Perfectly ordinary beers

Taste is as subjective as it comes.

 

There are so many good beers everywhere now that good is the new ordinary. What a great time we live in.

 

All the time. One of my biggest -rdevs is a Hill Farmstead beer (they do have plenty that I find exceptional too). I am -22% and -19% on 120 Minute and The Abyss respectively

 

I can remember a time when there was almost no craft beer, today's 'ordinary' is yesterday's top shelf..

 

When I turned 21 in 1981 there were...what, 2 "new" craft brewers? New Albion and Sierra Nevada...FX Matt hadn't even started the New Amsterdam label yet. Anchor had been around for almost a generation but were a one-off novelty without national distribution. A vast wasteland where "dry" beer or "draft" in bottles would soon enough be considered cutting edge.

Wish I could go back in time to 1984 when I started reading about homebrewing and gotten myself involved in the brewing revolution that I knew needed to come. I'm a gutless son-of-a-bitch...

 

Are you talking about "hype"? Who cares what other people think or what ratings dictate. Buy what you enjoy. Bonus if it's local! If you don't particularly like your local options, always keep an eye out for stuff that friends or family would enjoy. Also whatever may be available in FL may not be readily available in NH, so there's always the trade boards....

 

Let's be honest. Abyss deserves it.

 

This happens to me and my friends a lot probably because:
We all go bowling at the bowling lanes
Drink a few beers
Bowl a few frames
We're just ordinary average guys.

 

I can't get on board with this. Tried doing so here where I live and the garbage juice just keeps coming. Things continue to get worse, actually. Just sad and no interest in getting better.

 

At least you didn't use a Star Wars metaphor....

 

Best way to judge a Brewery.

Is how good is their Lager and Pale Ale.

 

Definitely. You can hide behind a 10% imperial stout brewed with coffee or chocolate or whatever, but there's no place hide when making a 5% Pilsner. If a brewery can nail a simple, no-frills style then they have my attention.

 

"These aren't the beers you're looking for."

 

I'm making records
My fans they can't wait
They write Tim letters
Tell Glen Don's great

 

Well, since you phrased it as a question (always cautious about correcting peoples' nostalgic beer memories )...
Industry stats show that, besides those two brewers, Cartwright, Debakker, Wm. Newman, Thousand Oaks and River City also were open in '81. Two others, Franklin and California Steam, had already come and gone.

While the New Amsterdam beers were initially contract-brewed at F. X. Matt (then still going by the "West End Brewing Co." name), the brand was owned by Matthew Reich's Old New York Beer Co., predating the contract-brewing model Jim Koch/Boston Beer Co's Samuel Adams beer would use a few years later.

Matt would eventually buy the New Amsterdam brand in the late '80s after Old New York's brewery in Manhattan closed, only to sell it off again in the '90s, .

Anchor brewed ~25,000 bbl. in 1981 according to industry sources (thus, beyond the definition of a "microbrewery") and had already passed pre-craft Geyer Bros. and was closing in on 30-40k bbl. brewers like August Schell, Straub and Spoetzl. Besides Anchor Steam, they also brewed Porter, Old Foghorn and Our Special Ale. They had opened their new, larger brewery (w/110 bbl. brewhouse) in 1980 and, besides the west coast, Anchor was already shipping beer to markets in MN, NJ, Chicago and Boston.

 

Beer is a fashion item like all consumables.In the UK for example what was all the rage has moved from Porter to Mild to Bitter and then lager.
Like all fashion items some people will take them to the extreme.Remember kipper ties and flared trousers? And the more extreme you go with fashion the quicker it goes out of date.
The beers which will stand the test of time are exactly what I consider "ordinary" , well brewed but beautifully balanced beers which can be drunk over and over again without getting bored with them , no palate fatigue to contend with either.
I've gone full circle over my more than half a century af beer drinking , found lots of interesting stuff on the way which is nice for a occasional change but I've found myself always returning to the beers I grew up with.

 

Perfectly Ordinary.
Prefect: having no mistakes or flaws
Ordinary: what is commonplace or standard.

These beer seems like its something id enjoy, available beer that is to style and without flaws . Mind blowing can be found on different levels.

 

I go back further. I remember a time when Michelob was top shelf.

 

Which is why it's a shame that breweries that showcase traditional German styles do not receive more run. It's like building a ship in a bottle. It's darn difficult and painstaking, yet creates a beauty that doesn't receive nearly as much appreciation because nobody wants to sit around and discuss nuances and details. Seems like people just want to have their senses molested every second of the day.

 

I don't understand why people want their beer to be complicated. Does every can, bottle or draft have to "wow!" you? Why can't we just drink the good beer and leave it at that? I don't need the consensus of a forum to tell me what I should like.

What's wrong with having a solid Helles lager, or an IPA that isn't small batch and tastes like orange juice and sunshine? The everything-has-to-be-triple-cognac/tequila/bourbon-barrel-aged-with-coffee-and-cocoa-nibs-and-Madagascan-vanilla-or-it's-bad mindset of this place gets a bit rediculous at times.