Are breweries producing too many beers?

We're talking about this very thing in my Hype Beast thread, I think there's some overlap there if you'd like to chime in.

 

I’m curious why you appear to think that brewing new beers, respecting the brewing process (whatever that means), and cashing in are mutually exclusive priorities.

 

Who are you referring to, maybe mention some names so others can agree/disagree with your assessment on quality, etc.
I actually enjoy my local guys new releases, they are always done correctly, solid beers, and enjoyable to try. They also do their core beers all the time so we have core items and also new stuff to try. I feel if a brewery is making great beer that's all that matters.
Hopefully you post on the brewery/breweries, I would be curious who is making such bad product? Did they use to make good beer? If yes, what do you think changed? Seems like if they are making such crap their sales would nose dive.
Cheers

 

It IS all about "cashing in" and responding to what the customer wants -- a new beer daily, please. And it's all done in the name of marketing. Oh, brewer's have some personal and professional pride and hope each beer is a home run, but they'll usually settle for 'drinkable to good' before they dump a batch.

 

One of the biggest things that gets me is when these breweries make all these IPAs and advertise their different slight combinations of flashy-names hops as if each new type is genuinely different.

In any case, the malt bill has always been what interests me about a beer, but I also think Americans have never respected grain, viewing it only as a base to make an alcoholic drink that may or may not be drenched in hops. Industrial AALs and IPAs ironically have commonality in that.

 

Tired Hands is guilty of this, and it's a shame because their beers are phenomenal at their best. If they focused on core brands and dialing in recipes, I think they'd be even more well-regarded. Alien Church, Extra Knuckle, Eviscerated Pathway of Beauty...all phenomenal beers. But then you have the (almost) weekly milkshake IPAs with 5+ added ingredients. I generally avoid them but have heard that many are messy. Yet people buy them...

If TH were a bit more purposeful and selective in their releases, I really think people would talk about Jean like he's Shaun Hill. Their more straightforward beers are almost always fantastic. The White Sage DIPA I had recently? Not as much.

 

That really does suck and I respect that your not wanting to mention. Only reason I asked was in case others had same experience with this place. Seems like a bad business move on their end, pretty soon their loyal fans will move on. I would not go back if the beer was crap, they need to see the issues before it goes out so customers are not paying for sub-par product. I guess all you can do is walk from them and move over to a place with solid stuff.
On a side note, I would talk to them? Maybe you can express what your seeing and it may register with them or least they are aware. Feedback helps so maybe if enough folks tell them it will change? Just an idea.

 

I agree with your point about breweries going overboard with their varieties of beer, but the craft beer consumer need for stouts to be viscous and for added flavorings to be dominant are different negative issues.

 

I don't have too much problem with brewers putting out new brews each week. Would be better if the frequent turnover of small batches were a wider variety of beer styles however (and at good quality). Seems the longer lasting brewers are less homogenized than the newbies which are more common to showcase only kettle sour/variety of IPAs/stout....repeat next week with some tweaks.

 

Short answer - yes. Looking at you Southern Tier

 

If the problem is that these breweries are putting out bad beers the answer is simple.

 

I don't think so, but I like change. However, some people I talk to would prefer a brewery have a core lineup and maybe have a couple new offerings from time to time. That way, the breweries can focus on these core beers.

 

Too late .

 

Learn to ignore the hype. Hmmm, maybe that's a good name for a beer?

 

But if the beers are constantly new releases, you don't know if they suck until you've already put up the cash, assuming that you mean just don't buy it.

I usually don't buy this stuff because it's too expensive for one, and I tend to view it as a gamble, it might be good, it might suck. But if I stick with a known good product then I haven't wasted $16 or more on some nonsense that sucks.

If a brewery has no flagship brews and is just knocking out one-offs every other day, I view it as a red flag and stay away, but that's just me.

 

Trillium is guilty of this. Quality seems to be on the decline too IMO

 

My distant relative Henry Patrick said "give me librium or give me death". No, no, he really said that about unicorn farts relative to Blue Ribbon.

 

Makes me wonder if they're failing to put enough thought into their recipes and trying them all, good or bad, on their customers. If that's what's going on, they'll lose customers.

 

Well, peanut butter and cherry are two things I never put together outside of beer. Put them in beer as a pair and I’m not paying $1 a bottle. Cherry stout I’m in. Peanut butter any beer, I’m out.

