Why are some breweries unable to brew great beers?

The classic example would be Dead Guy, I suppose- it's certainly been around long enough so I guess people like it . So, yeah, good stuff taken on its own terms, but as I usually caution people- just don't go into it expecting to understand what a Maibock is all about.

 

I like New Belgium's Black Lager. And a few of their other offerings.

 

Tasting the tap water will only get you so far and really it’s almost irrelevant. You can literally have the best tasting water on the planet and if you don’t know how to use it it will make shitty beer even if you do everything else right.

You can also take horrible water and make great beer with it. Tim Clifford from Sante has literally said he wouldn’t let people drink the water he brews with and they don’t have RO. Water management is not easy. It takes not only a fundamental understanding of water science but also potentially a multitude of vessels and processes to be able to adjust it.

Honestly recipes are pretty much irrelevant as well. Maybe more malt focused beers it is important but the best beers in the world are literally often made with the simplest recipes.

So often it’s literally choosing to not give a shit. I try to grill every brewer I can at almost every brewery I go to. It generlaly takes no time at all to understand why their beer is good or why it’s not.

 

$7 a 6 pack. Not the price I usually associate with a great craft beer. It's probably brewed to satisfy a price conscious clientele and maybe the brewery mentioned in this thread isn't trying so hard to brew a great beer, just a beer that satisfies enough people to support it's product. I like some of the products from this brewer but wouldn't associate the word "great" to any of them. Quality and consistency of the ingredients and the brewing process have all gotta be there to make the great ones, but even then, I have had those experiences where something didn't line up right and a great beer tasted sub-par. Thank goodness for the variety and quantity of brews we have today.

 

Yep, see Bud Light as a prime example. It's representative as a light lager, but its not a great beer, but it is a obviously a top seller. Kinda challenges the senses right, brew a great beer a few people love, or brew Bud Light and go buy your own private Carribean Island. I can't bitch when Wicked Weed sells shares to AB.

 

I would say this is more of an expectation vs style thing. I for one, dislike the sour and super hazy citrus IPA (NEIPA) crazy (and pretty much any PB beer I have ever had).

On the sours, I have never had one I like. The only one I rated well and said I would willingly drink again, gets poor ratings simple because others see it as not sour enough. To me it was boarder line sour/tart but something else was there to hide it. My expectation was something I couldn't drink and was pleased I could, does that mean it was really to style? I am not sure personally, but most to style sour beers I have had I would willingly take a bud light over.

On the NE IPA crazy side of it, I guess I am just a tradition styled IPA guy. There are NE IPAs I like, just they tend to be less hazy and less super forward citrus hop flavor. Most of the really hazy ones are very off putting to me from a taste stand point as I get a very filmy tongue coating flavor that is not nice.

In my area there are beers people wait in line for, and I have hated. I personally would never wait in line that long just for beer. Maine Beer Co always hypes up their "dinner" releases, when I went and tried it before buying the bottle the guy behind the bar was shocked I didn't like it. They had a "woods and waters" that was a piney kind of IPA that I loved and brought some home. There is one brewery near by that most people seem to dislike. He is smaller and does a lot of different things. Most of his beer to me is odd, and under carbed. I will say his cucumber dill pale is nice and refreshing, but most others seem to funky or out in left field for me, but he always has a full house on Thurs and Fri.

I realize that is a lot of saying the same thing over and over again but it is to the point. Good beer is in the eyes of the drinker and not the masses. Yes I would agree that the masses will determine a breweries fate, but what everyone wants isn't only what is great.

 

Oh, I agree with that as a fact, but casual beer drinkers reinforce issue #1 that I pointed out. Building a brand means selling it to as many people as possible, including casual beer drinkers, and hoping to rely on that for long-term success that (hopefully) survives the rising tides. The context of the "general disconnect" that I am talking about is when craft beer enthusiasts (people who are more than just casual craft beer drinkers) accuse breweries of making mediocre beer, when in fact they are often just selling balanced beer that is established in the market. I agree that these established brands are sometimes aimed at casual craft beer drinkers.

 

And we can cast the net a lot wider than that by looking at the beers that BA users have decided as the bestest of the bestest... The number 4 beer on the top 250 is a "stout aged on Peruvian cacao nibs, ancho and pasilla chiles, cinnamon and Madagascar vanilla beans aged in apple brandy and rum barrels" and the number 5 and 6 beers are listed here as a "style" different than the brewer description. I'm being a little bit tongue in cheek, so I'm not actually claiming that those three beers aren't "to style," but I'm just using them as examples to show that it's far more complicated than asking "is it to style?"

 

Water? If a brewery doesn't understand how to treat their water for various styles in 2018, there are many other process issues they probably don't understand either.

 

I am experiencing the opposite experience in the New York’s Hudson Valley. The new breweries are really producing high quality beer. The need to drive miles for the next ‘in beer’ is vanishing. They are really producing high quality beer within miles of home. Brewers are brave and inventive.

 

IPA and DIPA are the hardest style to produces, you can taste every fault. Its even hard to produce constantly which is the biggest downfall of the craft beer industry. Who wants to buy a 4 or 6pk with each beer tastes differently. Constance is a Hugh reason why big beer won beer drinkers over. When they buy a 6 pack, they knew what they were getting and they keep buying it, quite a simple idea. You see a label and you expect to get the same beer the last time you bought it. A lot people like chain restaurants for that reason alone. A lot breweries turn to contract brewers to get constantly but they also lose control of their beer which leads to freshness issue because they can't sell 100bbl brew fast enough.

 

Being so egotistical and such a jerk that you have no respect for your customers to give you feedback, to the point that if someone gives you a bad online review, you track them down and threaten them. A particular brewer in Estacada, Oregon is famous for that.

 

It’s the water, but the bigger question is why do some breweries allow a subpar product to be put on the market? And then there’re breweries like Tree House and....OMG do they make it an art.

 

A lot of my favorites probably fall within that overlap area- superbly crafted, yet maintaining a certain popular appeal. What a zone to hit if you're a brewer!

But I'd suspect the people you are talking about are serious in approach, but overall are simply inexperienced; so there's the connection- time. Plus, we all tend to go through an obnoxious loudmouth know-it-all phase when we're younger .

 

Point taken, but I'll just point out that if BA is still doing that it's pretty unique with regard to beer classification. The major competitions separate out flavored beers, barrel aged, etc from the base styles.

That's how we know what Miller really thinks their Lite is, despite what's on the label .

 

The OP complains about Spoetzl and wonders why some breweries can't make "great beers?" That is what confuses me*, but whatever.

*They are a good historical brewery...well I will say nostalgic brewery as a better description. along the lines of Yuengling (which makes far superior product by the way).

I will say specifically, that what ever comes out of Spoetzl is exactly what they want to make, so easy fix is to just find something else you like to drink.

 

I don’t necessarily consider myself an “expert”, but I care a lot more about how a beer tastes than whether it’s consistent with guidelines for a particular style.

 

Have you tried their Le Terrior? Now that one is pretty special, assuming you like "sours"

 

Their Transatlantic Kriek is pretty good, and that's the best beer I've had from them. I thought their tripel was pretty bland and boring. Despite their name I haven't actually seen many Belgian styles from them. Do you have any other recommendations? I'm not opposed to trying more from them, it's just that nearly everything has been disappointing.