Does anyone buy mediocre beer just because it's local?

I will say that at least buying beer for the house I always try to buy the best beer that I can that meets what I'm wanting. I normally don't go for national options though and I normally end up buying Texas made beers.

I do like Odell a lot, and Deschutes Mirror Pond. But I find that it's very subjective whether Rahr beers, or Deep Ellum's pale/session IPA are significantly lower quality.

There are many breweries in Texas that I will NOT buy because my experience is that they are really mediocre.

When we go out to drink while in town my wife and I spend a lot of time at Legal Draft. Most "beer nerds" I talk to in Arlington go on and on about how bad their beer is or how watery. I don't know. I drink a lot of the blond lager which is a Helles. But I really question how accurate of a Helles it is. It's a lot more flavorful than Paulaner or Hacker-Pschorr for example. I find it has a very noticeable floral aroma and strong doughiness. But then it has an almost honey like sweetness. Is it mediocre? Probably. I don't think it's very accurate to the German style. It isn't an IPA, double stout, or sour so "beer nerds" automatically think it's mediocre.
But it is a tasty beer that I can happily drink multiple of.

 

No fuck that. Local is no excuse. I'm more prone to try a local option first but, fool me once or so the saying goes.

 

I live in Las Vegas, Nevada and we don't have a strong beer scene. 22 of the top 25 beers are from one brewery in Northern Nevada Revision. So in order to buy local beer I have to buy average beer at best in my opinion (rating system supports this). So yes I buy mediocre beer because it's local as I believe that when I am out at a bar that I should go with the local choices as they provide jobs. In addition there are times at the store that I have purchased local over a larger national brand. At the end of the day I end up buying the bulk of my beer in CA and driving it back home.

 

Isn't there a difference between 'mediocre' and 'poor' ?

 

Everyone who buys New Jersey beer.

/s

 

When they first started here in town I went to see what they could do. it was ok beer. nothing worthy of me spending much, but I was always curious and hopeful they would evolve into a world class sadly they decided they were going to go the bud lite route, aka mass produce a beer period. They got into jags games and I guess enough non BA types like it to keep them in biz.

I will one of them had HUGE promise, but even they lost it. sense its all subjective, you could read my reviews to find that out, otherwise, who cares, lol

Most local places are lucky really that we picky high quality beer types are rare, I used to go out until the wife got cancer again (3rd time) to see what the locals were up to.

I would try to chat with as many folks as I could, I always asked them if they heard of beer web sites (RB/BA). From 99% of them I got a blank look. Most folks were either diehards (rare) or just visitors. lucky its Florida I guess. I do wonder what its like in non tourist type places.??

So to this day I will still make a VERY rare trip all the way to cigar city brewing over ANYTHING local here, IMHO its all meeh. Otherwise I was big into home brew, but now sadly I have to stay very sober 96% of the time.

cheers!

 

Mediocre = of only moderate quality; not very good.
Poor = of a low or inferior standard or quality
By definition they are pretty close least in my book. When I approach beer if its not very good I probably will not buy it again. There is so much good beer around why waste time drinking sub-par beer? Sure you can argue there is a difference but for me once it hits that "just ok" mark it just falls off my radar.

 

I try as many local beers as I can, but if i don't care for it, it's a one and done.

 

Funny to see this question on a site I discovered, and continue to use, in an effort to always drink as good beer as possible. That is my goal for local, regional, American, or imported. As far as cost goes, well, of course it is part of the equation, but I think you have to consider that every bad/mediocre beer purchased adds to the cost of each really good beer that is later enjoyed.

 

There are several local brands that I buy regularly & thoroughly enjoy, and they never fail to satisfy. Earthy, balanced, thirst-quenching. But I wonder if some of you would rate them as only mediocre, on the basis that they are not "bursting with juicy tropical flavors", or because they don't make smoke come out your ears and your hat spin around on you head, or something like that. I sometimes look at the beer ratings here, and see points taken off for exactly the thing I like about a particular brand.

 

These beers are not mediocre to you if you are happy to buy and drink them. Doesn't matter what other people think

 

There are a local bars/breweries I go to because they offer a fun atmosphere, even if the tap selection may not be amazing. I rarely go to these places by myself, but if it is a night out with friends the beer doesn't need to be world class.

 

me·di·o·cre
ˌmēdēˈōkər/
adjective

1. of only moderate quality; not very good.

 

SO many mediocre local breweries in the Bay area unfortunately. Many have popped up in the last couple years and I keep giving them tries mostly because they have nice brewery spaces to hang out at. Or because they will release one real banger out of a dozen so I keep getting tricked.

Temescal, Drakes, Original Pattern, Federation, Faction, Roses, Diving dog, Woods, Triple Rock ect...

Hell, even the big dog Fieldwork has gone down in quality this year. But in Oakland if you don't support local biz you're not part of the cool club. Sometimes it's hard to even find out of state beers at bottle shops. But we get a lot of Founders and Grimm (sours and stouts, not IPAs) and it just sits on the shelf so that's nice at least.

 

From my personal experiences and my readings it does seem that plethora of mediocre breweries is more of an issue with the 'new' small, local breweries that have opened over the past 2-3 years.

Cheers!

 

I would agree with you if by mediocre you mean "of lower quality." Newer, smaller breweries seem to be guilty of producing truly flawed beer more often than bigger, more established places. However, I would say that just because a beer is well-made, it is not automatically excluded from being mediocre. If the beer a local brewery puts out is boring, dated, run-of the-mill, etc., I would say it is mediocre or "just okay." In these instances, why should I pay a premium for local when there are other macro or national/regional craft options that fit that same description at a lower price?

It seems to me that these types of beers are often being produced by larger, "older" local breweries. BAs may skip over them, but plenty of average people buy this mediocre (to me) beer and pay more for it simply because it is local. Even if Sam Adams or Sierra Nevada could have done the same (or better) job for less.

I know I'm toeing the line of declaring entire beer styles mediocre, but that isn't what I mean. You can make an blonde ale that isn't pedestrian. Its just that these places don't, because their target demo doesn't love beer. This group, I believe, to answer the OP, definitely does purchase mediocre beer simply because it is local.

By the way, Jack, I'm not calling you out or disagreeing with you. I just quoted you as a springboard for my rant.

 

Lots of people do. Most of the breweries in this town are mediocre at best and they are mostly still in business.

 

I am A-OK with your post. I agree with what you are saying here.

The 'good news' is that we are approaching the metric of 7,000 craft breweries in America (maybe we have reached that point already?). The second 'good news' story is that we have plenty of high quality beers beers to choose from today. The 'bad news' is that plenty of those 'new' breweries (e.g., over 4,000 'new' breweries in the past 5-ish years) are producing sub-par beers. Beers that have technical brewing flaws and beers that just are not high quality taste-wise. In my opinion this plethora of mediocre/poor breweries does not give a good appearance to the overall craft beer industry. I can see beer consumers that are new to craft beers drinking some beers from these mediocre/poor breweries and forming an opinion of "craft beer sucks". Not a good thing for the craft beer industry at large.

Cheers!

 

Seem's like I'm with the majority here.. No.
You're not doing the owner(s) of a mediocre brewery any favors by buying their product. It may seem so on the surface, but your just prolonging the eventual. They will either fix their product or go get a real job. You're probably not doing the local economy (or reputation) any favors either.

 

Yeah I bought one the other day just because it was local. I drain poured it because it was awful however.