Firestone Walker retires Pale 31

Hate to see it. FW seems to be retiring what I see as fan-favorites, but I'm sure their metrics tell them otherwise (and it's important to remember that BAs are a small minority of the overall beer-drinking public).

 

Clean, incredibly well-made beer is SO yesterday.

 

Loved drinking this one on tap at the brewery. Unfortunately I never saw it on tap around here and fresh bottle were nearly impossible to come by.

 

A solid APA, I hope they don't discontinue Union Jack or DBA. They need to bring back Double DBA.

 

Truly, one of my all-time favorite beers ever.

 

Sorry to see this go. I'm certainly not tired of Pale Ales.

 

There you have it, folks: worst beer news of 218 so far. This sucks. When I lived in Arizona it was easily my favorite pale ale you could get in stores. When I moved back East I noticed that it was very hard to find and even harder to find fresh. I'd take a fresh Pale 31 over a Luponic Distortion or even a Leo vs. Ursus any day.

 

Sad to see this one leaving it was a solid beer.

 

Liked this beer but also never bought it. I was part of the problem.

 

It seems like a trend in brewing. Founders isn't going to brew their Imperial Stout this year (at least that's what I've heard). I assume it's a market driven decision. I guess people aren't buying classic pale ale and classic Imperial Stouts anymore. Thoughts?

 

Sad to see another solid staple leave.

What the hot trend right now? NEIPAs? Sours?

 

Wow, what a bummer. I buy a decent amount of this....guess I have to go load up now.

 

The beer was probably good , but the label just didn't speak to me.

 

Simple solution: don't change much but re brand it is an IPA, instant hot seller again!

I'm not surprised to see this. While it was a good beer it was never something I would think to reach for often and it was hard to find fresh in my area, regularly sat collecting dust.

 

I always liked this beer and thought it was underrated. However, with that being said I never bought six packs of it because I always choose Pivo over it.

 

This makes me sad.

 

Tremendous beer. One of the first that taught me how to appreciate/discern crackery malt character amidst floral/citrusy hops. Refreshing as hell.

So, selfishly, I hate to see it go. But do I begrudge Firestone? No. They have 2 options, right? 1) Stick with a beer that isn't selling because people don't like that style anymore. Watch business suffer. Lay off employees. Reduce size. Go extinct. 2) Begrudgingly bid the beer goodbye, try your damndest to replace it with something cool that people will like enough to buy more than the previous beer.