Breweries that might need to step it up?

You may have been joking but they do have some great examples of the style at their pub once in awhile.

 

I wish that they'd distribute it beyond the pub, those are the kind of brews I love!

 

I wouldn't say Russian River needs to step it up, their stuff is stilll excellent, but i will call themout as potentially stagnating. In the 3 years I've been on the site no other great brewery has put out less new stuff than RR.

 

In my neighborhood, Breckenridge.

In VA where I'm from and visit 5-6x a year, Starr Hill, Legend, Williamsburg Alewerks, I e pretty much the whole old guard.

Breweries distributed in my state, Rogue and the whole CBA. Unless Goose Island is part of the CBA, if so, not them.

 

I think the point is that with ever-increasing competition, there are probably very few craft breweries that are iconic enough to be immune from failure. "Stepping it up" might be something as simple as updating your flagship IIPA recipe like Victory did.

 

IMHO my locals need to step up to actually making craft beer first.

75-90% of the stuff they make is not that good IMHO. Still someone must like it. We good beer folks think we are the only ones drinking, but we would be wrong. Bud and bud like beer still outsells anything we drink.
one of my locals makes IMO a terrible cream ale.

after reading this thread I am not sure what step it up means to everyone. to me it means to make good to great beer. Not extreme beer. just saying.

 

I would agree with this. Also, comparing Founders to SN is a bit unfair, since I can't even find Founders out here in California, and yet SN can be found just about everywhere. Actually, if I go on TW's website and type in Founders, all I get is a listing of Beringer wines with the word "founders" in it. So, if anything, Founders would need to "step it up" and make their beers more widely available (as in easily attainable on the left coast)...

 

Their problem is their yeast strain that they use in EVERY single beer they brew (outside their Kolsch, which uses American yeast and is great and their No Coast IPA, which is draft/taproom only). It makes every beer of theirs have the similar sweet, Belgian-y yeast profile.

 

I would like to see Great Lakes Brewery Step it up this year. With quality breweries and top notch out of state beers now coming to Ohio their beers are beginning to feel dated and bland.

 

Wachusett Brewing Co. Get that damn chipmunk off of your label please.

 

Rather than calling out specific breweries here, I'm going to say Chicagoland nanobreweries in general. Half Acre and Revolution make consistently delicious beers with multiple styles at very affordable prices. With that said, I have no idea how all of these nanos charging from $9 to $14 per bomber expect to survive or compete here. I don't want to exclude places that are draft only either who charge high prices for growlers and brew very average beers. There are way too many unrefined examples of normal beer styles sitting on shelves right now because there are bombers at the same price as 6 packs from world class breweries. Do I want 22 oz of a local porter or do I want 72 oz of a great porter for $9-$10? These are not difficult decisions. I want to support local, but these nanos in Chicago make it way too difficult. They need to either step it up in terms of production capacity to lower their margins, step up and refine their styles to warrant the hefty price tag, or step up to the plate and gamble on themselves a bit by putting out beer at reasonable prices until they prove worthy. These places need to support their own beer before they ask me to.

 

Ya Rogue again, they need to knock off the pink bottled weird $hit and concentrate on re-refining the good that they do have, couple locals West Highland, Mt Tabor, just an opinion and definitely not one that all have just my own.

 

Rogue is trash, and has been trash for a while. I live in Oregon, I know this well.

Stone needs to step it up. Stop making 20 different IPAs that all taste the same and start doing something else.

Sierra Nevada can do exactly what they do. Between Bigfoot, Narwhal, Celebration, Torpedo, etc. they got all their bases covered

 

I really hate my locals because they all seem to do this. If you close your eyes all their beers taste the same to me.,

 

Clown Shoes????? A lot of those others, I can agree with, but Clown Shoes does some really great stuff. I don't see that one at all.

 

There are a couple of local breweries that I know that just seem watered down and kind of boring. I would love to support the local start ups (and I do), but there are a couple that just seem to miss for me. It almost seems like they're cheaping out on grain leaving the beers really water and flavorless. Bog Iron, Berkley Beer Company, and Buzzards Bay (although they seem to be stepping it up lately....maybe they are learning a thing or two from Pretty Things).

 

For the most part I agree with the Pittsburgh brewery criticisms but Full Pint does some good stuff. Chinookie and Night of the Living Stout (especially) are killer.

 

New holland.... come on man!

 

avery, stone, southern tier

 

I love how you state your opinions as fact rather than the relatively insignificant opinions of just one of millions of craft beer drinkers.

I'd say it's pretty obvious that Sierra Nevada is not suddenly "going after the money" as you phrased it in your original post. They are what they are - an established craft brewery with broad distribution that emphasizes hoppy beers. You may want them to be more "cutting edge", but that's not what they are or have ever been. The fact that they now need a brewery on the East Coast doesn't suggest to me that they need to step it up.