What breweries no matter how hard...

Hops n Roses is honestly just not for me. The floral notes in that beer are just too overpowering and off putting for me. I had the sour apricot and sour strawberry. Apricot was ok, strawberry tasted/smelled like a plastic glove. I had a red sour from them that may or may not have been aged in red wine barrels and i remember liking that 1. Cant seem to remember the name of it. Their frost monster stout is ehh.

 

Indeed. Been there a couple of times and it's a cracker of a pub but the Harvey's lineup still fails to impress.

 

Possibly yes, but they get a lot of love in the UK so I think it's just me. I've only had their stuff on cask in pubs and have found it completely boring. I'm yet to try the ones you mentioned though.

 

Ive tried at least half a dozen beers from Modern Times and for the life of me can't figure out the hype. Perfectly decent, but no reason for stores here to sell out in a day with single bottle limits.
Also, to second @tobelerone above, Magic Hat #9 was still cool about a decade ago, but it's time for them to find a nice, out of the way, shady spot and take a long sleep...

 

I've always been underwhelmed by Unibroue and Ommegang.

 

Rogue
Magic Hat
Green Flash
Abita

 

Folks on the west coast used to be way ahead of us on the east in terms of quality of product produced. Things have turned around completely now and we have gotten used to it. I have found the same as you not only with Modern Times but others I got to try.

 

Empire Brewing

 

I am a big fan of Old Chub. I would love to try Ten Fidy and have my eye out for it, but have not found it in the wild since I have been looking. Dale's Pale is okay, but I have better local options for PA.

 

I'm usually pretty open-minded about my beer and can usually find something to appreciate in a brewery, except DuClaw. I dislike them almost entirely for the abomination of Sweet Baby Jesus, a beer that simply should never have been. Neon Gypsy didn't do them any favors either. It also doesn't help that DuClaw's marketing/artwork/names look like they were inspired by rooting through the bargain bin of a T-shirt store in a shitty tourist-trap shore town from 1995.

 

Yeah, Old Fezziwig is awesome. I wish they would just sell it in six packs during season instead of forcing us to buy a variety pack to get it. The last time I bought a winter variety pack from SA, I enjoyed the OF as much as I always do but there was this Pale Ale in the pack that was just offensively bland--almost a drain pour. And the winter lager is really nothing to write home about. I'd rather be able to buy a six pack of Chocolate Bock and Old Fezziwig and forgo the rest of the beers in the winter seasonal pack.

 

I don't really hate any breweries, some just make beer that I prefer to not drink.

Besides some really mediocre locals that I keep trying to like, my underwhelming group is:

Heavy Seas
New Belgium (I'm maybe missing something...)
Shipyard
Two Roads

From the "cool kids list" that I am not too fond of (donning flame suit as I type):

Bissell Brothers
Southern Tier
Wicked Weed (regardless of recent developments)

Love/hate relationship with Smuttynose. Love the place, dig a lot of the Smuttlabs stuff, Old Brown Dog, and a few of the regular lineup, but really inconsistent on their offerings.

Probably the closest to actually hating? One actually does come to mind - Buzzard's Bay Brewing for having a truly awesome location while producing quite possibly the worst, least flavorful, beer I have ever drunk. So bad beer and unrealized potential.

And there's Narragansett - my feelings have nothing to do with the beer some of which is pretty decent (so not appropriate for this conversation).

 

Magic Hat lost the Brewers Association "craft" designation back in 2010 when North American Breweries bought "IBU" - "Independent Breweries United", the merger of Magic Hat, Pyramid and MacTarnahan.

At the time NAB, which was primarily Genesee and an importer, Labatt USA, was owned by KPS Capital Partners and non-craft due to it's adjunct beers.

It is now owned by Florida Ice & Farm, a non-craft alcoholic beverage company.