What makes a brewery great?

Deschutes, they have all the requirements for a top notch brewery, and were actually voted in the top 10

 

homer?...OP wasnt even asking what brewery was great, he was asking what makes a brewery great

idk about that though...the other beers theyve released like focal, crusher and beezlebub have all been received really well...very consistent with their ratings and if youve ever watched videos of kimmich speaking you can see that he knows his shit...im not sure how much of the ratings of the other beers are based on the name, but hey, i guess you can say that about every big brewery that releases a new beer

 

Agree! This guy is a joke. Deschuttes?! Everyone knows its impossible for a brewery from your home state to be great.

 

lol im not saying they arent great i love that damn brewery...im just saying the OP asked "what makes a brewery great"..which he replied "deschutes!"...ummmmm

 

Obviously he means that if a brewery is not named Deschuttes it is not great... which is a travesty because that means there are about 2900 breweries that are not great.

 

in my opinion. consistently making great beers. a good one here and there wont cut it anymore. Good beers, good brewer.

 

sleep it off, happens to the best of us

 

i agree...consistently producing great beers is the only barometer...HF, founders, FFF, RR, for example all produce ridiculousness on a regular basis

 

I've never really thought of Miller Brewing or AB-InBev as great brewers. Selling a lot of something that is shit does not make one great. Rich, yes. Great, no.

 

agree'd. My favorite brewery is great lakes brewing company in my home state of Ohio. Come on gotta show home state love. However they are many great brewers out there, in many states.

 

This is the same idea that keeps coming back to the person's preference. Is a brewery great because they brew solid offerings of several styles like Founders, focus on a particular style like Ommegang, or use unique ingredients like Dogfish Head.
There is no defining line that makes a brewery great amongst us all.
Preference. Preference. Preference.

 

i actually just got some blackout, BA blackout, and edmund fitzgerald as part of my cousins recent trade...looking forward to cracking them open

 

im not going to bash A-B or M-C but they have their place in the beer world. Bud and miller,coors are adjunct messes. but they have their craft brewers in place and lets see what they can do.

 

you just named two of my favorite brews from them. The other is commodore perry.

 

There is a difference between a great BIG brewer and a small niche brewer. If you are going to talk about the big brewers, among the likes of Dogfish, Founders, Boulevard, Bells, Great Divide, New Belgium, Victory, Stone, Lagunitas, Sierra Nevada, etc. Then I would argue Deschutes and Firestone Walker to be among the best. ALL of Deschutes and FW's standard offerings are damn tasty and their reserve line of beers can hang with the best of them among their own style category. These are mass produced beers that deliver on consistency and deliciousness. Niche brewers on the other hand usually do two or three things great, but what they do great is really freaking GREAT! Examples of these would be Russian River, Hill Farmstead, Lost Abbey, Hair of the Dog, Lawsons, and others.

 

I agree, but I've already mentioned Guinness as a prime candidate. It is generally regarded with respect (though not by all BAs) and has a stature few other brewers can match. I distinguish between a superlative brewery of which thankfully there are many and a great one.Many superlative brewers are unknown in the wider world.It isn't enough to have brewed a few excellent beers for a few years to become "great"

 

I assume your not married.

 

I'd say calling them Adjunct messes is bashing them.

 

no, not all of the brews they make. major brewers like A-B and M-C brew many other beers. blue moon. shock top to name two.

 

I'm glad they're venturing into other beers again after the hurricane but I'd rather see them satisfy their state with Heady and not just a 10 mile radius before wasting tank space on experiments. Build a bigger brewery and make Vermont heady central.

And nope, I don't think a 4 trick pony is a great brewery. Give me a full readily available line up over that any time.

No Sir.