Breweries that might need to step it up?

Michelob. They come out with ultra, which was awesome, and then get totally ripped off by Miller with Miller 64 (with the catchy tune). Michelob, get in the fight for christ's sakes.

 

Sarcasm hombre, sarcasm. I'm poking fun of people who think breweries with centuries of tradition and generations of awesome beer making under their belt "step it up" by bending to the extremes of modern craft desires.

 

As are Torpedo and Ruthless Rye. Consistent does not equal stale

 

I live in in MD and am not a fan of Heavy Seas.

Flying Dog stuff is solid, esp fresh "The Truth" which is very good, but I never regularly buy their beers.

 

No hate. But...would you rather have someone do one thing better than anyone else or have someone try to do everything and do it the same or worse as everyone else. A radical example but consider a specialty restaurant like a steakhouse. They do steak - and usually better than anyone else. And consider diners [Denny's, Cracker Barrel etc.] They do everything and everything pretty much sucks.

 

Any brewery currently not producing a Berliner-Weisse

 

Dogfish. It can't be said enough

 

I agree completely. The craft scene here is trash. I think Full Pint is poor. Rivertowne is meh. Penn is solid for drinkability but they don't even have a year-round IPA. East End is the best Pittsburgh has. Gratitude is a religious experience and I need to have Bigger Hop fresh.

 

Quite the opposite. Dogfish Head needs to tone it down. Stop brewing porters with fresh horse shit and pilsners with popeye's spinach and focus on making a quality beer. If they want to get creative, bring new hop flavors to styles. Make a pilsner with tropical fruit hop notes instead of making a failure with pear juice.

 

Out of curiosity, what exactly are the attributes you are speaking of?

I personally love that everyone has different tastes. It creates more variety in the world. I'm not one who was shitting on Sierra but they land squarely in the "not even on my radar" category for me -- though I am kinda curious about the Beer Camp stuff I've just never seen any. I do like the Harvest ales as well as the Ruthless, but I'd rather have Founders' similar offerings.

 

Oskar blues are great but I think they are missing an opportunity with not distributing special releases. They should step it up in that aspect.

 

Well priced, widely available, and just a great philosophy (their brewery is awesome and self-sustaining) and dedication to brewing great beers across the spectrum. One of the things that bugs me is the "Whales mentality" of having fairly mediocre lineups in general and then putting the real love into some limited edition wax top extreme beer. And I know this is all subjective, but we all have pretty similar ideas on what makes a great brewery and what doesn't. And I think I mentioned it in my other post, but I wouldn't debate someone who chose Founders over SN, I just don't think I'd go that route. Both are of extremely high quality and I see no reason to really debate over which is better.

They're widely available, they're inexpensive compared to almost every other craft brewery even remotely close to their level, their regular lineups are awesome, their seasonals are excellent, and they're constantly revising their lineup and adding to it. They're just a great all around brewery. They're the one you can always count on. From Kellerweis to Narwhal and everything in between. To say they need to "step it up" is just kind of ridiculous (I know you didn't say that, just in general) considering their track record and portfolio.

 

Bell's needs to step it up and flood every distro market with Black Note. Haven't had any in almost 2 years.

 

All 3 are great attributes!

 

Green Flash. Though are soon to release new labels for some of their core beers, which is at least a start. Now they need to brew something new.

 

Well yeah, in the pushing the envelope sense they need to tone it down. It would be ok if they were actually making quality beers but that's where they need to step it up.

 

Though I love some of the newer stuff, I hope these older breweries don't feel the heat- we llke them just the way they are.

 

Rogue and Boston Brewing Company.

 

1000% agree on this...I work at Blue Mountain Barrel House and I hear this everyday from multiple customers

 

I can't even believe that Sierra Nevada is even mentioned in this conversation. Dogfish Head I think actually needs to go back to basics.