One Brewery to Rule Them All

Probably would still answer this with Hill Farmstead, despite all the other hot/new breweries that have appeared in the last couple of years. Saisons and hoppy offerings are killer. And even stouts/porters (which are their weaker styles by their standard), are generally very good.

Would hate to settle for one brewery though, no matter how good

 

For the things that are important to me out of a brewery (granted, I don't drink Belgians) it's Sierra Nevada and it's not even close.

Pale Ale: Mainstay brew that gets non-craft people into craft
Summerfest: Sessionable lager
Celebration: Awesome seasonal
Hoptimum: Sweet, sticky DIPA that can hold its own
Fritz and Ken 30th Anniversary: One off that blew me away
Flipside: Completely underrated beer that I can buy large quantities of when released
SN Porter: Damn good porter

Now, add to those awesome beers (which are just the tip of the iceberg) the following:
-They are relatively inexpensive
-They work very hard to mitigate their carbon footprint
-They are a pioneer in craft brewing
-The collaborate with all sorts of other breweries, sharing knowledge and, seemingly, equipment,
-Most importantly, from what I have read, they are an amazing company to work for and they do right by their employees regarding health care, time off, and salary.

 

New Glarus doesn't really make notable versions of any the styles you mentioned (except some mildly Belgian-inspired fruit beers) but I'd go with them.

 

Second this. I love Belgians as much as anyone, but I'll take New Glarus's occasional Belgians and the rest of their wonderful lineup if I had to swear drinking fealty to a single brewery for the rest of my life!

 

Goose Island.

Regular lineup including IPAs: good, if not solid.
Belgian style wild ales: very good.
Bourbon County: enough said.

 

For me it's gotta be either Sierra Nevada or Deschutes...not sure how to choose though

 

I'd be inclined to choose GI as well. Their barrel program is the best out there, in my opinion, and while their distributed stuff is not the greatest, their IPA is a traditional classic, and they've got great sours. Also, if you throw in the Clybourn brewpub (which I'm inclined to do, as it's still run by GI's founder), they do pretty much everything well (although I've yet to taste a fruity APA from them).

Firestone Walker is a pretty solid choice too, although they don't do much Belgian stuff. Their barrel program is right up there with the best, and they do other styles really well, too.

New Glarus makes great beer, in general, and would certainly be on this list for me, if they did more BA/Belgian stuff (it is, however, my 2nd favorite brewery overall).

 

Surly, they have a great beer in nearly every style imaginable

 

Firestone is definitely a solid choice as well. Bretta Rose', Parabola, Stickee Monkee, Double Jack...count me in.

I also totally forgot about Cigar City. Pretty damn awesome on nearly every level.

 

I'm going with Victory. People might not be clamoring for their beers like others, but across the board they have very solid beers for the IPA, barrel-aged, and Belgian style categories such that I don't feel like i'm compromising in one category for another. Victory's QC is top notch too.

 

The brewery I'd swear my allegiance to? Well, I'd have to agree with Providence here on Sierra Nevada. Founders, Odell, and Deschutes all fall closely behind.

As for the former, I haven't had nearly enough of the fine brews across this country (and world) to determine who has the best BA stouts, IPAs, Belgians, etc. I'll most likely be trying my first BCBS, KBS and Black Note Stout this next weekend, so I'll be a bit closer to an answer then.

 

Sierra Nevada was the first brewery that came to my mind, so I'd probably have to agree with two of the previous commenters.

This being said, I'll go with Allagash for the Belgians.

 

As long as it was located in Asheville... Whatever it is, I'm good with that.

 

While I wouldn't want to be limited to 1 brewery I would have to choose Hill Farmstead! There are some other amazing breweries out there, both new and old (JK, de Garde, Cantillon, etc. etc.), but nobody else does such a wide variety of styles at such a high level. World class APAs/IPAs/IIPAs? Check. World class porters/stouts? Check. World class saisons? Check. World class old ales/barleywines? Check. World class wilds/sours? Check again!

 

NO. We already went through the big phase of one brewery trying to rule, and it just sounds boring and weird.

 

Hill Farmstead or New Glarus for me. HF does everything at an extremely high level and has a fairly wide variety if styles. New Glarus is a little underneath them, but they also do an amazing variety of styles, nearly all of them great, plus I love their focus in German beers, which I thin are missing in a lot of lineups.

 

No.

I reject your styles criteria. If I get to pick the breadth of styles I enjoy, then my allegiance:

 

I'd probably have to go with Cigar City if I was forced to pick just one brewery. Everything they do is top notch. A close second would be Russian River, between their IPAs and their Belgians, that lineup is fantastic too.