green flash west coast ipa. took a great beer and fucking ruined it just to make it a double ipa and charge more money. true story. and green flash made alpine beer. just fuck you with that lazy ass shit. still pisses me off.
They sold Grants at grocery stores, I’m guessing that was contract brewed? I wonder what their output was? I remember liking the beers, but not many specifics. Wasn’t the Scotch ale pretty hoppy? I kind of remember Bert saying that he called it Scottish Ale because he was Scottish and he liked his beers hoppy.
TG Pseudo Sue around 2011/12 it was the best brew i have had to date. An APA . Lots of changes with expansion head brewer and owner disagreements . Then contract brewing in Lakeland.Fl . The APA was never the same. Still a great buy with lots of variants . The OG from 2012 will never be replicated IMO.
Could be. It was readily available at the Cost Plus World Market on Howe Avenue in Sacto, which was right next to my office. So I'd usually get it there. I remember also seeing Grant beer at the Liquor Barn and Liquor Mart. It was a bit more expensive than most other craft beer options, but then again, there was nothing else quite like his beer. So I'd get them every now and again. I actually used to get his Scottish ale because it wasn't all that hoppy (relatively speaking). That doesn’t mean your perception is wrong though... it's just that in comparison to everything else he made, I didn't think it was all that hoppy I always used to love his comment about his beer on the label. Essentially telling customers tough luck if they didn't care for it. He was making beer to his taste, not yours. Probably not the most savvy marketing strategy, but I admired his attitude.
I had my first Newcastle in probably over 20 years a few months back and I found it a lot more palatable than what I remembered from years ago (when I thought it tasted like dirty cigarette water). I know that they switched to brown bottles a few years back, but because the one that I had recently was in a clear bottle I did some research. When they were in brown bottles, it was brewed in the US and it wasn’t doing well because it probably still tasted bad. But then they switched back to clear bottles, and more importantly, started brewing it in England again. And voila it turned into an ok beer. I’d never buy it myself, but if it was offered to me I’d be ok with that.
I’ll start in the opposite direction. Carlsberg used to be super metallic and almost undrinkable. Then the company took a step back, realized that their beer was shit, and they worked on and developed a new recipe. Now it’s an ok and easy to chug European Pale Lager. In other words, here’s my review of it: Ok, come on. Hey now… Raul can get down on this beer. Raul can get down on this beer well and good. Like, offer this at the rodeo and Raul would be riding the bull. It’s nothing special, but so are a lot of things that people like in everyday life. And for now, right now, this beer is fine enough for me. Peace.
One atrocity that I would like to mention is when Founders added more IBU’s to FIS and it just ruined it. I think they realized that they screwed the pooch so bad, that they gave up and just stopped brewing the beer as a whole. Right off the line it was a beautiful thing. But to this day, the best beer I ever had was a FIS that I aged in my fridge for 2 years. The layers of depth that thing had was uncanny.
Newcastle used to be my go to cooler filler for beer league hockey pre Heineken/Lagunitas. The Green Flash/Alpine debacle ruined literally everything from 2 once great breweries. The last one I'll mention is Stone Ruination. I hope they'll eventually come to their senses and bring back the original recipe for more than just brief guest appearances.
In 1990 (so, still under Bert Grant's ownership) the capacity of the production brewery, Yakima Brewing & Malting Co. was listed at 7,000 bbl, with sales in the 1980s listed at 1-7 thousand bbl. (similar to SN's). By 1995, under Stimson Lane Vineyards' control (a subsidiary of US Tobacco), capacity was listed at 50k bbl., but sales were "flat at 11,500 barrels" according to the IBS's North American Brewers Resource Directory. New ownership began shrinking the distribution from 39 states to 9. 1997 appears to be their peak with a barrelage of 21k - about the same size as Rogue, Goose Island and Brooklyn at the time. Yeah, their beers could be found on liquor store shelves in NJ, one of those 39 states noted above.
Yeah, "sixpack" used figuratively, to describe the number of brands, not the quantities consumed. In fact, most of those beers, bottled in green glass, I bought by the case to avoid lightstruck beer. (The only exception was Genesee 12 Horse Ale, which when I drank it in the late 70s, was bottled in returnable 12 oz. brown glass and sold only in Genesee Beer shells (cases). I think, closer to Rochester, it might have been sold in T/A's - at least the labels that exist from that era suggest it. When they reformulated it in the early 80s, it got a new label and packaged in T/A green "select" bottles). Well, I'm talking about the reformulated versions based on the OP's subject line of "until they changed it" , but, yeah, I guess most of them have been discontinued at this point and probably not simply because of consumer rejection of the "new" versions.
I have 2. Elysian Great Imperial Pumpkin Ale. Once INBEV bought them, it was undrinkable. Also once Deschutes Abyss became mass produced, it lost its quality. They used to be a couple of my favorites.
I do now. Thanks for the post!! It appears that the labeling of this 'new' (but really old) product will utilize "Classic" on it. A 'trick' they learned from Coca-Cola? Now the real 'trick' is: will consumers really purchase this new/old beer in large quantities? Or will they just continue drinking their Hazy IPAs instead (or RTDs, THC drinks, etc.)? Cheers!
I've read that Vinnie Cilurzo occasionally tinkers with the Pliny the Elder recipe but no one complains that it's not as good. To him it must be a little bit better or he likely wouldn't be messing with it. Having had only occasional exposure to the beer over the years I can't attest to the changes being good or bad - it's always an excellent beer when I have the pleasure of drinking it.
Anchor Porter. I remember it in the late '70s (*cough*) as rich, satisfying, yet drinkable. Last time I had it, it seemed kind of thin, and I wondered if the newer owners (Sapporo?) had made them change the recipe. Like others have said here about a beer they once loved, maybe my tastes have changed. Now it's gone.
I think this is the first time that I’ve heard of a beer getting more, not less, bitter. I never saw that beer on the shelf in So Cal. Did you buy it locally or get it in a trade?
