The “Perfect” Brewery - A Thought By Raul

I know the title question here is hypothetical, but I will still state what I think is obvious. A lot of the responses here are focused on the beer quality. I agree that that absolutely needs to be priority one. However, thinking outside that box the "perfect" brewery would have all of these things going on-

• All beers offered are top quality
• Beers offered cover a large variety of styles
• Flagships are the backbone, but new beers pop up all the time
• Pricing is "fair"
• Distribution is wide, efficient and fresh
• Brewery taproom(s) exist and are a great experience in all aspects
• Marketing is sharp (makes you want to be associated with brewery)
• Dare I add Eco-friendly, diversity-friendly, community-supportive etc...

No brewery can meet all these points, but I am sure many of you can name your top pick for every bullet item listed above.

 

There is no perfect brewery. Everybody loves HF and TH, but if you don't live in the Northeast then they're mostly chimeras, like Westy. Woody, your bullet list is a great way to reconcile "the triumph of hope versus experience". So I'll throw out...Great Lakes. Their lineup is solid across the board, and you can actually...find them, like even in the supermarket. They have a couple of seasonals that I seek out every year, and their everyday lineup is rock solid. Even though I agree with the 4 page menu analogy, GL makes a pretty broad spectrum (IPAs, Lagers, Stouts, Porters) and none disappoints.

 

STS pils rocks and Shadow Of Doubt is an excellent porter.

right now the best brewery is Green Cheek. They do every style of hoppy beers excellent (NE, WC, smoothie), great lagers, stouts, pastry stouts, fruited kettle sours and even seltzers!

I would even throw Modern Times in there. They do sours, barrel aged, IPAs, lagers etc. all excellent.

 

Literally you’re describing allagash

 

I'm not saying there's such a thing as a perfect brewery, and I'm not saying that woodchipper's list would define it if possible... but Sierra Nevada probably gets closer to hitting the above points than anything else I can think of in the US (despite any areas where the brewery falls short or personal preferences regarding taste).

 

I may have 'voted' for Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. of circa 2018 (or so) but in 2021 Sierra Nevada should just rename their brewery as IPA Brewing Co. Unless maybe they would suffer a lawsuit from Stone Brewing Co. (does Stone they have enough money now to hire lawyers for an additional lawsuit?).

Cheers!

 

I agree with the analogy of the large menu for sure. As a former Chef in a brewery I can tell you it takes alot more diverse inventory to produce even a small menu then it does to produce a variety of beers. Of course as stated above this depends on the number of beers produced and obviously the size of the menu. Beers of course you have water, malt, hops and yeast. Yes you may have a good number of malts but you, for the most part, have one water source, several or maybe even one type of yeast and hops may be the most diverse part. Obviously you have fruits, nibs and a good amount of other adjuncts. Im not talking chemicals, cleaning supplies etc. With one sauteed dish in a kitchen just for fats you could have fry oil, canola for saute', EVOO for a salad/flavoring component and whole butter to finish. That doesn't include protein, starch, veg sauce components, beer, wine...you get the picture. Ive developed alot of menus and agree with the "big menu doesnt work" in almost all cases. It does depend on cross utilization as well. I think this may apply to brewers even more so...how many beers are using crystal malts?, Choc malts?....how many use Centennial hops? Amarillo? Etc. However there are menus that try to appeal to the masses and are successful. Are they perfect in either case? All matter of opinion just as in the brewery scenario.

 

I think that's the type of brewery worship I find puzzling. Certain breweries (often haze factories) develop reputations as being good breweries based off them being great in a certain style and consumers extend that "greatness" to everything they make. I think people get caught in this hype loop (you can call it a hyper loop if you want) and concentrate their buying to said brewery, rather than branching out and seeing what else is on the market. "I've found the best brewery, why would I drink something else?"

In the big picture, I don't think it's bad for the overall industry if these breweries branch out into different styles. Wishful thinking but maybe one of these consumers tries a new style from a "great" brewery and decides "I want to try other beers of this style." They have a pilsner they like from Tree House and proceed to try Jack's Abby's or Notch's or Schilling's and find a new brewery who does it better or specializes in the style. Of course, the other side of that is that if these "great" breweries are making bastardized versions of traditional styles (that those people like), you might be setting up poor expectations for that branching out.

I think breweries should know what they do well, they should know their lane, but I don't think they should or need to stay in their lane. At the end of the day, it's about bringing people in and moving product. If you don't have an IPA on the menu, you can alienate a lot of folks. If you don't have alternative beverages, you might not make the cut for a group outing. If you don't have a light (abv) beer, you might have difficulty keeping people around for multiple rounds. There's a lot of things to consider from a business stand point.

Sorry, veering off subject a little, let's get back on it.

