Breweries that you used to like but avoid now?

Agreed. Prairie makes great beers and I have enjoyed a bunch of them but in 2020 there are a ton of great stouts available with a much more reasonable price tag. I can get either a bomber of Mexican Cake or a six pack of Xocoveza for like $3 more than a single 12oz bottle of Bomb! The value just isn't there.

 

I used to drink a lot of stuff from Mill Street Brewing but currently drink nothing from them. It's not that they deteriorated, it's that other breweries in Ontario just moved past them. So, I guess if you're not moving forward you're moving backward. There is no status quo.

 

Smuttynose. Used to love them but they got too big at the wrong time and their beers never evolved with the times. They have tried but have yet to have a new beer from them in the past few years I was wowed by. But I’ll still root for them and have a Finest Kind every here and there.

 

Smuttynose was sold a couple years ago due to financial troubles if I recall correctly. I use to drink a lot of their stuff now I don't even see it around anymore which is kind of sad they were one of the first breweries that helped get me into craft.

 

Stone, Goose Island, Ballast Point, and there are probably a few more.

 

Maybe I am being overly critical but outside Xocoveza I don't think Stone has made an interesting distro beer since their Mocha IPA a few years ago. I used to buy Arrogant Bastard by the case back in like 2009 but overall Stone seems to have become stagnant pumping out generic Stonish IPA's that are solid to drink but nothing I would actually buy assuming I had other options available.

 

Rogue, dead guy ale helped me get into the game so it will always have a special place in my heart. Used to always try their now bottles back in the day. Actually did try Dead n Dead recently, but besides that haven't bought anything from them in years.

And then Wicked Weed, absolutely loved them. Having lived in Asheville briefly their selling out was very disappointing. That being said if I come across any of those angel variants I'll probably buy it. I guess I am not very good at this game!

 

I'm not as enamored of Evil Twin, Stone, and Ballast Point as I was when I first got interested in craft beer. I thought the whole "Arrogant" thing was kinda cool, and I don't think I've ever had a beer from ET or BP that I didn't like. But there's too much other stuff of comparable quality out there, and at much better prices.

Goose Island can go piss up a rope, and when they do they can get in line behind everyone else AB-InBev owns. (That is, until I run across some more $4.99 BCBS, as I did earlier this year.)

 

Too many craft brewers to list.

 

stone, rogue, ballast point, bear republic, and green flash

 

Stone, Ballast Point, Deschutes. If you took the "way back" machine 7-8 years ago and you would have found a third and half of my beer from theses companies. Today - only Deschutes Black Butte for my wife.

 

I had not purchased Stone beer in a while but I recently found a very fresh Stone IPA 12-pack so I 'splurged'. Those beers essentially had zero hop aroma - WTF!?!

I will not be buying any more Stone beers.

Cheers!

 

Victory. Most of the new beers they release don't interest me, and the packaging/branding (which, yeah I know, shouldn't really matter) is off-putting at the least. They still brew a number of their old standbys but for some reason I can't get around to buying any of them.

I like to buy local and over the last year or so it's been mostly Yards, Sly Fox, and Tröegs.

 

None, I buy less of them than I used to. That is only because there are so many more options to buy instead.

 

Trillium. Even before the scandal I hated what their IPAs had turned into. Original recipe Fort Point and Congress St. were two of the best hoppy beers I've had, and then they monkeyed with the fermentation profile and it went downhill. I was complaining about hop burn from Trillium before I'd ever even heard the term!

 

What was the time frame you they played with the fermentation profile? I haven't have Fort Point or Congress Street since ~2017 or so but according to my notes I thought it was awesome then

 

Been getting away from Avery and Flying Dog recently, and even Victory. Seemed like a lot of their newer offerings were a little lightweight (excepting Avery's Barrel Aged series of course)

Add to that 3 Floyd's, Toppling Goliath, Surly, and Lawson's coming to PA, much tastier options there.