St Arnold vs Founders

I also pass on Pumkinator most of the time.

 

Pumpkinator is pretty good, even better with some age on it!!!

 

I'll try my 2012 bottle in about a year. It had way too much nutmeg for me.

 

I did a pumpkin tasting with over 30 pumpkin beers and Pumpkinator was in the top 5 and was the best pumpkin stout. I even preferred it over TREAT. Though the best Pumpkinator I ever had was when I mixed half Pumpkinator with half DR 9. The more pronounced "stoutiness" and thickness of the 9 helped balance out the the spices of the Pumpkinator.

 

Personally, I would take out Winter Stout and I'm not a huge fan of the Christmas Ale. Why Winter Stout when FIS is available.

 

1st batch was ok. 2nd batch was much improved. IMO, they could use a little more body.

 

Endeavour is one of my favorite go-to DIPAs but Hop Delusion beats it out. Fresh Endeavour though it isn't always the easiest to come by, is better than a lot of DIPAs I've tried from around the country. This past week, the freshest Endeavour I could find was 5-6 weeks old, and noticeably different from a fresh bottle. Aside from that and Pumpkinator I usually pass on their year-round offerings. I'll always have a special place for SA since it was the brewery to convert me to craft beer.

But their stouts don't even have a chance with Founders IMO. Christmas Ale and Winter Stout used to be delicious to me, this was before my palate became a snob.

 

I really hate to compare the two. One brewery is one of the best in the country hands down. The other is very good, which can make a remarkable beer as good as anybody. Though not always. We should leave it at that.

 

Founders is in my top 10, maybe even 5, but there is some up and coming competition.

 

I remember it hitting a few places in kegs.. but somehow I missed the bottle madness.. oh well.. at least I didn't drive all over to be disappointed!

 

I have been to St Arnold's and their regular line up is incredibly forgettable. I got turned on to them from Devine #9. That was fantastic. Founders, though, kills them every day of the week.

 

I couldn't agree more. I don't see the point in brewery vs. brewery comparisons. Every brewery is gonna make some beers that you like and some beers that you don't, so I don't see the point in trying to compare them. Buy the beer you like and enjoy them.

 

Definitely! But that doesn't make ratings unimportant or wrong in any way. By thinking more carefully about what we enjoy and why, we can enjoy it even more!

and be better snobs, too!

 

I agree. I wasn't trying to say ratings aren't important, I was saying brewery comparisons are irrelevant. I should have worded it better. I strongly believe in beer ratings, as it has helped me out many times when trying to pick between a couple of beers. Which reminds me, I need to update my hads list on here.

 

No, we don't all agree. This is BeerAdvocate.

 

Like X 1,000,000.

There are way too many variables involved with every brewery. Believe it or not there are some breweries that are still very successful without having to appeal to every beer nerds taste and they will continue to be successful. So instead of bitching about 'em, don't buy the beer you don't like it.

Edit: no offense to OP. I know what his intentions were.

 

I don't think that St Arnolds makes a beer that is appropriately compared to All Day IPA.

Endeavour is a nice clean IIPA that we can get fresh. I've been buying at least one or two out of every bottling. Double Trouble is very good. Many people say "peachy". It to is very good.

 

Agreed

 

Ok good. I passed up on some double trouble earlier. It was between double trouble, west coast ipa, maximus, hoptimum, Union Jack, and double jack. Ending up leaving with some maharaja. The double jack was only in bombers so opted against it.