Breweries that "Have their shit together".

Firestone Walker and Lagunitas.

Anything they make will be good and not over priced.

 

Stone all the way for me. I like big Imp Stouts and DIPAs and they have a few offerings of each that are all great.

 

Bell's and Sierra Nevada come to mind for me.

Local: probably Dangerous Man and Town Hall

 

Lagunitas
Stone--lately
Sierra Nevada-- Always

 

Fremont Brewing Company

 

Westbrook, Wicked Weed, The Bruery.... Just have solid offerings and I love trying anything from them. Haven't let me down yet

 

Jack's Abby.

 

Modern Times easily. They're constantly interacting with us and taking our suggestions to heart. Always releasing a new beer that intrigues my mouth and liver. And now that they're starting to put together festivals they're quickly becoming my favorite brewery here.

 

1. Sixpoint..!!! Yes..! Top-shelf - BEER & Customer-Service !

 

UNIBROUE! They find my male G-spot on the reg. I have had one slightly bad apple from them, Ephemere, but everything else has been pure gold, in taste, art, backstory, availability, etc etc. Wavelengths well received!

 

Hill Farmstead - I have never found a brewery clicking on this level before. Each beer I've had from them is, at a minimum, delicious and exciting and insightful. Several are downright defining, changing what I expect from beer. The design is rock solid. Their business model, which is not particularly favorable to me given that it produces beer I'd have to travel almost a 1,000 miles to get, nevertheless makes perfect sense if the goal is to hit a certain scale and brew fiendishly good beer.

Wicked Weed - Before I visited Hill Farmstead, this was the pinnacle organization for me. Their approach is broader, they play more with styles and so have more misses, but the exciting thing is how good they are at so many things. Great hoppy beers? Check. Great sours? Check. Humor? Check. An incredible venue with great food. Check. All combined with a careful, respectful attitude to the beer itself. Another brewer committed to local beer, and another I have to drive hours to drink, I nevertheless appreciate just about everything this brewer is doing. I wish more brewers ran their operations with this kind of finesse and flair.

 

Ballast Point
Sierra Nevada
I would like to add Lagunitas but they need to get their distributors straightened out in Texas

 

Trillium

 

Ballast Point
Founders
Kaiju (Australian) - Every beer is ridiculously good. Hops, hops and more hops.

 

Unibroue....I haven't had a bad beer yet. Several are rated "World Class".

 

Russian river
Allagash
Jester king
Casey
Cantillon

 

I was wondering when I was going to see them mentioned. They were the first ones to come to my mind. Between their excellent beers, awesome business model, fantastic taproom (and soon to be brew pub!), and excellent sales force, they are doing things the right way. They are so well run and efficient all the way down. Great company with great beers that will only continue to get bigger and better.

 

A few that come to mind, in no particular order:

Victory
Dogfish Head
Ballast Point
Sierra Nevada
Maine Beer Company

Many other folks have put forward some great examples as well, these are just the ones I am lucky enough to enjoy on a more regular basis. I wouldn't think twice about picking up some new, attractive beer from any of these guys.

 

Just want to follow up on this, for sake of clarity vis a vis the OP's definitions -- "but sometimes a brewery just clicks with me. Their logos, slogan,business model, final product, etc… seem to make a lot of sense. Any breweries that seem to be transmitting on the same wavelength as you?"

When I think BP and FW, I think "class". It's that deft mixture of thoughtfulness, responsiveness to consumer preferences, willingness to take risks and put stuff out there that maybe doesn't have a big consumer demand, at least yet (thinking, for example, Firestone's Pivo Pils or BP's Indra Kunindra), incredible focus on clean, consistent beer. Everything about these companies clicks for me. I pick up a can of BP or FW, and immediately the labels work, the styles work, and the end product works.

When I look for local breweries to follow, it's a similar rubricm, summed up for me in the simple word - "class".