OK so how many chances...

For a brand new brewery its more about quality and apparent skill in my opinion. Its usually pretty easy to tell if the brewers know what they are doing. It may not be my favorite brew, but if its good quality I will give them a few tries.

 

3, unless it's at a tasting or I get a flight at a new brewery that I'm visiting

 

One chance, if the beer is terrible I won't come back again. To me nothing will change, so why bother. If I try 2-3 of their main beers and they are just not good its time to move on.

 

No real fixed number since more than once I've had a beer from a brewery that I didn't much care for and then later fround one that I loved. But if I give a brewery a few trials over a couple of years and nothing has changed for the better, that's pretty much it. Although I'll be willing to give some one local a few more chances that someone whose beers have to be transported long distances to get here.

 

I'll try a new brewery once. If it's not good I won't go back until the beer starts getting good reviews.

 

If a mule kicks me once it might be the mule's fault but if he kicks me twice . . .

 

What are we talking here- quality control or overall direction? If it's the former, 3 or 4 strikes (too many, right ). If it's the latter, and the beers don't appeal to me in the first place , then... let's just say less than that .

The reality, though, is that I usually just think in terms of individual beers and not breweries so much. If you make only one beer that I enjoy, I'll keep on buying it and not pay any mind to the rest.

 

I guess it depends how bad the beer i try was. I like to try at least 3 beers from a place before I think I have any grasp on their quality

 

I'm willing to retry a beer at least once, especially if I can tell it's flawed rather than a style/recipe I just don't care for. More than that will take some serious salesmanship.

As for breweries, I have zero tolerance for poor service. I understand the difference between busy/overwhelmed and poor service, and will always cut a new brewery slack on the former. The latter though...nope. Just too many other good breweries out there to put up with bad service.

 

It depends, some breweries take a while to get there stuff together. I'll usually give it a few shots most of the time. There's also a few breweries whose core beers aren't any good, but they have a few limited releases that are really good, so if I hear good enough things about a beer I'll always try it.

 

3 different beers before I judge the brewery. I tend to try beers that have solid ratings a few times if I'm not impressed the first.

This thread makes me want to pose another question...

How many times will you re-buy a beer if you try it one year and its great. For instance I have had KBS for the last 4 years. 2014 and 2015 were amazing. 2016 was solid, and this years was not good at all IMO. I went to a bar yesterday and they had 2017 on draft and got a pour and it was still not good...But next year I probably will still buy it if I see it. What about everyone else?

 

A few times. I am all about my locals, within the surrounding states is local when you live in Idaho. But there is one right here in Idaho Falls that is just awful. I want to like them, I've tried to like them several times. They just do not brew beer up to the level I can get in any store or local bottle shop/ tap room. When asked about them I am polite and say there not for me. Plus the place just has a weird twilght zone/ star wars bar feel and vibe to me. Service strikes me as if you're not one of their buddies or a certain crew they really don't want to be bothered with you. I've had several friends agree on both of those counts. Simple, I don't go there...

 

I'm with you on this. How good KBS was the first time I had it (2013) will make me get it whenever I can from now on, even if it goes downhill.

 

Two, and then there's a time-out period of at least a year or so before I try another one.

 

I think much the same way, that is to say - in terms of individual beers. We have some solid local breweries around here, not many, but a few. That said, I really only care to pick up one or two of their beers. The rest just don't strike my fancy. They just seem off, which could be QC related, but I haven't re-visited to find out.

Funny you should bring up KBS. I am fortunate enough to have another beer nerd in my running crew, and we both have brought up the fact that we will not be buying KBS again next year. That sentiment is new as of this year compared with years past. His point was price related, and mine was quality/price related. In other words, I am not going to pay $25 to see if this year's is going to be good. Part of this is due to the price going up on KBS, and part of it is that KBS just feels less... impressive, year by year. So I guess price pending, one bad year could throw me off from buying a particular re-occurring beer.

 

I just moved to area from Texas and yet to try anything local. Which place are you talking about?

 

Yup, comes with the territory with many seasonals. Especially the ones with more than one variable.