What brewery does your community sh-t on?

Gilded Otter was the first brewpub in our area, Darren Currier once brewed very good, if not great, beer as the brewmaster. Some years back they realized their killer location made brewing good beer unnecessary. Quality steadily declined. A year ago there were rumors that the place was sold to a much better brewery. They were sold, that was true, but word around here is the beer now is EVEN WORSE. I won't be stopping in any time soon to check out how bad it is.

Also a "farmhouse style" brewery opened at one of the more touristy orchard stores (I live in apple country) I won't name here (PM me for that if you'd like), and "word on the street" is stay away, stay far away from their beer.

 

Yale Terrace Brewing in Cranford NJ. Bad from day one.

 

How do they stay in business?

Cheers!

 

Good question, and I doubt anyone can answer it.

 

We have some 20+ breweries in area; most are average to very meh, or bad. Sadly, only 2-3 know what they're doing. But I live in a place that has notoriously average food, too, and I think the survival of "average to poor" breweries is actually related to our "average to poor" dependence on fast food chains.
That's just a theory... and I try NOT to shit on local breweries. I really try hard.

 

I would have to say Granite City in Forest Heights is the one that most shit on. It isn't because it is downright awful because in my opinion it is not, but the service is not that great at all which brings it down a lot.

 

Atwater, and rightly so. Yet they sell like crazy because Detroiters will buy anything made in Detroit regardless of quality or lack thereof.

 

Shebeen in CT just makes OK beer that doesn't really measure up with other stuff even just locally. They make some fun named and cool labeled beer but thats about it. The owner went so far as to call out local CT drinkers for not buying enough of their product a few years back.

 

Before it was Noble, it was Bootlegger's here in SoCal. They had one good beer that put them on th map and then they could never really re-create it again. They managed to survive off the popularity of that one beer for years. No one I know drinks them or even talks about them. I don't know how they are still around.

 

I think Arcadia falls into the 'shat upon' category. It was probably 4-6 years ago that they released a couple BBA beers that were likely infected, but the brewery kept insisting that there were no issues with the beers. I think that was the beginning of their problems, but their regular menu beers were becoming just average when compared to what was on store shelves from other breweries.

Today the brewery has new ownership (the bank) and new management but I have not watched them closely to see how things are going. I hope things improve so that all of their employees can continue to collect paychecks. They still have some beers that I like buying.

 

And the "much better" brewery they were sold to is the worst brewery in Orange County, imo. Have no idea who is buying the product they put out

 

We aren't necessarily talking about "bad beer" here, at least that's my take. So I'll go a different direction and say it's mostly the OG breweries that take a beatin' from the "community". I'm thinking of some of the pioneering breweries that are now more or less irrelevant - Boston Beer comes to mind. Harpoon doesn't really appeal to the beer geek crowd (yet they'll turn 10,000 people on a good Saturday in their bierhall). Smuttynose - the poster child around here for overzealous expansion plans, great location, good food and some good beers that don't get attention. I'd even go so far and say Sierra Nevada, Stone, Founders, etc. are right knocking on that irrelevancy door. They just aren't seen as being "hip" these days.

There are quite a few breweries I'd rather see in the barrel. A local to me that makes ridiculous flavor combinations yet has a rabid local following - not flawed beer, but flawed concepts and recipes like who the hell ever thought that would taste good kinds of things. Couple of others that actually do make lousy beer - Buzzard's Bay comes to mind. And @JackHorzempa I know how they stay open - location is spectacular, they have music, atmosphere, and it's a very social and family oriented outdoor gathering place. I even agree that those non-beer things combine to provide a very enjoyable visit. If their beers were hitting bunts for singles, never mind home runs, it would be great. An average beer in a great setting is still a very nice experience, but below average beer in the same setting just leaves me thinking about the lost opportunity. Breweries that don't try to improve or don't see the need for improvement seem to me like the ones that should draw some flak, but it's all subjective.

The "quality" bar seems to be rising in general and some separation between wheat and chaff has happened, but there are plenty of places open that remain so because of things other than their beer quality. Whether it's socialization, social media frenzy, food, appealing to a specific segment of drinkers, local institution, parties in the brew house - lots of other factors involved that keep places open. And (arguably) they are producing and selling what their customers want so whether I like the beer/place or not is irrelevant. Who's to say whether these places should be dumped on? I prefer finding the total package - well-made beer plus the indirect things. All of it should roll up to create the "experience".

 

I agree. I was shocked to find out who it was. I wonder what they paid, had it on good authority asking was 3 million. And the brew house at the Otter is killer, all copper, perfectly set up. What a waste of great equipment!

 

Good luck with that.

 

I'm curious what other Colorado BA's think.

Most of the places that caught shit for making bad beer (Zephyr, Grand Lake 2.0, Mu, etc.) are long gone. Prost has been up and down, but have rebounded in a big way recently.

There's still a lot of heat around Trinity, although I find myself agreeing with Jason Yester way too much lately. I'm not sure if that falls on him or me.

10 Barrel and Breck get some eye rolls, but I don't think that's related to their beer.

 

Around here it was, at least to their recent sale, Melvin. Mostly for non-beer reasons, but their brews were pretty one-note.

 

Eh I wouldn't put Founders in that company, aside from barrel runner their releases have still been solid. Sure they don't generate hype like they used to, but they're far from being irrelevant.

 

There was a horrible brewery near me that the community $#it out of business.