Flagship Beers

kelly my point was I don't care how a brewer names their beer, rather how they make it.

 

You all might find this article on flagship beers an interesting read; it talks about what brewers consider their flagship beer and what they think about it.

http://www.beeradvocate.com/articles/447/

 

What he said.

 

Not to stray away from the subject, but I'd rather breweries not have flagship beers. There's a brewery that I frequent that has eleven beers on tap and nine of the eleven are a different style of beer. How many breweries can claim that on a regular basis?

 

1) Pilsner
2) IPA
3) Saison
4) Brown Ale

 

Ok, but when breweries don't hone their recipes they run the risk of being that musician that *technically* plays 20 different instruments, just none of them very well.

 

You don't get to choose your flagships. Whatever your best selling brews are become your flagships.

 

Uh, most of the breweries around me? They may have 2-6 regulars, and 4-10 rotating brews at a given time.

 

4-10 rotating brews at a given time is different than 4-10 different BEER STYLES at a given time.

 

Right now they have:

IPA
DIPA
APA
Imperial Stout
Belgian Blonde
Berliner Weisse
Saison
ESB
Dry Irish Stout

 

IPA
Stout
Porter
APA

 

Pale ale or IPA only one or the other. Preferably something with citra.
Saison, not an overly hoppy one though and under 4-4.5 % for a nice session able summer beer.
Brown ale, upslope is a personal favorite, so something similar.
Imperial stout, need more year round ones.
And put everything in a can.

 

I realize I'll sound biased, but every one of their beers is good to great. They have a 4.15/5 rating here.

 

APA/IPA
Pilsner
Stout
Berliner Weisse

 

My bad; 4-10 rotating beers of different styles at a given time. I was at one of my local breweries yesterday, 13 taps, one of which is cider, so 12 beers. The closest to having two of the same style were a Mosaic single hop and their Rye IPA, and Raspberry and Cranberry sours. Fairly typical around here.

 

A brewer friend of mind said this same thing before starting up when I asked him what would be his flagship.

 

This really hits the nail on the head for me. So, I'll promote it and expand on it a little more.

Pilsener: there is nothing to hide behind here. If you don't have quality control, consistency, good brewmasters and ingredients, and recipes, it won't be good. There is are no boisterous notes to hide behind like a RIS or IPA.

American Pale Ale: It requires a good ability with hops, and yet it cannot be a hop bomb. I don't care how well you can make a hop bomb if you can't make a quality APA. Especially if you're competing to be one of the best breweries out there.

American Brown Ale: To be honest, not totally sold on this style, but it does require the opposite skills of APAs, thus creating more credability for a brewery when done right. You can hop stuff up? Great. Now rely on malts and yeast.

(Russian) Imperial Stout: This is my favorite style, so I'm biased here, but it requires a good knowledge of malts, yeasts, grains, and different aging techniques. If you can age a good RIS, chances are I like you. It's also a fine art, since you don't want to be selling a session burning bourbon.

IPA: honorable mention for me. I'm not saying they're easy to make right, but I'd rather investigate the ability of a brewery through the above 4 styles. I've had some breweries that make a good IPA, but don't do anything else right. There is a lot to hide behind in an IPA (although the same can be said for a RIS).

 

I like the classification system - have one of each:
- hoppy - APA, IPA, IIPA, hoppy amber, whatever
- dark - porter, stout, dark Belgian, etc
- refreshing - pilsner, hefe, saison
- malty - brown, barleywine, blonde Belgian, etc

 

I agree but would add another point:

The breweries that seem to be the most successful and/or profitable, however, don't just have a flagship set of brews. They pick an image--an entire identity as a brewery--and stick to that (examples include Stone: HOPS; Dogfish Head: whatever we want; Jester King: only sours; etc.). It's breweries that waver or waffle back and forth who seem to flounder. Making bad beer is also a surefire way to fail.