RIP Summerfest

Yeah that's one I'm glad I don't have access to.

 

Man's got to know his limitations.

 

Well, it seems SN might have this one upcoming. I'll hang up and listen for the groans. (I'll admit I will give this one a try if/when it shows up).

 

As I always say, just what we need -- another IPA.

 

I wonder if the folks at Sierra Nevada obtained inspiration from the SNL Shimmer product for Atomic Torpedo?

“It’s a Floor Wax and a Dessert Topping”

Cheers!

 

Jack, you know I'm not special. The only “access” I have is to the BeerAdvocate forum search tool. I used “likely” in my post to mirror the information posted in the forums we've all already seen.

Ok, I'll bite. If I had to pick between A, B and C, I’d definitely go with B. I am personally saddened by the loss of Summerfest, but vilifying SN for it strikes me as a case of misdirecting blame... AND some of the ways that people have been vilifying them feels like subjective bias or entitlement. As if conspiracy theories and greed were more at play than sales figures. At what point do we want SN to be less protective of the families of their employees than the consumers who weren’t buying enough of a seasonal that needs to be produced at a certain scale to be viable? Summerfest and variety packs might be intrinsic to the brand for people who cut their teeth on those products, but they aren’t actually intrinsic to SN.

Sierra Nevada's roots are really with their handful of bottle conditioned beers - and they’ve done a relatively admirable job of trying to maintain them for a longer time than most people here have been drinking beer. Their stubbornness with maintaining Porter and Stout for so long (just for the sake of their history) was more than what most brewers would do. Their competitors' Bigfoot-inspired beers are vanishing from the shelves. Their branding for Pale Ale is still recognizable as SNPA 40 years later despite the design tweaks over the years. That might seem like no big deal or inconsequential to most, but to me it shows a commitment to their history that other craft brewers don't begin to come close to. Look at how they stand apart from other brewers of their size with regard to their ownership. To question their commitment to their history as if they don't care about it is narrow-minded. Give credit where credit is due.

I saw someone complaining that SN should stick to what they know and what made them popular instead of making hazy IPAs. I understand why people like to split up and categorize every beer type, but the comment ultimately doesn't make sense. The hoppy American pale ale IS at the core of their identity - be it a barley wine, Celebration or SNPA... and today the hoppy American pale ale is also "hazy."

I would think that Sierra Nevada is doing what they feel like a brewer of their size needs to do in this climate to avoid the path others have taken - one of layoffs, conglomeration or foreign ownership... and we spite them for it. Would we rather they downsize, reduced their output and pull out of the areas where folks complain about them brewing a hazy IPA... or do those folks still want SNPA and Celebration in their market? Instead of blaming SN for being bad for discontinuing Summerfest, what if we blamed the people who weren't buying it because they were buying their lagers from their local brewer in the form of $14-20 16oz four packs? Isn't that where the enthusiasm mainly is for folks on this site?

Sierra Nevada is now participating in that realm with their formerly-discontinued beers. They released their retro Pale Bock as a small batch in the form of a $13 16oz can 4 pack and they hope to do more... perhaps with Summerfest... and they are doing this without the need to push a lot of volume through distribution. In the Pale Bock thread, there wasn't a single complaint from anybody here about it resembling the price/packaging format of the 16oz local market. This is the environment that craft fans have created - one of pricey 16oz local 4 packs done as limited runs... and now SN has adapted to it a little... but we still demand that they also provide such beers at the volume of a nationally distributed seasonal. The problem isn't the leadership at Sierra Nevada, the problem is the collective us.

I have my issues and concerns with SN's current lineup. I wish Summerfest was here. I have no interest in buying a "hazy" IPA. It's sad to see Porter and Stout go (symbolically... they already left practically). I am far less enthusiastic about their Oktobrfestbier without it being a collaboration. I am disappointed about their shifting emphasis to cans. If anything changes with Bigfoot, I will be extremely disappointed. BUT, I don't fault them for making changes in order to maintain a healthy company of their size. I actually want them to remain a healthy company with a national distribution footprint.

@SierraTerence

 

Chris, you will always be special to me!

I thought perhaps you read an online article discussing this matter.

Or maybe a documentary movie!?!

Cheers!

 

And... I think Zid closes the thread. Anything else is redundant rhetoric that can easily be answered in post #546.

 

Very well put overall.

This one part was the only part I somewhat disagree with.

I get what you’re saying here, but the modern day “hazy”, “juicy”, “New England” IPA (whatever you want to call it) is about the furthest thing from Sierra Nevada Pale Ale stylistically in my opinion.

Pale Ale was created when they were pioneers, trailblazers. Hazy Little Thing was created to stay relevant.

I’m not faulting them (as you so eloquently put I might add), but I also can’t say Hazy Little Thing is something I’ll give them credit for. It’s more business than craft.

 

Very well said @zid .

I think a lot of the blame/frustration laid on Sierra Nevada is more of utilizing them as a foil for frustration and disappointment in the modern 'craft' market. It just plain sucks that the numbers don't support producing Summerfest, Porter, and Stout...but as was well stated, that's not the fault of breweries (mostly, anyway).

 

On the bright side, I just came across some Dankful with a May canning date. Great beer when fresh.

 

Finally got to try SN Summer Break. I can’t decide if it’s closer to:

• Watered-down version of Founders All-Day, OR
• Hard seltzer “flavored” with lemon-pine essence.

