Brewery Wins

Absolutely agree, that place rocks.

 

Love when a brewery nails a 'cozy' vibe.

Side Project's two locations really fit this bill for me. Not only is the beer absolutely fantastic, but the ambience is such that I could sit in there for hours and hours. In fact, I have done just that on some short weekend trips.

There is one local brewery to me that makes ehhh quality beer, but the atmosphere of the taproom makes it one of the better places to gather for some social beers.

 

Here is a big win for me, I haven't utilized in a very long time but...

Carton Brewing in NJ has THE BEST home delivery, I'm not even sure how many breweries are still doing this in NJ but it started during the pandemic and has been allowed to continue I guess. They have only a $50 minimum and $5 delivery fee to order anything from their brewery to your door and delivered cold, different counties on different days, but they hit the entire state.

 

I’ve had a few recent experiences at some new-to-me breweries that ranged from the weird to the unwelcome, plus more infected pours in the last few months than I’ve had in the past two decades.

So: when I asked for a glass of water, they filled it from a tap handle—not the sink—and it was d e l i c i o u s. If you’ve ever had a glass of water that just sings to you then you know the feeling. And—to the point of the thread—this seems like a good sign!

 

Offering a free milk tube for the road — whether I take them up on it or not — is always great way for a brewery / bartender to ingratiate themselves with me.

 

If you make it clear to a customer that you're glad they are there, they will probably come back again and again.

I know I do.

 

Milk tube?

 

I really appreciate breweries that have a good selection of styles year-round, have and maintain an online taplist, and offer crowlers of all of their beers. While I'm not a fan of taprooms that encourage people to bring kids, it's great that they have things for them like sandboxes. The neighborhood cats appreciate that too.

 

There are a lot of things I'd want to mention...here are a few that always catch my attention:

Any time the staff shows excitement about or knowledge of their offerings is a big thing for me. When they're like, "Oh, if you like that then you gotta try this..." that's a big win for me.

Having a conversation about the local beer scene is also a big one, especially when I'm out of town. I've often made or modified plans based on these kinds of conversations.

I love getting a chance to talk to the brewer(s) and finding out about details of the beer in my hand -- process, ingredients, history...

 

I wanna give absolute top marks to Kern River Brewing out here in CA. Everything I've had from them was delicious, they recently transitioned to an employee ownership model, they routinely offer free shipping within CA, and they list the packaging date of all the beers on their online store. I haven't had a chance to visit but I've heard it's a wonderful location. They just generally seem to do everything right.

 

To highlight what I was talking about above, here's the founder on their regional thread as people wonder what's happening with one of their most anticipated annual releases;

 

Right on. Thankfully some and sometimes all of these experiences are present in New England breweries I've visited. And recommendations from brewers or beertenders about local places THEY love is gold.

 

Yeah, that first sentence says a lot about the guy. He didn't have to write that.

 

Thought of another:

When a brewery invests back in its own equipment for the sake of the customer experience.

Local brewery to me just bought the new LUKR Freedom Facet. Despite these facets being pricey, they still thought it was important enough to try and add more quality options for patrons. Super cool to see. Here's to hoping both of their LUKR taps remain well fed and in-use for many years to come.

 

A bit late to this thread but some things that really make a brewery for me:

Good food options - Nothing quite like having the option for a good meal, or even just a good snack while I'm drinking. This can include food trucks too. Revolution's location on N Milwaukee has some damn good options for food

Friendly staff - Do I even need to elaborate? It's always nice to have a good conversation with staff, whether about beer or anything else. Long Live Beerworks staff are the friendliest, I've even seen a few of them out elsewhere and they recognize me

Music - Maybe a bit biased to my genre preferences, but a decent amount of breweries play punk and hardcore. Shoutout to Notch and Narragansett (and less locally, Carton) for always having good music on

Style variety - It's pretty rare I'll get the same style twice in a single trip (unless it's the same exact beer), so being able to jump from NEIPA to Kölsch to Baltic Porter is awesome for me. Shoutout to Tree House always keeping it varied

I'm sure I could come up with much more, but these are the main points for me

 

Breweries that only play one genre of music piss me off. Especially if that genre is something obnoxious like metal (holla to Structures and Holy Mountain around here), punk, Bro Country, or rap. You're never gonna please everyone, but why go out of your way to alienate a good chunk of your customers? I know it's boring, but just put on a playlist on shuffle so that everybody gets a song or two every so often.

 

Thought I'd revive this to give a shout out to Pure Project -- wife and I visited yesterday and we had exactly the kind of visit that makes me love breweries. We spent an hour chatting with Luke, the guy behind the bar, in between other customers, trying different things and talking about our local beer scenes. I have a list of places I will visit that weren't on my radar before. Super awesome visit. Also the beer was excellent.

 

Been lucky enough to go to around 55-60 breweries in my craft drinking time and a few things always stick out:

VIBE

This is completely subjective to everyone, but for me it usually boils down to the music, decor and how the staff treat you when you walk in, regular or not. I've had a couple places make me and my friends feel special when they found out we travelled a far distance.

Stock

Of course, there are extenuating circumstances involved but, when you only have two beers available, it leaves a little bit to be desired.

Quality

Of course good beer across a variety of styles makes things better. If my taster flight doesn't match my tastes, I'm out.