Since the investment company bought Full Sail..the brewery has been a pale shadow of its former self. All we get is an endless line of the "Session" beers and an odd outlier..the Milk shake IPA..gone are they days when they released the bourbon aged porters..doppelbocks..the lager series... Full Sail were always a huge favorite of mine..the first beer I had on arrival in Oregon 20 years ago was a Full Sail Amber..and i was hooked. The investors really appear to know nothing of beer..and i feel this might be the next brewery to clos with a big SHOCK headline. What do you guys think?
I think, you might not be wrong. Outside of "Session" series beers, can't remember seeing any FS beers recently (say, 2ish years?). OTOH, if the Sessions and contract brewing they do is providing enough return for the owners/investors.......
I believe when they were acquired there was an announcement or blog post that they were going to stop doing the Brewmaster Reserve beers and focus more on core beers.
They're in the middle of a complete overhaul of the brand. New beers and packaging will be hitting shelves soon including cans. They also make the Kyla Hard Kombucha brand in addition to Session.
My experience with FS is identical to yours, including the history. At one time, their Deck the Halls winter DIPA was a beer I looked forward to with keen anticipation. It's probably been at least 5 years (and likely closer to a decade) since I last tried a FS beer. Kind of sad, really...
All the rebranding they have to do is dust off the recipes for that LTD series of Lagers, Pilsners, and Maibocks with the wild colored labels. Tho looking at the reviews, I see I liked them better than most
My group was talking about this Saturday night over a VERY enjoyable 2008 BA Top Sail. We've seen very little new in Boise lately.
I paid more interest at the grocery store yesterday after seeing this thread and can report seeing more than just the session series. They had Full Sail in 6 & 12 packs, including cans and the newly branded bottles mentioned above (though I'm not impressed at either the new logo or changing Blood Orange Wheat to Blood Orange Hefeweizen). The Atomizer series was available, though they appeared to be older bottles. Wonder if they'll rename that series as well. I agree that the LTD series was some of their best work. I can do without the malted milkshake IPA.
The only beer I've had and enjoyed was the Session lager. Personally, I'm a big fan of well-hopped IPAs in the West Coast style and in the sea of options, Full Sail wasn't it for me.
Had their new Bohemian Pilsner just a few minutes ago..nice to see they are going back to the old school stylized sail design somewhat. But the beer was pretty underwhelming..not bad..just plain. I had thought it might be a re-incarnation of one of the LTD beers..but alas not.
Hey just looked at their website and it looks like the good stuff is coming back!! https://fullsailbrewing.com/full-sail-beers/
