What breweries no matter how hard...

#1 on my shit list was the Fort Collins Brewery. But they've closed. So I'll list some other breweries:

Ballast Point
Rogue
Santa Fe
Southern Teir
Indian Wells
Full Sail
Redhook

 

If you don't like SN I don't know how you can have a love or respect for craft beer. SN makes tons of different styles that don't seem like SN beers without the label. No other brewery I can think of makes more different styles. Some to consider:

Porter
Coffee Stout
World 12 pack with 12 collaborations
Keller Weiss
Tumbler
Ovilla Abbey with cherries (age it)
Celebration
Black IPA
Oktoberfest
Noble pilsner
Narwhal
Bigfoot Barleywine
Pale Ale that sort've started the craft beer boom
Maple Scotch Ale (age it)
Hoppy Lager
Trip to the woods

And I'm sure I'm missing some but come on shame on you for saying Sierra Nevada

 

Abita
Kansas Territory

 

It's about a month into production. It was pretty good.

 

Interesting to see all the Short's hate. I suspect a lot of that has to do with their unique approach to brewing, letting so much of their tank space go to one-off and seasonal brews.

Here are some of the big hits and misses from Shorts.

HITS:
Superfluid
Freedom of 78
Hopstache

MISSES:
Woodmaster
Carob stout
Strawberry Short's cake

The real beauty of Shorts, is you can go to the store 52 weeks a year and pick up a fresh sixer of beer you've never had before for $12.

 

Looks like most every medium to large brewery will be panned by the time this hits page 15 or so.

 

I guess but the fact it's cheaper is what makes them amazing. Most SN beers I can get @ Costco to average $1per beer and I'm not rich so when I can get great tasting beer for $1 I'm a happy guy. SN is my reason for never going back to commercial. If money is tight and I'm out of beer I can always count on SN.

 

This is the problem with Shorts. They come out with too many weird, crazy style beers that leave brewery with little focus. If they had less styles and put forth more focus and effort to a small selection of styles to assure they are up to perfection they'd be better. It's like they experiment and mess up and still put it out to the market even though it needs another test run. Due to buying so many misses from them it's hard to buy anything from them anymore. Their beer names sound intriguing but I always fear they will taste awful so I no longer buy from Shorts for that reason. Too many options tend to result in poor products.

 

Magic Hat

 

I thought MH made some good brews, the good ones came and just like that retired..

 

i'm not saying anything bad about flying dog, but for some reason I just cannot get myself to buy any, and as far as shorts, I made the mistake of buying a case of assorted from Costco (which I just talked about on another post) and got burned as the beers were 4 months old and just not good, however, maybe fresh stuff would change me.same with kona, tried some stuff a few years back and thought their flavor was not on par with so many other beer choices sitting right around them, so too easy for me just to grab the stuff I know is good and not chance it.

 

Man; this thread is proof that taste truly is subjective. I made the mistake once (maybe twice) on BA of starting a thread about how I think Heady Topper is incredibly overrated. It's an exercise in futility. I've really enjoyed reading everyone's responses on this thread, but it's evident that everyone just has different preferences when it comes to taste. "I love Old Rasputin." "I hate Old Rasputin." "New Belgium sucks." "New Belgium is great." Etc., etc. It doesn't mean that we shouldn't indulge in these types of discussions (it is sorta fun); but it's given me a little perceptive on things.

 

eek...

 

I've seen some folks on here mention New Belgium. I had sworn off of their beers for several years; until my wife and I recently took a tour of the brewery in Colorado while on vacation. I would be the first person to admit that environmental factors such as the setting, mood, or people that you are with can affect how one perceives a beer; but I really enjoyed all of the beers we sampled on the tour. Having their Citraholic IPA straight off the bottling line was a real treat, and it was fan-freakin' tastic. Tasting two-hour-old Fat Tire was great, too. I started purchasing some of their beers here and there after taking that tour and sort of rekindling my appreciation for their beers. Plus, they seem like a great company to work for, based on what some of the employees were telling me while I sat at the bar before the tour.

 

What good is a fresh new beer if you are not going to enjoy it.

 

FWIW Tramp Stamp is retired forever.

 

Not exactly in line with what the OP is asking because they are not "bad" but Tree House. I've had ~7-8 beers from them thus far and exactly one was worth revisiting (That's What She Said which is delicious for what it is). Their hoppy beers are thoroughly run of the mill and lacking in any real hop flavor. I will concede that they have a really nice body but the flavor is very boring.

I'll also add Tired Hands to this list minus their saisons which I think are usually very good. Their hoppy beers smell great but have no flavor and I get bored halfway through the glass/can.

To answer the OP more in line with what he's looking for would just be rattling off commercially successful breweries that don't appeal to the BA demographic or who haven't kept up with the changing of the tides within the industry.

 

good