Love/Hate Brewery?

Once I like something a lot from a brewery I usually give them blind faith. This doesn't always pay off - Like Southern Tier going into Belgians, or some Dogfish Head, I guess, but I still love these breweries. Other great ones like Bells don't necessarily get my blind faith, but I will give ANYTHING a try.

Some breweries leave me forever doubtful, and I keep that bias. Elevator, Labatt, Indigo, Christian Moerlein, Straub, Ohio Brewing, Magic Hat and many others are ones I avoid. Why go back if you get burned badly.

Sometimes great breweries like Stone disappoint, because they can't all be winners, kid. I still go back once I get a real winner.

 

DFH
Ballast Point
Stone

 

Founders

I am always happy to order a All Day IPA at a bar, but can never get myself to buy any of there year round offerings.

 

Goose Island.

Love: Bourbon County Brand series

Hate: most everything else.

 

Black Raven.
Everyone in WA absolutely loves them, and they're nice enough guys, make very technically clean beers...
but barring a couple saisons I've had, everything has been very dull, boring, lackluster, and unimpressive. Their beers seem to be a bit "behind the times" so to speak. Not sure what the hype is all about.

I'll also add De Garde and Alpine to this list.
Both make phenomenal beers that I almost always enjoy, but the crowds those breweries draw are just the worst of the worst in the trade/mule/ISO/douche scene. Both brewers even price their beers fairly, so people can buy a couple to age or enjoy with friends --- but people get so drawn into the hype they get greedy and turn into awful, demanding, possessive douchers over something that was meant to be enjoyed.

 

Dogfish.
Love how they push the envelope and try new things... But don't like the end result a lot. Burton Baton needs to be drank more.

 

Favorites would be: Brooklyn Brewery, Cigar City, 4 Hands, Terrapin

 

Love Founders, Great Lakes, and Lagunitas
Currently disliking Stone, Boulevard, and even Sierra Nevada.

 

Dogfish head as many others have said... My first drainpour two nights ago palo santo marron :/

 

I would have gladly taken that off your hands!

 

The Bruery: Love their barrel aged big beers for the most part. Hate most their pretentious 'experimental' and find their sours gross for the most part.

Dogfish Head at this point is just bad.

 

The Bruery so many great beers but a few not so great. Based on price its sad to be disappointed.

 

How funny I was typing the Bruery just as you must have posted. I totally agree with you.

 

Stone-i love Enjoy by, Sublimely, Xocoveza, Ruinten, And Ruination. But frankly i find their IPA, Go To, and many of their other offerings to be pretty mediocre, also, they're such Arrogant Bastards.

Maine Beer Co- Lunch and Dinner are among my favorite beers, but i personally think all of their other beers are "fine" and the pricing on them is ridiculous. just make Four packs people!

 

@sixa66 wish I could've given it to you!

 

I think the Bruery and DFH share many similar defects: they portray themselves as bold and daring experimentalists, but oftentimes the end result is just bad or completely pedestrian. I find anything put forth by someone like Prarie much more interesting that all that stuff. I think the Bruery is a lot better than DFH, and they have a lot of really good stuff; but sometimes they are just pretentious and I find it dishonest to put out mediocre beer under the pretext of experimentation.

 

If I had to pick one I didn't like I would say maybe Magic Hat because a lot of their stuff reminds me of the Blue Moons or Shock Tops. But I would also rather see someone drinking a Magic Hat over a Bud Light. I do think breweries like Magic Hat, Sweet Water and Goose Island are good introductory breweries for craft beer beginners though.

 

For sure Three Floyds. Love their beers, hate their pricing and arrogance.

 

Got to be trillium or toppling goliath. Love their beers...what were we talking about.

 

Sierra Nevada. My favorite brewery. But you can keep the Kellerweiss. In all fairness, I'm sure its a good weissbier. But banana and cloves, to me, just stank. Stank, I say. Just outright putrid and nauseating. Yech. Blah. blech belch yuk