Narragansett, craft or crafty

I agree the Bock is delicious. I bought some last week that had just arrived at the liquor store. Last year I thought the Summer ale was decent as well. I agree they should be on the craft list.

 

I have not been disappointed by anything from them. Even the lager is decent as far as adjunct lagers go. Better than most. Porter and Cream Ale are solid. $8+ for a sixer of tall boy cans is a nice bargain too.

 

I actually like their lager for what it is. It costs $5.99 for a six pack of pint cans and tastes better than any BMC adjunct lager I have had.

 

While I like the idea of being strict with what you allow on your shelves and applaud what they are doing, I agree that 'Gansett should be available. However, if they kept it out, I'd understand that too.

On a personal level, I am not a big fan of regular 'Gansett. I do like the Bock though. The Summer and Cream are solid. I was not down with the Porter, the Octoberfest or the 'Gansett Light.

I do keep regular Gansett on hand though, as it is a well received brew for non-craft drinkers.

 

I wasn't down with the octoberfest either, although it had a substantial amount of character and I could see why some would like it.

 

Who gives a F---
If you like their beer drink it, if not don't.

Sam Adams is not Independently owned, even though that is one of the Brewers Association's qualifying criteria, it has several institutional investors and is traded publicly on the stock market. Also, the BA changed their definition of "small" when Sam Adams broke through the original threshold.

There are several other examples of the BA cherry picking criteria to exclude some and include others, there are even cases of outright ignoring their own criteria.

 

Agreed 1000%. The brewers association is so pretentious.

 

Definitely wouldn't equate Narragansett craft offerings with BMC attempts. They make some solid brews and they're priced right. The Bock is really good too, looking forward to that coming out soon.

 

I love Narragansett. When they first reopened a friend of mine did some work with them and I got to meet some of the folks. I like that they've re-established a historic regional brand and I thnk they've done a good job managing it. I don't drink their beers a lot, but I always have them on hand for when I (or my often my wife) wants something good but lighter. Their summer is one of my favorites as is their cream ale, and I'd gladly drink their regular lager, bock and fest. Never tried the porter or the light (heh - I'll only go so far).

From most criteria they should be considered craft, but I really don't like the PC'ing of 'craft vs crafty' in general. I don't think the size of the brewery, the use of contract brewing or their target audience makes them more or less worthy of my dollars. Although I like CBC a lot, I don't agree with their 'no crap beer' stance. Choosing what beer to stock shouldn't be a political statement.

 

Their seasonals are all at least decent tasting and very affordable. I buy them regularly. Not a fan of the lager, but I don't like any beers of that style.

 

Narragansett has been at our American Craft Beer Fest since day one ... FWIW I am a fan of Narragansett.

Not sure why anyone is or would want to be beholden to a guild's definition. The whole "craft" question is something you need to ask yourself IMO.

Also the beer community has been and still is being deceived that "craft" means "quality". Personally I wish the term would go away but we are stuck with it for the duration.

 

If your business model restricts you from selling gansett then you are doing it wrong.

 

Protective of their guild members and other smaller brewers that fall within their guild guidelines ... yes. Pretentious ... perhaps not. They are now bringing this to the consumer, it used to be just for their yearly statistics.

Not to worry Sam Adams will adjust the "smaller brewer" barrel amount to no more than 10,000,000 BBL a year to be a "craft brewer"

 

I think we all recognize that the Brewers' Association craft/non-craft binary is woefully inexact, and that really there's a wide and highly nuanced range of "craftiness" in the beer world, with someone like Hill Farmstead on the high end and whoever makes Icehouse on the other.

Narragansett clearly falls somewhere in the middle, clearly being craftier than the big guys but, due to their AAL flagship, not as crafty as your average local craft brewery. Just based on their beers, I'd say they're about in the same range as someone like Yuengling or Shiner - definitely a step up from BMC, but a step down from Bell's or Stone on the level of their entire lineup.

Whether you find their Lager "craftier" than, say, Blue Moon depends more on your politics than your tastebuds, of course. I'd rather drink Blue Moon myself, but of course I despise 'Gansett Lager. Now, their Summer Ale on the other hand...

 

Agreed. I really like CBC for many reasons but I gotta say the "no crap beer" slogan is juvenile. What beer is considered "crap" is purely personal taste, and their use of it provides no helpful meaning to a customer. On top of that it's hypocritical of them because they've said on more than one occasion that they think gansett lager is terrible, yet now they carry it. If they think that beer is crap, get another slogan.

 

Gansett has been doing some pretty decent stuff. I thought the Bock, Cream Ale, and fest were great. Not a fan of the lager or porter.

 

I'm having serious flashbacks to early-90s college radio arguments about which bands were still "indie" or not, when the lines between the majors and the independent labels started blurring. I was always on the side of "if it's good, keep playing it."

 

I'm a Gansett man. When I'm not chugging Heady Topper or naming all the Hill Farmstead brews I've had, I'm sitting back and blazing one, gansett in the other hand and something funny to watch.