Breweries you've done a 180 on

Pipeworks: initially I had a bunch of their stouts, and all of them were borderline cloyingly sweet. I also had Australian Summer Ninja, which was a mess of a beer. I looked down my nose at the "gimmicky" nature of a ton of their beers. Fast forward two years and I'm picking up nearly everything they put on the shelf. All the cans are great; Grand Guignol, Act 1 set me back on the stout path; and it seems they can do no wrong with the fish series.

 

Three Floyds: we get limited distro in Ohio, so when I finally got some gumball & zombie I expected it to be amazing. They were good but couldn't live up to the hype. Recently I made a trip to Chicago and stopped at the brewery. Got to try a lot of different things and bring a bunch home. Now I can't get enough, Loved black flame, permanent funeral, apocalypse cow, dreadnaught, coming around on zombie. But overall had a great experience and love thier beers

 

Unibroue... they got me into beer, not I won't touch any of their stuff. In my opinion, they are the worst BSDA/BSPA brewery.

 

Brothers Craft Brewing. I used to be a real big fan of their beers, initially thinking they were one of the best breweries in Virginia. However, with the botched roll out of the Horizon Society membership, the mediocre sours and the unreliable bottlings recently (under carbonated Resolute variants in 2014 to exploding bottles this year) I have no desire to purchase any more of their beers or drink the ones I have in the mini fridge.

Maybe I'll give them a try again down the road, but for now I have no love for the Harrisonburg Bros.

 

I did a 180 on Firestone Walker for sure, in a good way. The secret for me was visiting Barrelworks...

My 180 in the opposite direction besides BMC and Guinness was New Belgium. I will keep my opinions to myself. Lets just say NB just doesn't do it for me anymore.

 

Clown Shoes. I tried a bunch of their beers around 5 years ago and eventually started passing them up... until I had Hoppy Feet 1.5. I thought they had something there. It was around that time that there was some controversy over their labels and some chick. Their response was awesome and made me take a second look at their beers. Shortly after, they started making really good big beers and barrel-aged beers. Now I get every single new release of theirs. Even their less-liked stuff I thought was really good (like Pimp/Flight Of The Pimp and the Pecan Pie Porters). Big fan now.

Dope

 

Lagunitas. I used to always buy their beers, always reasonably priced and fresh but after reading the nonsense posted by Tony Magee via social media, I have no desire to support his brewery anymore. Selling 1/2 the company to Heineken ensures I will never buy another Lagunitas product again.

Greenflash. It was one of my favorite breweries but then they got rid of the six packs (replaced with 4 packs for the same price) and tweaked the WCIPA recipe. I still like some of their beers but for the price I always find something else I'd rather have.

 

I won't say a 180 degree, but I had a Sam Adams for the first time in a couple years the other night, one of their barrel aged series. Was very surprised. A very drinkable high quality offering. It changed my perspective, props to a local bottle shop for having a Sam Adams rep giving out samples...

 

Pipeworks for me. I used to cream my shorts over almost everything I could get..but maybe it seems to me that everything seems to be the same these days..9.5% double IPA or a 9.5% stout (by and large Three Floyds presents the same issue for me, too). I think I'm just getting old and prefer offerings that are a bit easier to handle :/

 

Carton. When I first had Boat I just didn't get it. Then I had Monkey Chased the Weasel and thought it was the worst sour I've ever had. Then a couple months later I had Boat again completely forgetting that I had written them off and it clicked with me so much. Love the majority of stuff they do now.

 

Stone and New Belgium. Don't buy them very often anymore.

 

Sam Adams
They were my introduction to craft beer, and naturally was very interested in what they were putting out. As time passed I became less and less thrilled with their offerings, and no longer buy anything from them with the exception of the rare Boston Lager purchase.
If they put out Old Fezziwig in six packs, things might change.

 

It's a small brewery that most will not recognize, but when I visit places and I don't like their beers, I'll tell myself that I need to give them another chance. I stopped at Beards Brewing in Petoskey, Michigan, last week for a second visit, and felt that they had made a pretty good turnaround with their beers from my previous visit, which was made just shortly after they had opened a couple years ago. Kudos to them for getting things going on the right track.

 

Great Lakes Brewing Company, their QC seems to be a mess lately. The bottled offerings (mostly seasonals) have been borderline drain pours over the last year. It seems like everything they put out now is average at best. They have been completely passed up by other OH breweries like Fat Heads, Jackie Os, Columbus, etc.

 

180 positive - Founders. I never liked their Ipas, scotch ale, etc so I kind wrote them off. However, their stouts, porters, bigger beers are excellent.

180 negative - Stone. I was a big fan boy for these guys when I first got into craft. I would buy anything they made. Now, I find most of their stuff to be mediocre at best.

 

The first couple of beers I had from DuClaw (Misery Wheatwine and X-1) were awesome in my mind. I was thinking "Heeeeey! A local brewery that's pretty damn good!" Then I was exposed to stuff like Serum, Oz, Old Flame, 13 Degrees, Colossus, etc...even their most 'hyped' beer, Sweet Baby Jesus, isn't anything special.

Okay, that's not entirely fair - some of their beer is quite solid, like Black Jack, Devil's Milk, and Hell on Wood. But I've had more misses from DuClaw than any other brewery out there.

 

For me it's Stone.
When I first tried Stone it was a long time ago (2003?). I had the Arrogant Bastard and Ruination. I thought they were horrible beers, so bitter and malty, too much flavor. At the time my favorite beers were Easy Street Wheat and Fat Tire. Now, I think Stone beers are awesome and I have been very impressed by "Enjoy By IPA", Bourbon Barrel Arrogant Bastard, and Chai-Spiced Russian Imperial Stout.

 

Prost. When Bill Eye left, they didn't just take a dip in quality. They took a nosedive. They went from having one of the best dunkels on American shores to brewing "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter."

 

Lagunitas for me. Use to buy there beer all the time as a good west coast IPA and hoppy beer brewery and loved Brown Shugga, but then I noticed the flavors their yeast give off in the finish of Brown Shugga and didn't quite like it. Then I noticed the same yeasty flavor in the finish in all their hoppy beers and now I can't get past it. I'll drink it if its the only craft on tap, but thats about the only time.