I have no idea who this beer is supposed to appeal to. I never thought I’d say this about SN, but this beer was sooooo bland.

 

Yeah, but which year? Hey, I just did that two weeks or so ago. Saw a sixpack of Victory Hop Devil sitting on a stack of cases near the cooler, which looked to me as a "stray" left when they were stocking the refrigerated shelves. Checked the "Enjoy By" date - wow, middle of January! Checked the stuff in the cooler - same date. Grabbed a six, since it'd been a long time since I'd seen fresh HD (once my "house" IPA - two decades ago). All the time this is happening, the clerk is following me around and we're talking beer, so I'm not paying real close attention but thinking of stuff to ask him ("When's this coming in?" "Did you get that?")...

Driving home, only a couple of miles, I did the math in my head - "Wait a minute, Victory's dates are based on a 5 month shelf life - how can this beer be dated January in May?" Stopped at a red light, pulled a bottle out of the bag, read the code. 01-15-21. WTF! It is 2021 (geez, time sure flies when you're - ah, it doesn't matter what you're doing.).

Got home, annoyed at myself, and then at the store and then the distributor (the local AB house...). Jumped back in the truck and exchanged it for another six of whatever* I bought along with it, price the same $9.99. (*Local pils, IIRC).

 

Been there. I was pretty careful with the dankful since I haven’t seen anything besides November dates in a long time.

 

Last time I tried to exchange something like that it was a real battle, "Oh, that date is only for the distributors." "Beer doesn't go bad." "I'm sure it's fine."

No, I don't patronize that store anymore.

 

Yeah, that was my expectation, too, but this is a little local place (closest "to go" beer to my house) with a middlin' selection but I patronize it once in awhile. Not sure if the guy was really bored or just talkative but when I decided "WTF - How can I post about fresh beer and checking date codes on BA if I'm gonna not put up a fuss about old beer even if it was my mistake?" and, so, returned it as an experiment. Absolutely no problem with the exchange - so much so I was kinda surprised. (Next up - checking the Hop Devil next visit).

 

I thought that the one comment that you highlighted from me would be the most controversial. I think that a reason for this is that the "hazy" IPA has been given such tremendous baggage in terms of defining drinkers/brewers/beers and symbolizing something in a "them vs us" mentality. I respectfully think you should try to unload some of that. Your "furthest thing" comment is hyperbole... and a hazy IPA doesn't need to be "close to" SNPA to fit in the family (Bigfoot and SN Porter aren't particularly close to SNPA). But I still get why you are making that comment. I honestly think that one could argue that a hazy IPA has more of a through line to the base level identity of Sierra Nevada than a pilsner. On the other hand, one could also argue that a pilsner has more of that through line. Of course everybody here with an opinion on the matter has picked the latter.

The very act of breaking things down into the binaries of SNPA vs hazy, us vs them, pioneer vs follower, and business vs craft doesn't really do justice to the complications of the full picture. With regard to how Sierra Nevada fits into the dynamic, one could say that without Old Foghorn there might not be Bigfoot, and without Sierra Nevada there might not be a hazy IPA. I am certainly not trying to discount how much SN was a trailblazer, but they are also a piece of the puzzle that's united with their neighbors and generating a bigger picture.

To illustrate this just look at the story of Citra. If one wanted to boil things down to a them vs us binary, they could just look at Cascade and Citra. If I remember correctly (not totally sure), Cascade was the king of hops for craft brewers in terms of volume, and Citra recently took the top spot. One could look at this and view it as the sea change in craft brewing that takes us from Sierra Nevada to the hazy IPA. This view would iron out the details that would make things more interesting though. Sierra Nevada was a key player in the success of Citra and they produced the first commercially bottled beer made with Citra. Sierra Nevada helped us get to where we are today rather than simply representing a former time.

It's funny that some people want Sierra Nevada to be the type of brewery that puts out beers in a large variety of styles... but people also don't want SN to put out a hazy IPA. I totally get the exhaustion that some people have with the proliferation of that beer type and the dissatisfaction with the loss of other styles on the shelves... but those two desires regarding the SN portfolio are ultimately contradictory. I tried their Summer Break yesterday. It's not a beer I intend to buy beyond that one can, but I thought it was great for what it was - a "hazy" type pale ale that embodies drinkability rather than heaviness. It won't appeal to folks who want the heaviness that hazy IPAs can have (to the beer's detriment in my eyes), it won't appeal to folks who don't really have an interest in buying hazy IPAs (like me), and it also won't appeal to folks who just want a pilsner, but they did a good job with it and it has the potential for finding an audience (although odds are poor in this landscape).

Sorry for the long reply.

 

While there might be some people that feel this way, but I think that many people (myself included) are more just tired of seeing brands we love discontinued in exchange for yet another hazy hoppy beer. They've got plenty of hazies in their lineup, and I don't begrudge them that, I just wish they weren't headed in the direction of all hoppy.beers, most hazy.

I don't blame.them though

 

Yeah, I totally get that and sympathize with the POV. In my eyes, they aren't "heading in the direction of all hoppy beers" though... that's pretty much where they've always been.

 

Haha I can understand that view, they're definitely a pioneer in the world of really hoppy ales. But allow me to rephrase my view, they're moving from mostly hoppy ales to ALL hoppy ales. What's left in their lineup that isn't a hoppy ale? Narwhal and seasonal Oktoberfest?