One Trick Pony

Tabol in Richmond VA for their table/low ABV beer.

But table beer ain't necessarily a style.

Anyone say Stone = IPA yet (I know they make other styles)

 

I agree with you here. I wonder how well this beer is selling?

Cheers!

 

I'm sorry, but Jester King seems like such an odd target here. Others have already pointed out the true wide range of beers they make. Some folks may not like their more experimental beers, but they are not all the same flavor.

It seems like the enthymeme here is that since they use the same house mixed culture in everything, that makes them a one trick pony. If beer styles were only determined by the yeast, I could maybe see the point, but Jester King brews all over the map with other ingredients. If Jester King has limited scope in this regard, then so does Sierra Nevada, which uses Chico yeast for the vast majority of their beers (but no one would say Pale Ale, Torpedo, Stout, Narwhal, and Bigfoot are "basically the same style").

 

I wish there were more one trick ponies, at least in Minnesota. Too many breweries trying to be a one stop shop for everything, and many simply do not have the skill to pull it off across the board. I like it when a brewery stands for something and stands apart. I think the recent proliferation of taprooms is part of the reason,.as they want to make sure that people can come in and have a wide variety of choices.

 

Bearded Iris would be my choice... they are a New England IPA Factory at this point. They do make other beers that are okay but I keep pumping these out one after another. The thing is you could line 10 of them up in a row and I couldn't tell which one was which... it was fun 3 years ago...now? Just feels played out....

 

On Jester King they do make an "altbier", "bitters", and such but it's virtually impossible to tell what those beers actually are. The beer characteristics are all drowned out by the wild yeast or the barrels.

I just had the Pattinson Porter which was the "East German Porter" collaboration with Ron Pattinson. You could have served it to me blind and I would have picked it out as being a Jester King beer.
The description was of a heavily hopped and roasty stout. But it was like so many other JK dark beers. The roasty element never comes through to me obscured in the yeast phenolics and all I've gotten from any dark JK beer is a dried fruit flavor in a farmhouse sour.

The different "styles" JK makes aren't really different styles in my experiences and just are minor variations in the overall wild beer style. I taste more variation in other breweries different examples of the same style than I do in JK beers that are of wildly different styles.

I do like JKs beers and I do buy them every so often.

The phrase "one trick pony" is only really negative if you want to be. It's more descriptive than anything.
I've normally heard one trick pony being used in reference to competitive things like athletics or wargames. It refers to someone who excels in one area to the expense of others.

Theres nothing inherently wrong with this it just allows for someone who knows the weaknesses to exploit them.

In a breweries context it doesn't really matter necessarily but it means that brewery limits their demographics.

 

Personally I think the OTP works as a business model
I'm not in industry but makes sense for me as consumer
Do something really good and we will all beat a path to your door

I will offer up Revision as IPA house but I'm all in

 

Not sure I agree. In my entire life I don’t think I’ve ever heard the term one trick pony used in any sort of complimentary/positive way.

Absolutely it could be used in reference to a legitimately elite/successful player in a particular sport. But most likely in a disparaging/grudging way from an opposition manager/player/fan. Like if team X beats team Y with the bulk of the scores coming from team X’s star player, with each score happening in similar circumstances - I can imagine team Y’s manager describing the guy as a one trick pony. I can’t imagine the same coming from team X’s manager.

And sorry - wargames? I assume you’re in the military and we’re not talking about the 80’s movie?

 

I've never heard it used in a complimentary manner.

 

Some of that may be a palate acclimation issue. I've heard people say the same thing about Schlenkerla's lineup, but, as a smoked beer fan, I find the differences among the various styles Schlenkerla produces to be obvious and substantial despite the smoke overlay. I've even heard people say the same thing about non-sour Belgian ales in general, that they all taste alike because of the yeast, whereas I would say that, prior to the American craft beer explosion, Belgium featured the most diverse array of styles and flavors in beer of any country in the world.

Regardless, Jester King is famous for both an array of sour beers and an array of non-sour farmhouse ales, so, even if you want to approach the idea of "style" extremely broadly, it has at least two distinct tricks for which it's highly regarded.

I'm not a Jester King superfan, for the record. I do think it's up and down (though more up than down), but part of the reason that it's up and down is that the beers it makes vary from each other so greatly.

 

I got excited and thought someone wanted to drive me to Lansing IL to literally go to the brewery with that name

 

Neither have I. Except in the context of war games, of course.

 

Whether or not it's normally used in a disparaging way doesn't really matter in my opinion. If you discount a "One trick pony" then you'll be in trouble because the point is that trick is supposed to be really good.

We're not saying that these are bad brewers or breweries. Because they have their niche and they do it really well. It's just that they either choose not to move out of their niche, they don't focus on perfecting it, or they just don't want to put the time into understanding beers outside their expertise.

I haven't seen any non sour beer from Jester King since 2014 or so. I loved the Wytchmaker, Black Metal, and Commercial Suicide back when they were not sour beers but they transitioned those to sours along with everything else and they're just not as good.

 

I don’t think that a brewery that chooses to focus on their niche, and excels, is a one trick pony. That’s sort of the point. Is cantillon a one trick pony? I mean you can choose to use the phrase in whatever way you want - but makes communication sort of tricky when people do that.

 

Prairie does indeed make excellent saisons.

I also usually have one of their trick stouts in my frig at any given time.

For example, Pirate Noir is there as I type.

 

Prairie's stouts do stand out but you're forgetting beers like Prairie Standard and all the great gose styles they've put out. This brewery is low hanging fruit only because they haven't pushed out exceptional IPA's.
P.S. they have a few....

 

I'd say in this context and in many ones Cantillon would be considered a one trick pony.

I've never even seen a bottle of theirs but I understand they make exceptional lambics and gueuzes.

But if someone doesn't like sour beers then every one from Cantillon they'll hate.

Again. I'm not saying this is not a problem, and it is entirely the purpose for their entire business. All I'm saying is they do one thing and do it well but they miss out on other demographics.

 

Lots (most?) of my favorite beers come from breweries that only do one thing well.