Allagash is a top 5 brewery for me, but they "stay in their lane" and don't make IMO a large variety of styles. I need more than Allagash. My fridge is incomplete if it just has Allagash. At the same time, Allagash would definitely be a part of that fridge. Oh and Allagash is possibly the best run brewery in craft beer. I think we agree on that.

 

This is an interesting way to frame this and I ... don't disagree with it. I love picking up 12-packs of Allagash White. It's often, "Okay, here is a six/four-pack of [x] and a 12 of White." I don't know if I'd use the word "incomplete" because I can happily have White and Night Sky or Tripel or True Penny and feel complete. But I totally get it. Well said.

 

At this point it’s any brewery that offers more than IPA and pale lagers.

Unfortunately after moving to Tennessee, that’s pretty much all there is here.

 

The distribution and pricing of the macros crossed with the good beers of many of the craft breweries previously mentioned would be perfect. A brewery is not perfect if I can't buy it at a store in town.

 

I will second Hill Farmstead and Tired Hands being prefect.

 

Hi Jack, generally i agree with your sentiment but i am hoping with my relocation from PHX to the greater AVL area and landing about 20 minutes down I-26 from Mills River that i look forward to having access to their non- IPA catalogue. Currently sipping on Baltic Joy which is a coconut Baltic porter and it is pretty good. I also joined the Alpha Hops society and have 6 bottles of a blueberry maple imperial stout which should be fun to have! But when in the grocery store the other day i did see the classic Porter and Stout six-packs which i have not seen for a number of years in PHX and i am excited to have again! And i hope to see their Kolsch again and enjoy some lagers while re-adapting to humidity that i have mostly been out of the last 35 years!
Cheers,
Tom

PS: I understand PHX is to enjoy a 99 degree day today while AVL is sitting pretty at 71...so happy to be in western NC!

 

You certainly will have a broader choice of brands for drinking at the brewery's taproom (and outdoor area). Have you been yet? If not, I strongly recommend a visit.

I hope that you enjoy living in the Asheville area; it is pretty country there.

Cheers!

 

I don't think it is a realistic or even worthwhile goal to say you intend to be "World Class" making:
Lambic / wild ale
Flanders styles
Barrel Aged Stouts / "Big Beers"
IPAs / IIPAs
Lagers
Light "crushable" low cost beers
Belgian styles
German styles
British Styles
Recreating / cloning beers of fame
Brett beers
Smoothie kettle sours
Pastry stouts
Smoked beers
Pumpking beers
<<insert from : https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/styles/ >>


Specialization is what makes the world go around, see: Henry Ford's assembly line.

There are obviously trade-offs in scaling up / increasing distribution footprint, vs making a small amount of handcrafted "brewery only" beers that are relatively inaccessible for 99.9% of the country. If you make one beer REALLY WELL, you can become famous in beer history.


There is room for different players, at different scales, in this game. Anyone who is getting knocked out of business, tends to have flaws in their portfolio and/or distribution strategy. Not that it is fun to say "oh those guys sucked and deserved to go under" but as with any retail good, there are people who fall behind trends / can't adapt, top heavy, over leveraged, etc - and sadly beer is no exception.

The good news is that if you are making a high quality product at a reasonable rice point, the sky is the limit, although craft beer is a cut throat and low margin game to be playing right now.

 

But what counts as a reasonable adjunct percentage?

 

I limit it to 20% for my homebrewed Classic American Pilsner but I suppose each brewer/consumer can draw their own lines here.

Cheers!

 

Whooooooosh

 

Two years back I had a Pils at Russian River Windsor that I thought was better than STS, can't remember the name.

Some of my best liked breweries make limited styles. Schlenkerla is a good example with Rauchbier. Even when they leave out the Rauchmalz the Helles is smokey.

Firestone Walker makes great beer over many styles as their number of GABF and WBC awards attest to. On the same trip to RR we went down to Paso again. The Pivo at the taproom was great. 805 has become the beast fueling their growth, we have to remember it is business, and they are part of the Duvel family now.

Here in MI I will park my rear at Bells due to the variety. Sometimes I try something that is not to my liking, but that is usually a pub only beer.

Oh, SN? I want to get down to Mills River again. Yeah, the distribution network is full of Hazy this and that. At the taproom last time I had one of the best US brewed examples of Helles. That wouldn't sell. They won WBC for German Pils in 2010, and I got to taste that back then, it was spot on. Wouldn't sell either

 

Da Boss and i ran up there last Friday. Quite an impressive campus for sure. However SNBC is currently open for pickup only but are expected to re-open May 12th. Looking forward to exploring it in the coming months!

Yes we are thoroughly enjoying the change from the low desert. Dormant trees are re-awakening and flowers are coming out as well. Life is good!
Cheers,
Tom