What makes a brewery great?

Hops, Wilds, and Bourbon Barrels.

In that order.

 

Why do smaller breweries deserve leeway? A shitty beer is a shitty beer, regardless of who makes it. It's definitely more shameful for a big brewery to produce a bad product, assuming they have the resources to do better. Still, I don't think that any brewery should purposely make beers that they aren't proud of/stand behind.

Longevity is not necessarily an indicator of quality. It's important for smaller breweries, especially considering the competition in craft brewing. I don't think many breweries can pull off and sell beer just because it's innovative. Dogfish head does it, but I can't think of others.

I think a brewery's status is largely affected by money. Money allows for access to ingredients, equipment, labor, creative liberties, etc. It also gives the brewery the opportunity to label and market their product. I'm certain that there are many brewers making good, great, and world-class beers that go completely unnoticed.

 

The short answer is the quality of their beer.

The longer answer….

A brewery that makes one outstanding beer but the remainder of their brands are not outstanding is not an outstanding brewery.

A brewery that is capable of making a number of their brands to be of outstanding quality is an outstanding brewery.

Cheers!

 

I think you should add Hill Farmstead to that short list. Not only do they make exclusively World Class beers, but they make a staggering amount more different styles and overall beers than Alchemist. For every beer they make to be of such caliber is extremely impressive.

 

I'd say it's some combination of all of the above.
Of course their best beer is going to be a metric of which they're judged (or more so the one that has the most hype; is Dark Lord Three Floyd's best beer?) but the rest of the beers have to be of some quality as well.
Longevity is one measure to judge: a brewery that doesn't produce quality products isn't going to survive long. However, innovation does too- one that sits on its laurels and doesn't produce new recipes will be left behind sooner or later.
I would also submit that another measure is how they interact with their neighbors and the local community; do they get their name out for non-beer related activities.

 

Beer quality is definitely a big factor. However, I think that good beer alone does not make a good brewery. Craft beer is just as much about people as it is beer, so I'd say ownership that can relate to the people is extremely important. Breweries that offer their customers great service will be among the bests. If a brewery makes a mistake (faulty packaging, lack of carbonation, etc.) they should own up to their mistakes. Great breweries do exactly that.

 

Eno Sarris at BeerGraphs has taken the most systematic, analytical approach to this question of any source I've encountered. Call it Sabeermetrics. http://www.beergraphs.com/bg/355-what-makes-a-good-brewery/

 

I think his data set(s) may possess a degree of bias.

 

So you're saying that most small to mid-sized breweries intentionally brew mediocre beers because that's the better business model?

 

Agree wholeheartedly with this.

 

He sources his data from BeerAdvocate, so... I agree! It contains the cumulative biases of BA users. He also uses style adjustments to juice the scores of less popular styles and to depress the scores of more popular styles, a practice with which I disagree philosophically.

 

Think of it like sports teams, a team with a couple of Hall of Fame level players, and a bunch of scrubs, is not a great team. A brewery that only makes one or two great beers is not a great brewery. To be a great brewery, you need very good-to-great beers throughout the majority of your line-up, a couple of HoF level beers, and a tradition of reliably making very good beers. Then, when the occasional clunker gets released, your reputation isn't irreparably harmed.

 

Has anyone been to Golden Road brewing? Ive visited some breweries and golden road is probably the best one, maybe their beers arent top notch, byt they have some great craft brews and great food. They have allow dogs to come in, they have a kids section a very family oriented brewery.

 

A solid and consistent standard lineup at a brewpub goes a long way with me. So In a word, "Consistency"

 

Unfortunately a lot of people overlook "shitty beer" for the criteria of proximity, homerism, and hype.

 

Great beer makes a brewery great. Just like anything else...doing your job better than anyone else makes one great. It is all how one interprets great I suppose. Budweiser is great if marketing and advertising is taken into account. It got Americans to drink rice and corn beer for decades and then sing it's praises as the king of beers. But Budweiser isn't Founder's, Fat Head, Great Lakes and certainly not Sierra Nevada.

 

I'm much more impressed by a brewery making everything they do well versus having one or two great beers and the rest of the portfolio being sub par.

 

Very well spoken