2024 Complaints/2025 Expectations

Big +1 on no can/bottle dates. It’s the 21st century for crying out loud.

I might be in the minority on this one, but I wish some of these breweries would scale back on all the constant new releases. I know it must be a fine line between stagnation and innovation, but for me I don’t necessarily want to see a new release every week and not know if it’s good or not (and if it is, I can’t get excited about it because it’s probably just being replaced by the next new release soon).

 

Not much, really. I kind of think that we are at a place of no return. Ten years ago, there still were special things - driving down to Alpine for an Expo release (or really, just driving down to Alpine for anything), waiting in line for Tongue Tickles bottles at Noble… I obviously don’t miss the bomber format, but that’s just the way it was then. When Modern Times first started, that core four was really cool… Checking Firestone’s yearly festival list was always fun... Nothing stands out anymore though. We are over saturated with a lot of mediocre beer, and yes, everything is too expensive. Alpine was great because they didn’t over do things, and they were priced well. Now Mchilhenney cranks out a new beer every week and 4 packs are like $25. Pass. With a lot of people, I’m just going to scale down. I’ll stick to stuff like Trumer Pils, Swami’s, and Mirror Pond if I see it fresh. I was cool with chasing certain beers. It was fun. But now there is nothing to chase. There’s. O longer anything that’s special.

 

I’d like to see more hoppy beers made with traditional hops. And no, Cascade, Centennial and Chinook don’t qualify as traditional in my book. I had Radiants “Simply Lovely” that uses HBC 1134,a high alpha hop with Nobe tendencies. That beer had the best hop aroma of any beer that I have had in a long time. I would have thought it was made with hallertau if the can didn’t say otherwise.

 

I think the IPA pendulum has swung too far in the direction of lean malt/aroma hops. It was fun to taste all the new hops in relative isolation over the past few years, but they are all becoming a bit one dimensional. Balance and depth is what makes beer interesting and worth drinking in volume. Let's get back to more malt complexity and body and more hop bitterness.

Also, +1 on getting tired of the constantly rotating recipes. Take a stand, anoint your flagship beer, and produce it consistently.

 

2024 Complaints:

• Texas (hallelujah it’s done!)
• East county San Diego is cursed
• Too many mid AF breweries making shitty IPAs everywhere including California

My wish for 2025 is to see more robust porters, piney as fuck ambers, ESBs, hells and bocks on menus at my favorite brweries.

 

I’ve kind of lost my excitement for beer, as far as rarities and trading go. I dropped all 4 of my memberships for this year. I still enjoy drinking with friends locally, but it’s become more about the relationships than the beer.

One potentially exciting piece of news is Jon Drinnan has returned to Sante Adairius as the head brewer. He left in 2020. He was loved by all and did a great job. It’ll probably take a while for the barrel-aged beer to change, but we can hope for an improvement.

 

I may be in the minority here, but I say "keep rotating."

Just one idiot's opinion.

 

$9 14oz "pints"

 

100% agree that very few beers stand out or feel special. I'm not sure if it's all getting lost in the endless wave of options, OR the quality of beer itself has gone down significantly. I still have a soft spot for the OG BA beers from Alesmith, but the few I've had from them over the last 2-3 years have been just not good.

Beer just feels like noise these days, and I find myself reaching for simple, dependable beers like FW 805, Hefes, or a doppelbock. Or sometimes a barrel aged sipper from maybe 3-4 of the same breweries that deliver consistency for a good price (Rev, Half Acre, Calusa, Kros Strain)

 

The good news is these won't be here for long. Soon, they'll be replaced by $10-$12 14 oz "pints"...

 

The only complaint I can think of (trivial admittedly) is breweries putting big stouts in cans. Knock that shit off. Cans are for easy drinking beers that can be easily consumed in one go. If a stout is larger than 12 oz., I’m very likely putting a bottle stop in it, and finishing it the next day. Can’t do that with a frickin’ can.

 

How about big stouts in 8oz cans or 12oz bottles? Much more preferable IMO.

 

The 12 oz. bottle is the most ideal for me. Easy enough to finish in one session, but also gives me the option to put a stop in it to finish later if I decide to. An 8 oz. can would also be cool too, but I haven’t seen any of these yet.

When I was at The Bruery, I tried running some stubby 8 oz. cans through the canning line as a trial run. But the seamer wouldn’t go low enough to seal them so we abandoned the idea. But an 8 oz. can of Black Tuesday would’ve been pretty cool.

 

While not a complaint nor an expectation, I wasn't sure it warranted it's own thread, but Resident Brewing in downtown SD just announced permanent closure. I think it's the first closure announcement, at least for San Diego, for 2025. They had some good and some "meh" beers, perhaps most known is/was their DIPA collab with Padres pitcher Joe Musgrove called No-No-Joe. That beer was named after Joe pitched the first no hitter in Padre history.

 

*cough*cough** Radiant? *cough*cough*

 

Hey you said it, not me

 

very well said.

To add, the sentiment above is exactly why I have been able to quit drinking for more than a month. Historically, it’s felt like torture to abstain and miss the next big festival or release. Feels like that season of my life passed, and I don’t have a reason to look back since I’ve ’been there, done that’. Besides, I’m already hyper focused on NA beers and cannabis (cbg).

My gripe is the absence of NA lagers from my local favorites. Enegren and Green Cheek, please

edit: I’d like to see NA can options at breweries even if they don’t brew it. As I’m writing that out though, I’m guessing that might not be possible, legally? Curious if someone knows.

 

I don’t say this with any direct knowledge, but I don’t see why that would be a legal issue. There are plenty of breweries that sell products other than their own (guest taps, packaged/draft ciders and seltzers, wine etc).