Best All Around Brewery?

yea I'd say so! i'm lucky enough to have tried a lot of their stuff and was never disappointed, same with kane. everything on tap though, except Boat Beer from the can

 

I hope you were being sarcastic if not what a dumb reason not to like a great brewery like deschutes. I'm sure many people would agree with the fact that deschutes simply don't make a bad beer in my opinion it deserves to be in that list much more than some of those breweries who's beers are a complete hit of a complete miss. DESCHUTES IS MY VOTE!

 

Clown Shoes, now thats funny....

 

Sierra Nevada.

 

The first name that popped in my head when I saw this thread was Firestone Walker.

 

Laqunitas.

 

Neither of them have a widely distributed lager. That's kind of a huge hole in your line up if you're going to be considered well rounded.

In fact, these two breweries are the first two that come to mind when I think of breweries that are the LEAST diverse.

 

This was the criteria: Best All Around Brewery? (Bottles, cans, styles, releases, consistency)

Nowhere does it say that they have to do every style and be extremely diverse. I still say Founders does many styles extremely well.

 

Great Lakes. They have 2 lagers in the top 250 beers. and theyre not Jacks Abbey. I think they have most overall beers in the top 250. every year round and seasonal at this point. Only 2 are DIPAs and they only do one BA Stout, so they dont get the love.

Oh and no sours. so they dont count.

 

I voted for Founders. So many good beers.

Disappointed that Lagunitas didn't make the list. They would be my #2

 

Whaaaat? No widely-distributed lager?
I feel like craft ales are "bigger" than craft lagers, but I don't think either Stone or Founders are lacking in diversity (~39 and 26 styles listed on-site, respectively), but then again, I don't know who you voted for...

Who did you vote for, oh, lover of lagers?

I also see that the OP said to exclude pricing ... ooops...

Although neither of our picks really produce a lot of canned product, do they? (Founders: 1, Stone: 0) lol

 

Since they do not can, then that battle is lost. However, I feel that the Dogfish Head clearly wins the war in all other respects: styles, releases and consistency: (4) different year-round IPA's (60, 90, Burton Baton, Sixty-One, (2) rotating IPA's (75 and 120 Minute), the best (IMO) wood aged beer (not to mention it being a YEAR-ROUND release) in Palo Santo Marron and hybrids like Midas Touch, India Brown Ale (both year-round offerings) as well as Red & White, Chateau Jiahu and the Herculean barleywine, Olde School...I can't find any other brewery on the list who is as courageous or more successful than Mr. Calagione. He might not be the 'newest kid on the block,' but he has done amazing things for the craft beer industry and his core offerings still resonate to this very date.

 

Of the choices provided, it's between Firestone and Founders. I picked Firestone because I can actually get their beers.
How Sierra Nevada isn't on this list is beyond me.

 

The OP lists "various styles" as a criteria. And then you both responded by specifically mentioning "doing so many styles wel" and "variety".

If you're going to be considered a brewery that has great variety and does many styles well, not mass producing a lager is a huge hole to me personally. Not saying a brewery has to to be good, but I can't say they're varied unless they have a solid ale and a lager.

But if lagers aren't enough for you, Founders and Stone seem to also largely ignore wheat beers, German styles in general, Belgian styles, Czech styles, sours......Stone is basically an IPA brewery, and Founders makes their name on their dark beers and a session IPA. They both heavily cater to the beer geek crowd. Again, nothing wrong with that, but they're not names that come up in the "well rounded" conversation or "best all around brewery". Just because you have 39 styles covered in the database doesn't mean you're mass producing them, many of those are one-offs or brew pub only. And it also doesn't count if "variety" is an IPL, a session IPA, an IPA, a double IPA, and a hoppy pale ale.

Who'd I'd vote for? No one yet, but if I had to from the list, I'd pick Firestone. They hit on all the beer geek notes while also producing something like a Pivo Pils.

My own personal pick? Firestone could work, but I'd lean towards Troegs, and I could be talked into Victory or Sierra Nevada as well. Brooklyn's not a bad pick either. All apologies to New Glarus who sound amazing, but I've never tried their beer, so I can't comment.

 

I must say, I do like that Pivo Pils...

 

From the choices, I'd go with Founder's but they are a weird group of choices.

 

Haha, I think it's decent, far from my favorite. Love Sunshine.....one of the many reasons I would pick Troegs over others.

 

I wouldn't disagree with Bell's. Good shit.

 

Stone and Ballast Point. Fremont is getting up there.