Poll: Best Northwest Brewery

Just because you brought up number of styles, I decided to take a look at our finalists. Recorded how many styles each brewery had with a beer rated at 4.0 or higher. There are some obvious issues - users enter the style and it isn't always correct or fixed and I did not take into account number of reviews. I did include beers that have been retired.

Pfriem - 15
Holy Mnt - 15
Great Notion - 8
Fremont - 14
Deschutes - 23
de Garde - 10
Breakside - 19
Boneyard - 9
Block 15 - 27
Barley Browns - 11

 

It is rather interesting to see the WA contingent go for local and the OR the same.
It is what makes the PNW a great beer region.
I am guilty as any i always try Oregon beers over even WA ones..my totals on Rate Beer point to this well over 1000 Oregon beers versus 200 WA.
I like Localism.
Best WA brewery i have had is 3Magnets and Everybodys Brewing..not on the list.
Block 15 probably my favorite of all because they do a wide variety of styles all at least good.
Barley Browns because they are way out there in the East..yet still deliver punishingly awesome IPAs and DIPAS.
Breakside..because they are Breakside. not fashionable yet continue to pump out gpp beer ignoring the beer geekery.

 

Actually, @dirtylou used it earlier than that, in the "Pulp Free" thread:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/commun...-breakside-collaboration.403172/#post-4714953

To be honest, it was the next post by @distantmantra which locked "Grape Lotion" into my mind. That two-word, all-caps post makes me chuckle every damn time I see it.

(Yeah, I'm weird.)

 

I had to go with Block 15 as they are masters of so many styles. Rarely do they miss with their barrel-aged beers, their sour program, their core lineup, and of course, their IPAs. I think Great Notion may be getting there too, but they're not even a year old, so I can't in good conscience vote for them (yet).

Has Fremont put out any sours? I haven't had/seen any (besides maybe a gose or Berliner?). I think that may be the only thing holding them back from going neck-and-neck with B15.

 

Memory suspected him, but on a deeper level I knew it had to be true. Lou's style is as distinctive as my own, just typically on the complete opposite end of the spectrum. Better that way, though. Takes all sorts to make a world.

Speaking of Grape Lotion, it suddenly occurred to me that could actually be a viable Great Notion beer name. And that they could probably somehow approximate whatever hand cream might taste like.

 

I think I was getting a little bit of Pallet Jack fatigue. Had a Fork Lift the other night and remember just how awesome it was. Been a while since I had seen it.

 

I've got a soft spot for grape soda. DO IT, GRAPE LOTION. DO IT FOR AMERICA.

and me.

 

It'd be FANTAstic!

 

Thanks, this was interesting to see. It also confirms my (non-scientific) impression that Block 15 is the "best" brewery as far as mastery of styles go.

Breakside seems to be the most prolific in terms of raw numbers, but not all of their beers are what I would consider successes.

 

People from the NW don't even bother to add or rate a lot of beers, so that's probably not super accurate.

I don't really care. Good beer aplenty.

 

That is hilarious.

 

If I'm not mistaken, @paulypringles is a confederate with Great Lotion, so they've accounted for two of their own votes to Deschutes's one.

@TankSlapper, @deGardebrewing, @Block15Brewing & @HolyMtn could also join @Texwild in getting in on this playfully self-congratulatory act. (Am I forgetting anyone?) It's not too late! The polls remain open, gentlemen.

In fairness, who among us doesn't have at least a little in common with Narcissus? I bet none of the candidates voting in actual elections around the country today gave much consideration to voting for their opponents instead, as well they shouldn't have. Furthermore, the stakes of our truly momentous contest here in the NW forum are so much greater...

 

You can probably figure out the second vote if you know their head brewers name.

So, I stand corrected. Three.
I'd wager a guess that while all of the brewers you listed (myself included) do appreciate a good back slapping, it feels to me/us a bit disingenuous to give it to yourself.
This is all for fun, right?
If it's good beer to some folks, those folks will likely buy it. Or perhaps vote for it in this case.
We don't enter competitions for the same reason; let the beer talk. I see little upside to trying to skew the vote here, or in public polls elsewhere. Likely, it doesn't help sell beer, and it certainly doesn't make it better beer.
Rather, let's all gather around the fact that we have an amazing selection of fantastic breweries. I have a couple favorites on that list (and they aren't us), but though the stakes may effectively be nothing, don't want to diminish others there too. So much goodness. Too much to keep up with.
I'm going to go give myself a firm pat on the back now for filling barrels today.

 

As do I. @jamdugan is apparently also proud of his own work, as well he should be. You generally don't garner that much acclaim that quickly without doing something truly special.

@beertunes, who started this all, is right that it was only intended--and I hazard to guess understood by all who participated--as an amusing diversion from the relatively stale and tiresome proceedings of late. And an inducement for us all to be positive, which everyone was. Universally. Nary a brewery was dismissed (though a little fun may have been had at the expense of one). It was a love-fest through and through, which was practically preordained by the good fortune of our circumstances.

I believe the community here already does "gather around the fact that we have an amazing selection of fantastic breweries," like you recommend. This thread, and the one that preceded it, when worthy suggestion was heaped upon worthy suggestion, have proved that, in their own ways. As does the fact, the rest of the time, that we consistently dismiss the culture of mules and lines and hand trucks. Most here see all that, however else they might see it, as blind to the fact of just how good we have it, of just how many breweries, like yours, being run by people whose backs deserve our slapping we have in our backyard. Our thanks to you, and all of them.

 

Ditto for Fremont on everything except we now enter competitions...and filled a bunch of barrels today.

I would add Iron Goat to the list if not already added