Unknown Brewery Gems

Agreed on Sunday Paper & Brigadeiro are both ridiculously good

 

I'm lucky to have three hidden gems within one hour of me! Junkyard in Moorhead, Drekker in Fargo, & Disgruntled in Perham. All three produce excellent beer in a variety of styles. My favorite of the three would have to be Junkyard though. Heading there tomorrow for a release of a NE IPA brewed in collaboration with the head brewer from Disgruntled. If anyone's ever in the area I highly encourage you to try them all!

Cheers!

 

@cavedave I've read the entire thread so far and I'm still waiting for your two picks....thinking about this a bit myself, who qualifies as "ready to blow up" and making great beer but no one has heard of them?

I think Plan Bee is still pretty under the radar and likely to stay mostly that way, because they don't make ipas and focus on often offbeat sours. The quality of Evan's beers has steadily risen year by year and they range anywhere from good to phenomenal now.

District 96 makes a lot of very well crafted hoppy beers but still fly mostly under the radar. Could be the location in Rockland county and the fact that they don't do can releases. They have a low key non-hyped vibe and you can just show up and drink and take home inexpensive crowlers any time. Oh and you can get a killer burger while you're at it.

In NJ Conclave is worth a mention, they have a well deserved but mostly local following and everything they make is quality (and has been from the start). They don't do a super wide range of beers or go too hard after the flavor of the month, they just do everything well.

Finally a brewery I've liked for a long time and I suspect might be on Dave's list is Rushing Duck. They make a wide range of beers and do it all very well - I can't recall having a bad beer in all the years they've been around. They don't chase trends nor stoke the flames of social media hype too hard. There's something off beat about their image and brews (and location) that seems like it will keep them more in the sleeper category. Their War Elephant is a terrific west coastish DIPA but their most memorable beers to me are the Thai inspired saison they have (bauli) and their barrel aged barleywines and blended anniversary beers, which are world class.

Oh yeah I love Greenpoint beer and ales and they certainly have a following but nothing like Other Half. I think they're putting out better beer than LIC and KCBC but get less attention, at least in my experience.

 

Was already mentioned, but since I've moved to Houston this past summer, I've been hitting up B52 Brewery in Conroe, TX, an hour-ish north of Houston. Opened in 2014.

Love their Hazy PA's and I/IPA's, not the best I've ever had, but I drink the hell out of them and love them. Local's: they're releasing Shmoke and a Pancake? on Friday, newest Hazy DIPA. $20/4-pack 16 oz. I'll be there!

 

Yes Grand Teton BA beers are awesome. American Sour is where it’s at! It’s funny I didn’t really think of them when I read the OPs question and maybe that’s because they have been around for a long time making solid beer.

I spend about 4 months out of the year in the beer Mecca of SLC Utah and in the past 3 or 4 years the number of breweries in the area has almost doubled. It use to be Uinta, Squatters/Wasatch, Epic and Red Rock. But now with breweries like 2row, Kiitos, Shades of Pale, Fisher, Proper, RoHa, Talisman, StrapTank etc popping up in what seems like the last 5 years the beer game is being elevated. To answer your question I’ll go with 2row Brewing SLC UT. I say if they were brewing beer on either coast they would be a breakout candidate. They are turning out top beer and even more interesting is that you can’t find them on tap in Utah because nothing they make is 4%. They are building a following in a community thirsty for beer.

Cheers

 

How about JDubs in Sarasota, Florida!!

 

Greyline Brewing in Grand Rapids, MI. It's under the radar due to the big players in west MI (Founders, Bells, New Holland, Brewery Vivant, Shorts, etc) but it worth a visit if you are in the area.

 

I just wish their beers weren't so pricey. I know it's hyper-local stuff, but $20 for a 750 is rough.

 

Not sure about the other beers they make but i had a Grapefruit IPA brought back from Motorworks Brewing in Bradenton,Florida that was really good. https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/33802/271155/

 

I had the chance to swing by Plan Bee last August and had Bartlett on "tap" and was impressed. I also liked the feeling we were just hanging out in their back yard. There were only two people there when I came by. It looked like they were putting up another building/barn, so maybe it isn't like that anymore.

 

On W. MA, Fort Hill has been putting out some great stuff at very reasonable price points. I've been sticky to their hop-forward stuff, mostly, and haven't been disappointed yet. Fresh Pick and Jigsaw Jazz are two of my favorites from 2017.

For greater Boston, Mystic seems to fly under the radar despite putting out excellent farmhouse ales and unique NEIPAs that, in my opinion, are on par with Trillium and Treehouse. Post Apocalyptic Xanadu is outstanding - crazy how they can make triple IPAs so drinkable.

 

Just found about this NJ brewery called Brotherton Brewing. I just had their Green Earth Pale ale and was pleasantly surprised on how good it was. They are now officially on my radar.

 

In northern VA, everyone knows Aslin, and if you travel south you have veil, Hardywood, etc.

But in between (it's a little bit of a drive) is Red Dragon Brewery in Fredericksburg. Great selection of beers and styles, but amazing hazy IPAs and fruited goses.

And if you want some kick ass tacos coupled with decent beer, crooked run is a must stop. Those tacos though!

 

I’ll post the one I always reference when this conversation comes up IRL: Lunar Brewing in Villa Park.
Lots of great breweries in the city and burbs, and More opening down the street grabs all the beer geek buzz, but Lunar is a legend.

They’ve been open since ‘96, an eternity in craft beer years. The poster child of well made, no-frills brewing. They’ve inexplicably remained open and successful despite their...uhh...unconventional methods.

1.5bbl brewhouse (back when NOBODY survived with <7bbl). FINALLY started packaging for the first time last summer. FINALLY changed their faded, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it storefront sign. STILL no website - they finally moved to Facebook from MySpace a few years ago (seriously).
And a true dive bar. No food but pretzels and Jack’s frozen pizzas. Dark, Chi sports on the TV, jukebox, free darts, old timers chain smoking cigarettes outside.

They’ve remained successful by having an excellent guest draft list and just consistently pumping out restrained and technically flawless classic styles and the occasional trendy style. One of the few breweries that makes the old, ‘fruit wheat’ early craft cliche style well. They aren’t going to blow your mind with extreme styles often, but you aren’t going to have a bad beer there either. Great spot.

 

Sloop brewing and Suarez family although they're not really
unknown anymore...

 

Check out some of their pictures on Yelp.
People who go there on my recommendation always say something like, “you were serious when you said it was a dive bar”, expecting a Chicago ‘hipster dive bar’. You know, ‘totally divey’ wood paneling to go with $5 PBR tall boys, full size kitchen with free range eggs on locally sourced beef burger ‘pub grub’ and man bun-donning bartenders serving ‘old man’ Old Fashioneds with butane-scorched turbinado sugar.
Instead they get a crowd of Local 63 Ironworkers getting off their shift, middle aged married couples on date night, and guys who are only there because the VFW is closed.
I played a show there once that started an hour late for some reason. Unfortunately we had a 2-hour set planned and the Bears game started in an hour. So naturally, we played an hour. Unplugged and watched the first half of the game. Played a half an hour during half time. Unplugged and watched the Bears finish losing. Then played the last half hour. Great crowd too.

 

Sounds perfect!