Breweries that have NOT lost their way.

They used to sit a bit here too (the non IPAs that is) but they seem to have dialed in what their distro can handle in MA anyway. We in the New England forum have been predicting the death of their exclusively $7+ single 16.9 oz bottle format for half a decade now to no avail

 

They’re over $8 here, still not WW expensive but it gets close on some. Is sad to see Lunch die, I’ve never seen Dinner, but there’s 3-4 on the shelf, Mo, Peeper come to mind.

 

How about Lawson’s Finest Liquids?

 

How much variety did they have in 2015? They do brew some other styles now, but they're more the exception to the rule obviously.

Unless you're an absolutely terrible local brewery with an absolutely terrible business plan (or you make some offensive public remark) you're probably fine in today's market.

In 5 years we'll see a shift maybe, or maybe 10 years. For example, would you have expected Smuttynose, Weyebacher, or Green Flash to have trouble 5 - 10 years ago?

Seriously!

And they're also STILL on the warm shelves for the most part. Boggles my mind.

We don't see Dinner here either in bottles. It has been on draft at a few places the last few Dinner releases though.

 

Monks had Double Dinner when Monks hosted MBC, the first time outside the brewery. Bet that was good.

 

Wow, never even heard of Double Dinner.

 

Monks is really the shit, if it was a wee bit closer I would have driven. I love Blackback Pub, but Monks is damn close.

 

Yes! Blackback Pub is awesome. I need to go back there. The atmosphere there is so great.

 

Half Acre
Bell's
New Glarus
Dogfish Head

 

AB/InBev hasn't lost their way. They plod on making fresh beer, dominating the US market, albeit with blah beer. They're losing market share to craft and other drinks, but they're running it like a corporation and are aggressively acquiring competitors. I don't partake in their product, but have to give them their due credit.

 

I think that they probably had the most diversity at the very beginning, but that's before my time. In general though, it seems like there's these sort of periodic stabs at stylistic diversity that fizzle under the overwhelming demand for haze-fruit bomb IPA and milkshake stout. Once upon I time there was talk of a "lager program" and now it's one pilsner that they put out like twice a year. I don't know if they're a brewery that's so much "lost their way" as they've had their way forced upon them by their own runaway success. If you think about how they started out, and what they are now, it's almost unrecognizable.

Then again, they could have just brewed more pilsner and gotten the crowds under control that way.

 

Unless those Pilsners were really good. Hill Farmstead brews a few now (and many other styles) and from what I hear there's still some decent traffic there.

 

Kind of amazing that in this market with so many great beers that Bud Light is king. It’s a marketing game, the more you sell the more money you make the more you can steer your product to your demographic. Pretty girls with young guys on a beach, wearing bikinis with a Bud Light in their hand. I hate Bud Light, but I’d love to have it headline my brewery.

 

Firestone-Walker.

They make stuff the SoCal thugs drink AND World Class stuff year after year.

 

Yes, and they do great job with their three brew pubs.