I guess making so many beers works for breweries or why would it keep happening?

I would like to see breweries dial in core beers and then go as crazy as they want. I want to buy your core regularly, I’m not going to be your lab rat each week. Once in a bit, sure.

Enjoy

 

I mean JUST DON'T BUY IT !!!

There are many breweries that I've tried several different beers from and they've let me down time and again - I just won't go back, it's as easy as that. "Oh but they've got a special", well F them, they failed before and I'm not falling for it.

On the up side, there are some breweries that I once thought were piss-poor and they've improved. Are ANY of those up to the quality of our best national beers? No, but I am saying improvement is possible, but I'll bide my time before I jump in and try them again.

Let's not call it "once bitten, twice shy", let's call it "You F'd me over four or five times so F you, you F'n F!" (That really doesn't work done PC, does it?). How about "Say hello to my little friend, spending money at your competition"?

How did the adage go that was so bandied around when craft brew was just coming up and the big brewers were still in charge, "Life is too short to drink shitty beers?" Well it's back again.

 

I've got bad news for you ...

The thing is the "new beer each week" model is working and taps into a large segment of people who want something new each week. I see your complaint, especially in cases where the beers aren't very good quality-wise, but I have to think the model in general is here to stay.

 

The craft market is notoriously fickle, and when you throw this kind of fickle behavior towards new money consumers. You create a death spiral of unrealizable expectations, and breweries are stuck making stuff they can never slow down enough to really get a handle on. Limited tank real estate in a market with a high cost per square foot for lease space certainly compounds this.

 

Good brewers don’t need to brew the same beer over and over to produce a consistently good product. Variety and innovation is good for everybody and feeds a growing industry. If you sense quality problems - it’s more likely that the brewer doesn’t have the training and/or enough experience yet. Cheers.

 

Teetering on the brink of an epiphany...

 

Are you buying these "3 different new beers"? If so, they I would be willing to guess you know the 'answer' here.

Cheers!

 

ALL IPAs; and nothing else at all!

 

That's over the top of ridiculous if that's the total beer menu. It's ridiculous if it's just the new beers being brewed.

 

A brewery near my hometown started doing this. They always had a hop-focused selection, but recently it’s all been IPA variants and then maybe a stout or porter, or two. For that reason I quit going there.

 

It seems like a bombardment, not sure how they make money like this. I thought the Stone premise of the Enjoy By to be simple but really genius. Can’t remember the last time I saw this on the shelf, but I’m getting tired of the codes. Such a simple idea that seems to hve gone the way of the dodos with all the new NEIPAS.

 

Gimmicky new beer— no sales = no gimmicky new beer.

 

I fall into this “some people” mindset. When I try a new brewery, I always try the basic, classic style flagships. If those aren’t solid, no return trip to that brewery. And in my experience, the ones that don’t have a core set of flagships have been not good 100% of the time, but I don’t find a ton of those.

The great thing about so much choice today is that I can choose to spend money at the breweries that invest in making a batch enough times for it to be excellent.

And for the record, yes, I know a great brewery can make repeatedly make great one-offs, but I find the percentage of new breweries able to do it to be close to zero. Not worth wasting money on the low chances for me. Call me an old geezer of a millennial, but I’m happiest with some reliable beverages that taste like a solid, balanced beer (as opposed to pastries, milkshakes, and whatever else - I know they’re beer, but you know what I mean).

 

Obviously there are brewers that will put out beers that they know are not as intended, but those are simply shady breweries engaging in poor business practices. Most frequently in that case, the brewer just can’t afford to dump beer.

However, “not ready” and “not what you advertised” are frequently just opinions. In your example of a peanut butter beer that doesn’t taste like it had enough, I wouldn’t expect a strong peanut butter flavor unless the brewery used extracts. If they don’t advertise the use of extracts and it tastes strong, I’d assume that they were being misleading. I’ve had to contract brew for a couple breweries that wanted peanut butter beers... in order to get a substantial flavor, we had to use artificial flavorings.

 

Be careful what you wish for. Up here that is exactly what happens for all beer not sold directly at the brewery. If you enjoy IPAs with a healthy 4-5 months of aging in warehouses without climate control, I recommend a visit to Ontario.