Falling Beer Quality as MN gains more Breweries

I have been there 20+ times and I don't think I've ever had an issue with off flavors. They hired a head brewer, so it is no longer a group of friends that homebrew and happen to own a brewery making it. They are still outputting a lot of very mediocre beer, but they have a few really good ones. Tiny Circuit alone makes it worth giving them another chance.

 

They have definitely improved from when they first launched compared to when I recently went there. Not sure if time to flaunt it yet though.

 

Good to know. I'll give them another try sometime in the future, since we were in not too long after they opened.

 

MobCraft is a perfect example of this, I have had 4 separate infected beers in the past year alone, 2014 Evan Williams Petrichor is the worst beer I've ever had (Think sour Cottage Cheese mixed with Chocolate Ashy Prune Juice) . I've also had some solid beers from them, I personally don't buy their beer anymore, but apparently enough people do that they can afford to build a new 2 mil $ facility in MKE

 

I can see the point from one purist's perspective, but I'm not sure I'm following how this spells doom and gloom for all of us.
If I have this right, there are lots of new breweries making bad beer. Advanced palates, and cool guys like us, recognize this, and stay away. But some goons decide they like bad beer, and thusly, said breweries are not allowed to die a natural death.
Is that it? Because people eat at Applebee's, and I don't know if the foodies do much more than roll their eyes about it.
Or...
Is it the idea that, if we can only educate the goons, then they can demand good beer, too, and instead of going out of business, the bad beer brewers can change their ways, creating more good beer options for us cool guys?

 

I don't think that's quite correct. There are plenty of breweries that make beer that is "okay", but unexceptional, or beer I don't care for. But Mr. Agnew's post is about something else - the very small number of breweries that consistently make and serve flawed/infected/spoiled beer.

I'm personally not too worried about it. It is frustrating when you go out of your way to try somewhere new, only to find undrinkable beer. But for the most part, the breweries that make the best beer will survive. The ones that produce a flawed product may or may not, but I don't care because I won't be drinking it.

 

How about this scenario: a Bud drinker wants to try this craft beer he has been hearing all about. He tries a craft beer that has off flavors. He thinks craft beer is overrated, tastes bad and never tries it again. Maybe if that macro drinker had tried a well made craft beer he may have became a craft beer drinker never touching a Budweiser product again.

 

I see local beer that is mediocre or flat-out bad taking tap-handles from breweries like Odell, Founders, Lagunitas, etc. all the time and it sucks. Surprised to see so many people on BA have the opinion that it doesn't matter if places make terrible beer. It can still effect you even if you don't drink it yourself. I blame localism.

 

Well, see, this is reasoning I can grasp. I was thinking more along the lines of simply a taproom I can avoid, but I can see where this gets into my kitchen, so to speak.

 

I can can get this logic. Not just tap handles but also shelf space that could be used for other great beers to give us even more choices of the "good stuff"

 

I'm guessing, but I believe Mr. Agnew wrote the article as a heads-up to breweries who've managed to allow unintentionally flawed beers out to the public -- a subtle alert that at least one qualified (Cicerone) beer drinker knows the score.

I'd have to re-read the article, but I doubt he intended it as a warning to the breweries that they might be giving the entire Craft Beer market segment a disservice, or anything like that! And much as it'd be great to think it was written as a warning to Joe Sixpack / Adjunct Light Lager-drinker (that thought will warm my miserly heart as I go about my day) who knows if they even read beer blogs to begin with?

 

At the 2014 Craft Brewers Conference which most craft breweries attend, the #1 issue of the keynote speeches was the quality level of beer made by craft breweries and how poorly made craft beer can damage the entire craft brewing industry.

Paul Gatza, director of the BA, on the State of the Industry. Following notes on growth and trends, his most urgent concern was quality in craft beer. "Look, many people in this room have spent a lot of time and dedicated a good portion of their lives to building this community that we have today, so seriously, don't fuck it up."
"If you are starting a brewery," said Mitch Steele, brewmaster at Stone Brewing Co., who accepted the 2014 Russell Schehrer Award for Innovation in Craft Brewing, "please, for God's sakes, hire somebody who knows what they're doing to brew the beer."

 

Why are we holding back and not naming these places?

 

This is part of the problem with checks and balances, IMO. I see a little bit of criticism on this board, but I think we'd benefit from more open sharing about some of these new places, especially if the beer is a hot mess. I honestly only have so much time and $ to spend checking out local places and there's too many to just go to one on a whim anymore.

I do appreciate the few times a local beer writer/blogger/critic has come out and said "this place kind of sucked when I went and here's why..." but most of time they are just mouthpieces for the breweries from what I can tell.

Tricky line to follow as many of us have friends and relatives in the business.

 

Completely agree. Also is there is something to be said about these places lowering overall standards or lowering this bar instead of creating competition to increase quality.

 

I'd say we need anonymous reviews, but that has it's own problems.

 

I definitely get this fear, but I think the issue is just as likely to occur when the bud drinker tries a well made craft beer and genuinely doesn't like it. I can't tell you how many friends/family I have let have a sip of my beer (whether it is a good IPA, sour, stout, belgian.. doesn't matter) to be met with the bitter beer face and, "blech, this isn't beer!" or, "this is too strong" or "this is not what beer should taste like." *continues sipping bud light*

 

As for naming names, I think that could devolve into a pissing match pretty easily. One place that I will not return to was recently being praised on this board by another active member who enjoyed their "clean" beers. I found 3/4 in a flight undrinkable (with all 3 having noticeable flaws) and the 4th being pretty poor.

 

Yes, all of that's on the record.

But back to Mr. Agnew's piece --the piece which @ZAP originally used as a jumping off point for this discussion-- it was his denouement that initially piqued my curiosity in the piece:

By now Agnew is a certified expert and industry insider, right? And he's not naming names, either.

Whether or not he is originally from here, he has definitely learned how to play the game of "Minnesota Nice".