Dogfish Head- Method to the madness

Love em. They have some hit and miss beers, who doesn't? I always try the new beers they make. I agree with OP, I'm not a pils fan by any means but they nailed that one. Need to pick more up.

 

You can experiment without mass producing something to sell nearly nationally. Though that beer is pretty decent. I'm enjoying one right now. But their weird crappy beers at times sound interesting but they cost so damn much....kills me. I love what dogfish has done in the past but they make some just plain awful beer at times.

 

It sucks that piercing pils isn't coming to NY.

 

I'm not sure that's fair. They're a big brewery so they have the means to turn out different beers at a scale that people can try. I'm not sure many others have that scale to even attempt it. That said their beers for the most part being out certain similarities. I can expect any Dogfish brew to be far sweeter than I think it should be. From 90 minute....loved it when I started getting into beer but now it's nearly undrinkable to Bitches Brew (which I like) they're all over the top on the sweet side. They like to showcase grain like flavors in their smaller beers. And to be honest I'm not sure what the last new beer (bitches brew I guess) that came out that really captured my interest. The last few years they've really pushed the "weird" not good direction.

If it works for them and others then more power, but for me I'm pretty iffy on buying new beers from them.

 

I like DFH but I don't love them. As mentioned in previous posts-they are pretty much the most visible of the experimental breweries. The big thing that's different about DFH is that they distribute most of their experiments outside of the brewpub. A lot of bigger breweries/brewpubs keep their experiments as brewpub only-then if its a big hit they will bring it back or distribute it.

DFH has some great beers, mostly decent to ok beers, and some absolutely disgusting beers.

When you do a lot of experimenting you are going to have a lot of hits and a lot of misses. I may like experiments A,C,D from a brewery while another craft beer fan likes B,E, and F.

I'll try any DFH brew I find on-tap but I'm not forking over $15-$20 for a bomber of beer that I probably won't like all that much.

i.e. I love Burton Baton- but Immort Ale tastes like a used Band-Aid with Neosporin.

 

I saw Dogfish Head featured on a program on television...a part from their bottling line broke off and went into one of the bottles...no mention of them throwing out the batch where the part fell in to. With that lack of quality control, I don't trust the brewery...no need to buy their products when there are so many others out there.

 

apparently you didn't watch the whole episode, as they searched every bottle that came off the line and found the one with the metal part in it before shipping any of it. (i just happened to watch this the other day.)

 

Good god some of these prices y'all are mentioning.... That is not dfh that is distribution/store. Here the most expensive bomber from them is $13.99, most expensive 4 pack is $12.99. Piercing pils was $8.

 

I love DfH, and more power to them that they like to experiment. That said, if they had a profound knowledge of beer (which I don't doubt they have), how do they excuse some of their trash beers. For example:

Ta Henket
61 Minute
Black & Blue
Tweason
Festina Peche
There's more but I believe I made my point

Sadly, their continued subpar experimental beers have driven me from trying some of their newer beers. Moon rocks? ya no thanks, I'd rather just buy their tried and true beers.

(Disclaimer, if you like some of the beers I poo'ed on, your palate is a glutton for pain or you have a fascinating taste in beers lol)

 

I was just thinking that there could be a side benefit in them creating that beer- maybe beer drinkers who don't normally go for Pilsners could be turned on to the style because they gave Dogfish Head's 'off centered' version a shot and really enjoyed it. It sounds like you could possibly be in that category. It's definitely a beer worth getting again, in any event- 4 just doesn't last too long.

 

Show me Fort for 13.99, really. Piercing pils I paid 8.99 so that's in line. And it's also taxes and other BS. People are comparing their prices to their market and dogfish head is consistently high.

Also Santo, Olde School, and Immort would all surprise me coming in at 12.99, but maybe you have really cheap taxes on beer there or they do all the taxing at the register and not before.

 

I agree with Frankinstiener here, except I will also say I love Festina Peche, Namaste, and Bitches Brew, I've never had 61 (and probably won't), and I think World Wide Stout is priced ok but a lot of their other stuff is overpriced.

