture.

 

The drag show posts led me to not necessarily a pet peeve, but nights I avoid going to breweries or bars - Trivia / Bingo nights.

I understand why breweries host these, they can attract a broader or different crowd. That said, I won’t go if I know one is scheduled, or cut my visit short if one begins that I wasn’t aware of and it’s too loud.

When I go out, either with friends or solo, I rather socialize and enjoy conversations in peace. I don’t need a usually loud DJ shouting questions or bingo for 2ish hours. I also prefer no TVs, or TVs muted.

I also 99% agree with @GuyFawkes regarding having music volume at a reasonable level to allow conversations, but Three Floyd’s Metal selection is the exception to the rule, at least for me. I do understand why it would be annoying, as I’d find it annoying for other styles / genres.

Always loved my visits there, and I’m really stoked if the rumors they are opening again come true (not sure if it’s the distillery or OG space - don’t currently see job listings for onsite as I do for Chicago Lagunitas and the 3-17 opening of West Side Guinness).

 

I believe most of not all of mine have been covered.
Dirty bathroom.
Loud obnoxious music/crappy bands
Establishment specific growlers.
Baby sippy cups for high gravity beers.
Dogs, misbehaving kids/bad parents.
TV's & Sports Games.
The biggest one for me is a dirty/sticky table.
Tap lists with no variety of styles, aka all different IPA's.
Uncomfortable chairs/stools.
Bartenders/servers with bad attitudes or who acknowledge you then ignore you.
Tap lists written in doctornese. (Illegible)
The drunk guy at the bar sitting next to you that won't shut up about things that you don't care.
And last but not least is ordering a draft you had your heart set on, only to be told it just kicked. I hate that!
Although not a fault of the brewery.

 

You've already told us that a couple bucks would motivate you to buy a 4-pack from your local store over the brewery, so why do you think that wouldn't work the other way around?

 

I've been to breweries where I feel like I'm intruding in someone's private event. I get having regulars, but as an out-of-towner I felt more like a nuisance than a customer. Having to interrupt the scurvy old men flirting with the server, or having to wait for someone's 20 minute conversation to be done before ordering.

This doesn't happen a lot, and it's not exclusive to breweries either, bars can be the same way, if not worse.