Breweries that might need to step it up?

Agree with a lot of others: Rogue has seen better days. Trying to get by on novelty bottles, and in the meantime, I feel like their staples have fallen off.

Another one that saddens me is Magic Hat. Lately, I feel as if their seasonal and special releases are just par-for-the-course. Didn't share that opinion a few years ago. Luckily, hasn't had a negative effect (that I've noticed, anyway) on #9 or Circus Boy.

 

I usually give a brewery 3 tries before I completely discount them.

Breweries I've enjoyed 0: Breckenridge, Brooklyn, Summit, Boulder, Magic Hat, Finch's, Floosmoor Station

Breweries I've only enjoyed 1: Ska (Modus Hoperandi), Flying Dog (Gonzo), O'Fallon (Smoked Porter)

Honorable mention: I've only liked the Yeti line from Great Divide

So yeah, all of those.

 

Eagle Rock. I want to back you guys

 

Please show me some well-executed examples that are "pushing the envelope" and "adapting to our changing palates."

There is more to craft beer than making extreme beers. There are still millions of people drinking Adjunct Light Lager and they're not all going to replace it with a Bourbon Barrel Aged Vanilla Cascade Maple Chocolate Sour.

 

You champions of New Belgium... I think most of the brown-circular-label stuff is okay (Belgo, Trippel, Ranger, Abbey). But is there anything from the red-border-series that is solid? The 1554 was okay but everything else I've had was a total throwaway.

 

Saranac, please guize?

 

I'm expecting to get flamed for this, but I'd say Brooklyn Brewery.

Don't get me wrong, Garrett Oliver & co deserve a ton of respect. BBCS was one of the beers responsible for turning me on to American Craft.

But I'm surprised they don't stay a bit more in touch with what's going on. If they only stuck to their staples, it would be more understandable. But they do branch out and try "different things". It's just those different things don't often work.

They're in a unique position (history, head brewer, location) to dominate to the New York scene. But they don't.

 

Sam Smith's do what they do and I like their pubs, but having a cask mild alongside the bitter would be nice. Don't know how well it'd sell.

 

Definitely Magic Hat for me. When I was growing up, the craft breweries to get were Magic Hat and Victory. Now that I've learned more about craft, Magic Hat's beers are just sad in comparison. Their newer seasonals have been abysmal.

And TBH, I'd have included Victory as well if they didn't make DirtWolf recently, which is of course fantastic.

 

The thing is, I would agree with the majority of what you say. I've spent my whole life in Pittsburgh and know first-hand that it's a hard-working, blue-collar city. But in recent years, there has definitely been a shift happening as Pittsburgh is becoming more "arts-friendly" and a lot of people are taking advantage of this. So there is a new contingent arising that is highly creative and innovative, and I would love to see the brewers reflect this. I knew I was taking a risk by using the examples of sours and BA beers as "creative." I do realize that is not the extent of creativity in brewing, I just particularly enjoy those styles.

As I said in my first post, I know that Pittsburgh is producing good beer. I love to support my local breweries. I was just at a Helltown tasting at Carson St. Deli the other week and really enjoyed what I had. However, my thought when drinking a lot of locals is, "This is good. But, I know it could be better." I know the potential Pittsburgh breweries have, and that's why I posted here in the first place. They'll maintain support from the locals (including myself), but I think there's another level to which the quality and creativity can be taken.

Cheers!

 

I posted something before about the most overrated American breweries, and the moderators took it down - guess I was being too much of a "Negative Nancy" but I'll answer this thread with the same that I did there - 21st Amendment. I have never had anything special from them and some of their specialities are awful - Lower de Boom. I think that they're only popular because of Shaun O'Sullivan's connection with The BN and their location on the bay.

 

IMO Starr Hill makes better beers than Blue Mountain but agree that Blue Mountain creates new beers more frequently for what its worth and do the higher end big bottle offerings. Devils Backbone and Port City are the 2 best out of VA, but I know some folks really like Williamsburg AleWorks. I just haven't been able to sample any yet.

 

Good question as I think Otter Creek and Long Trail which are two fairly large breweries in VT could stand to step up their game and have been doing so with the recent releases of Limbo, Kind Ryed and Double Dose. I would love to see these two breweries come out with a very consistent IPA's so I can patronize VT if I go to a store and so I don't have to go to Dirt Wolf every time.

 

Stone? They are the definition of 'pushing the envelope' and are much more 'forward-thinking' than the majority of breweries. They would be the last brewery I'd put on this list.

 

Was going to give you a wag of the finger (even despite the sarcasm!) for suggesting such a travesty, but goddamn, a coconut weizenbock could be magical.

 

Boulder came to mind although they ARE trying some new things. They added a big Oktoberfest, Dragonhozen, for the Fall. Their Old Chicago chocolate porter (Black Diamond) is now in bottles as "Shake." Both of those are good beers. They also recently released a BA Barleywine that people say is genuinely great.
I think they realize that they were getting lost in the mix. While sometimes forgotten I still love Hazed and Infused.

 

There's two kinds of breweries getting named here: the ones that were built on a line of core, classic styles and those that started out making weird shit. The ones that started out making weird shit, like Rogue, will live or die based on their ability to compete in the beer fad space where a lot of the newer craft brewers are coming in. Those breweries have to stay on the cutting edge of either marketing or producing beer within whatever is the current craze or they will get pushed out.

When you talk about breweries that built their business on a core line up of more basic styles, e.g. New Belgium, they aren't going to drift away from their core line up so long as those beers keep being bought by the majority of craft drinkers, who do not make every beer they drink a $25/750ml bottle of wacky shit. Those breweries have a loyal following of older drinkers who love those beers in the same way your dad loved his light lager of choice. As long as breweries can support themselves on that core lineup it's not going away. NB, SN and several of the other established craft brewers wisely have started other lines of products to compete against contemporary craft beer demands but they aren't going to walk away from what is paying the bills.

 

How did we get through two pages without saying Sam Adams?

 

Their new chocolate porter is super tasty.

Great Divide? Really?

 

I disagree with DFH, they make great beer.