Breweries that have lost their way/identity

I agree, but have you noticed any difference in Fullers? Maybe its to soon to tell, and while I would love them to still be independent I still enjoy the likes of say Anchor and Unibroue (owned by Saporo, as I'm sure you know). I won't abandon them just cause of this, until I see noticeable issues in quality anyway.

 

A point well expressed. Stone once upon a time, was not afraid to be Stone. They were who they were. You liked it or you didn't. They had an attitude, a personality. They were different, and not afraid to be. I miss the edgy, lead, but not follow Stone. I want them back.

 

Not sure if anyone has this one, and it goes way back - Red Hook. Sure, the range of beers in craft was way smaller than it is now, and everything was a session beer and the term hadn't even come into use yet. But outside of Sierra Nevada and Anchor, they made some of the best beer on the West Coast. I'd especially look forward to the Black Hook and Winter Hook releases.

I could throw Boulder in there too.

 

BBCo and Other Half.
Oh, yeah, and of course Ballast Point and Stone.

 

Cellar door and stateside are such good beers in my memory. Can’t tell you the last time I saw them. The dry sake beer I had last spring was also very good. I can’t say if they lost their way or are they irrelevant in today’s beer scene?

Enjoy

 

I haven't tried the re-formulated Prima yet. If they ruined it, I am done with Victory.

 

I disagree . Their core beers are great. They still make the crazy over the top stuff and now they have added some beer designed to move 12 packs--Sea Quench and Slighty Mighty.
That they have added to their profile to bring in new customers is not losing their way.

 

Might as well mention Otter Creek while we're at it. They dumped all their flagships like the Copper Ale and the Stove Pipe Porter for lots of hoppier offerings.

Long Trail stopped selling bombers btw. They used to have the more complex beers in bombers only and that was all dropped a few years ago in favor of more ipas.

 

Agree Sam has been really pushing the Seaquench. One thing I like however, is that I've been seeing Seaquench and Namaste about $2 per sixer lower in most places than I did say a year ago. For an easy summer session option that lower price makes it alot more enticing to buy it to have something on stock that is refreshing to balance out other bigger ABV styles I may circulate with.

 

Saranac rotated beers in and out a lot. Probably just as often as Sam Adams did. Every variety pack had new beers in it.
They stopped rotating so many and focused on less quantity a few years ago.

 

I completely disagree that Victory “lost their way”. I find all their offerings still very delicious, especially my beloved Prima. Braumeister Pils is incredible as well, I can find it on tap locally here on Cleveland at times. Dirt Wolf is always very solid, fresh on tap at Victory it's crazy good. They didn't discontinue their solid offerings or anything like that, so how did they lose their identity? Been a huge fan of Victory for a long time, always look forward to visiting their brewpubs and production brewery in PA when in the area. As good as they ever were, IMO. Sure, they are not releasing a bunch of lagers and stuff for distro, but it's simply because the idiotic market won't support those products anymore. The market is too IPA focused and interested in gross pastry stouts and fruited beers. So they have to do what they have to do to remain competitive. At least they still offer those OG beers... Hop Wallop was just awesome when it came back, different recipe or not... That was some quality right there.

I am curious how the new tweaked version of Prima will be.... Hopefully I can get a hand on it relatively soon while I have my (old version?) Prima keg still on tap! For comparison purposes… Everytime I pour myself some Prima, it's just as good as it ever was. Can't get enough of that beer.

For me? The brewery that lost their way is Trillium. Wrecked all their core beers was enough for me, which was their identity...

 

I agree, except I still always buy Stillwater Extra Dry. Reminds me of their OG saison lineup.

 

I agree. They certainly got side tracked with the novelty beers (S'mores beer ? yech), and other fruity things. I used to enjoy the original green-label IPA, as well as the original yellow-label Pilener and blue-label Golden Pilsner. And they always did a nice job with dark beers, which now only turn up on occasions in seasonal 12-pack samplers. I've been a fan of Matt's Brewing since I was a teenager in the late 70's. Anyone remember Matt's Beer Ball's ?

 

I thought Other Half made great WC IPAs and some interesting non IPAs like Cool Summer Bro when they just came out but they certainly saw the path to making quick and easy money by throwing everything at the hazy IPA train. I guess it turned out ok for them though but I won't touch those types of breweries.

Also SingleCut was unique in that they focused on lagers - the owner was adamant that was the way he wanted to go - until other locals started making money hand over fist on murky IPAs and they followed suit. As you can tell NE IPAs are not for me but it's a bit of a shame when a brewery changes it's identity seemingly overnight to pump out the trendiest beers.

Make a few of the trendy 3 NEIPA/BA Stout/Sours to pay the bills but don't give up on your core beers that won over customers in the first place. I appreciate those breweries that do their best to still satisfy the regulars because the newcomers aren't guaranteed to be around forever (you are only as good as your last haze juice to these people).

 

From the article:

“But there will be no massive announcement of the change, no “New Recipe!” label splashed across six-packs. Victory isn’t trying to hide the change, Barchet says, but they’re also not trying to scare away long-time Prima Pils drinkers. It’s a delicate, calculated risk to take with a venerated beer: in making changes that aim to improve the recipe, there’s a chance some of its steady customers might now like the change. Barchet, for his part, is confident in the new Prima, and he says that as a long-time fan himself.

“I don’t think people will necessarily be able to pick out the change,” he says. “I hope they just think ‘Wow, this is a good batch. This is a Prima batch I really like.’”

https://thetakeout.com/how-often-do-breweries-change-a-beer-recipe-1833330451

Please let me know what you think when you try the ‘new’ Prima Pils.

Cheers!

 

I remember Matt's Beer Balls. It was a staple of every cookout or party we had. Along with Jean's potato chips.

 

Although solid may seem a mediocre review these days, I appreciate the consistency and known entity that these beers represent, especially when buying a sixer or two for a get together.

In NYC, I popped into the Blind Tiger for its normally impressive list. Of the IPAs, most were hazy and imperial and the Tired Hands offering was just awful--an almost tan colored astringent bomb. Thank goodness there was an Allagash sour available. Gingerman had at least a Lawsons session.

Threads have been dedicated to the topic, but everywhere that has abandoned a solid core offering in favor of the three times a week haze bombs has lost or suspect will lose their way.

 

I actually found fresh Extra Dry yesterday which is another favorite of mine, so that was exciting.

I say they lost their way based on how much they seem to favor new releases and how many of those new releases are lactose IPAs.

 

It was the Genny beer balls around here. They showed up at almost everyone's summer party. NY putting a $50 deposit on kegs, and defining the beer ball as a keg, put an end to them.

 

I'm a huge fan of this beer and really want State Side Saison to come back to MI, but yeah they've been cranking out too many bastardized IPAs lately.