Bad Breweries/Brewpubs Remain Open

That one was is gold compared to the laundry detergent-esque Hop A Peel or their Vanilla Pencil Shavings Porter.

 

It's about time the Above-it-all crowd chimed in.

 

Wish I saw this when I was in SF and Berkeley in April. Walked into Triple Rock first and it was a cask fest, however no room to sit for food (we just got off the plane). Walked to Jupiter and had an ok experience. It's telling that we drank mostly non-Jupiter beers. Also of note was that panhandlers just walked the bar-room floor. Never seen that before, but the locals weren't phased. Maybe just a Berkeley thing?

 

Those guys could've owned the AR craft market if they had committed to quality IMHO, now I think everyone is lapping them in NW Arkansas...

 

I think to the non-beer enthusiast, even the most average craft tastes "good", and if the joint has solid food it will stick around. That being said, there's a place called Stockholms in Geneva, IL that has the most god awful beer. I used to work out that way and we'd stop in there after work here and there. I wish I could un-taste that beer.

 

I have been to three of those, but it has been a few years. Question - are they making bad beer now in the definition that the beer is technically flawed, or is it bad in that they make styles you do not like?

Edit - can you say what would be a technical flaw that they have? e.g. Diacetyl

 

There's a bad one in Santa Maria, CA that changed hands in the last year. Nothing has improved, but it manages to stay open continually by selling "stock" of their company to the general public. See, despite failing almost entirely, they're now expanding. They're pretty sure they are going to be crazy rich and famous one day and will open chain pub & grills across the country. So hurry up and buy $5k, $10k, or $20k now! You can't afford not to!

 

I don't see how Swamp Rabbit Brewery here in Upstate SC is still around. They make possibly the worst beer of any brewery I've ever been too, but the local Budweiser guzzling rednecks think its amazing...I guess if youre used to swill, then "good" swill is mind blowing! Bad beer + incompetent and arrogant staff + no other attraction to visit = waste of space!!!!

 

I'm going to crap in my new nest here... Mustang. There is no beer they make that has any exceptional qualities, and some are just plain dull and pointless. There are no major technical issues, it's a lot like like the brews Pete's Brewing made before they went under. And with no freshness dating and a market flooded with their products, you never know when you will get stale product. I'm drinking an O-fest (Harvest Lager) right now that is so dull, Sam Adams Octoberfest would be an improvement.

 

I recalled this blog post from a few years back, and thought I'd share it here. Seems relevant:

Why 95% of US Restaurants Suck and How We Learn Not to Notice
http://thelinkery.com/blog/why-95-o...entical…and-why-it’s-hard-to-learn-to-notice/

 

I have to qualify my statement about Mustang Brewing. I have not had all their beers, so there may be some exceptions in their special releases that I don't know about.

 

The breweries that make cookie cutter brews are playing it safe. Over the years, I've visited several brewers for local micros and learned that they don't put as much "craft" into their styles as us homebrewers do. While homebrewers will select different yeast strains, hops and grain bills to dial in each particular style, the commercial brewers often rely on standardized base recipes where all of them contain the exact same base malt, crystal malt and yeast strain. Than after all that, they tweak the amount of base malt to affect gravity and specialty grains and hops to make the beer look and sort-of taste like one style or another. Usually it's neutral ale and lager yeast strains, even going as far as brewing ale styles with lager yeast to eliminate esters. Huge silos filled with Briess 2-row base malt, single infusion mashes, 7 day conditioning periods and the cheapest pelletized hops they can get. A lot of what they are doing is only one step removed from what the corporate giants do, cut corners and bank on 95% of their customers not being aware they are cheating. That's how your local brewery that makes clean but boring beer stays in business. Play the same three chords in different arrangements, keys and tempos, add lyrics.

 

You hit a lot of key points in your last paragraph that really are very similar to my findings down here in Maryland. I've had a lot of posts/comments on the subject. I've come to the conclusion that craft beer culture hasn't found its way yet into many non-urbanized or "country" areas of our country. Craft beer sells well at the downtown bar on main street (pick any town or city over a certain size) from the law firm, accounting firm and the IT startup company. Unless you are in California or Pac NW as the except where craft beer seems fully integrated into the culture, its doubtful anything noteworthy will be served at the tavern or bottle shop that is down the street from the large quarry/steel mill etc. than may have just as many employees as the urban/affluent/educated crowd.

And the few craft bars/bottle shops that are in less urbanized country setting environments are probably set up in a location to be highly dependant on tourists/travelers to bring them the business vs. supported financially solely by the locals.

 

Sure, and then there are the breweries that are icons that have Briess as the base malt and specialty malts. The difference is the knowledge in how to use the malts.

Then there are the breweries that use European malts and end up with poor to crappy beer due to cutting corners on process.

 

It's a pet peeve of mine when I go to a place with "Brewhouse" or "Alehouse" in the name and the best beer there is Curious Traveler or Leinenkugel's Shandy...

 

I think this thread shows part of the problem and why many bad breweries remain open. I see many claiming they have bad breweries in their area but very few mention names. Too many people protect their local breweries and refuse to knock them for putting out a sub par product. And too many feel obligated to drink "local" even when there are better alternatives.
I'll call out Cricket Hill in NJ as everything I have had from them has been less than stellar. And i don't really see any local bars or restaurants carrying their beers so others must share my sentiments.
You wouldn't praise a local brewery and not name it, so why withhold the name if you consistently don't like it?

 

It's not

Good point well taken. Nothing wrong with American base malts per se. You have to be skilled and creative. Some breweries regardless of their raw materials just can't cut it.

 

Well said. All too common here. I'm not trying to make too much of review scores, but if you look at many AZ breweries it's pretty GD awful. Yet there's this "don't say anything negative" movement of buy local people here. It's frustrating to say the least. Protects a lot of mediocrity.