 

I work on a production line, and you need a throat punch.
They stopped the whole line and did the deed of finding where the part was. The bottling line is automated so errors like this might take a minute or two to pick up on, and when you have a few people working due to the automation being there. It's going to take a while when the filler can move somewhere in the neighborhood of 250 - 700 bottles a minute down the line and gets boxed up. Since it's bottled, what the automated qc is looking for is a consistent fill. For a bottle, there's no need to do weight so that one went right into a box.
That lost head on the filler was going to amount to waste and pressure loss, among other things as its still running, and also it will knock out their production schedule for the interim until it gets replaced. On the product side. That lost head was a surefire way to get them into a mess of trouble if they send it out and finding it is also going to get everything in a mess cos the guy at the distributor is waiting to ship what you promised would be there, and so on and so forth if they are running the line in shifts and it screws those guys packaging schedule too. Needle in a haystack.
Also, lack of quality control? You apparently didn't see the episode where their tasters rejected the 120 and they decided to dump the entire batch. That's 2 - 3 months of work with nothing to show for it.
Their commitment to product is to be commended. They have their m.o. pretty well spelled out that their in the battle for good beer to play with and tweak and Sam has gone to great lengths to express this at every possible outlet and opportunity. If you can't handle the ride. Don't buy the ticket.
Carry on.

 

I'm unable to obtain DFH, and have read only the original posting comment and skipped the rest but here's what I'll say - they seem to regard brewing as an art form. They sometimes take it seriously, sometimes they're a little goofy, but they're brewing new things, and regarding it as an art form. I have nothing but respect for that type of business model. Hell, Rogue even gets a thumbs up for that doughnut stuff - it hasn't been discontinued yet! People buy it, if even out of curiosity. It's fun to try new things, that's why we're craft drinkers, right?

 

Begs the question why they couldn't acheive that without pear juice? And would it get noticed/sell if it was just a straight up czech pils?

 

Just my opinion but that would be a gripe Id have with them. I dont think Pilsners or lower abv beers should be 4 pack beers. Of course a double IPA, Imp Stout, or a barleywine in a 4 pack makes sense but over 10 bucks for a pilsner 4 pack ? Meh, and I dont care if it has pears.

 

My theory on why people love\hate them is their wide distribution. Since most of the country can easily get DFH there isn't a race to acquire their products. There aren't many DFH whales out there. I think more people can try and rate their beer. For some who are in areas of the country where its hard to get craft beer, DFH is usually one of the big craft breweries that they are able to get, and enjoy drinking it. In my area of NY I'm amazed how 60 and 90 minute IPA is often looked at as "meh".

Now while not as polarizing I see similar reaction to Stone. There are people who absolutely enjoy the products but it doesn't have the appeal of being rare. I've seen people chase after the latest big stout while Stone RIS is an incredibly solid beer and at a decent price by me. The one difference is that DFH uses their extreme "push the envelope" image. Quite a few don't like that and don't buy those beers. But I find their core lineup are all good products.

 

I'll try to keep this from just my own personal perspective.

Palo Santo is a very high tier beer and they've got a handful of others like Festina, My Antonia, Positive Contact, and a few others that are pretty good. 60 Minute is a good drinking IPA and 90 Minute is still very solid and balanced.

Apart from that, I have spent an average of 15 dollars each for my last DFH experiments. Of the last 5, exactly 1 was what I would describe as good. In fact, I drainpoured 2 of them Faithfull (when it warms up, it's a cloying mess) and Hellhound. And a third, Urkontinent, was a near drainpour. This is my experience and opinion and is 100 percent the truth. I WANTED to like these beers. I didn't set out to spend this money only to waste it. I don't mind the experimentation, but I do wish these beers were just a little more palatable for me. I have made the decision to no longer buy these new experiments as a result. And I know it's not DFH's business to cater to some idiot like me on BA crowing about their beers not being good, but I KNOW I'm not alone in my opinion.