With as deep as the US brewing scene was in the 2010s, do you think they deserved to be the "best brewer in the world" 8 times from 2012 to 2020? Again, not on your life. Sean Hill brews very good beer consistently and has a commitment, maybe even an obsession, with making great beer, but his is not the only brewery committed at this level and there are breweries out there that consistently make beer that's just as good if not better than what he makes. Yes, that is my opinion, but it is not an uninformed one. Hill Farmstead is a great brewery first. But its function as a hype machine is a close second.
There has been mention of Heady Topper a few times in this thread. Last summer my wife and I visited the brewery and took a tour. It was an interesting tour. After the tour you are offered one free beer and I chose to drink the hand-pulled Heady Topper: I visited the brewery’s website to see if this ‘version’ of Heady Topper was still available and it is: “Hand-pulled Heady Topper: our flagship double IPA; the only place you will find draft Heady.” I enjoyed drinking this beer. I would recommend folks click on the below to see that The Alchemist is waaay more than just Heady Topper/Focal Banger with thirteen cans listed: https://alchemistbeer.com/beer-cafe-menu/ Also, a number of brands available in bottles. Cheers!
No. There's what, 125-ish styles of beer? And 9000 breweries in America alone? If every brewery had to create a style, no brewery could be considered great. A brewery can make great beer in existing styles, and be a great brewery. No. Reach has absolutely zero equation to the quality of the product. I think New Glarus is a great brewery, and they don't sell a drop outside of their state. You've eliminated them. You get a partial point here. But, you've eliminated the possibility of a new brewery coming out of the gate with a strong line-up. And you've totally ignored the experience of being at the brewery. I don't care how great their beer is, if you don't like being in the space, it's not a great brewery. If I'm forced to listen to shitty-assed metal music (hello Structures and Holy Mountain) I'm not gonna have a good time, and will bail earlier than I would have. You can succeed in spite of a shitty experience, but you're making your job much harder.
I think you missed my point. I was simply volunteering metrics that might be used to evaluate "greatness" (whatever that is) in breweries, each one being mutually exclusive of the other, but they can have a cumulative effect. You can certainly disagree with me, but if you do it would be useful to offer your criteria.
At this fuckin point in time just remaining open earns you that title in my eyes. Fuck everything else.
Yeah, being shuttered doesn't help one bit. How do you feel about ownership? Does that effect the perception of greatness? Independently owned v. corporately owned?
Anyone here saying they give a shit about that is lying. Even if it is " independently " owned they have investors telling them what to do and the money still goes to, usually, the same banks . I still try to support independently owned brewers more than corporate , but regularly buy both .
100% I have noticed, however, that many breweries that have been bought out tend to, eventually, have a vast reduction in their brands, but not necessarily in the quality of those remaining brands. Stone, DFH, Founders, and Bells being the most blatant examples, IMO.
I find this to be true only in Distribution of those brands. When you visit the taproom they tend to regularly drop a lot of stuff you think doesn't exist. Stone ALWAYS has bangers on tap. Just this year i have had Double Bastard, RIS, Smoked Porter , og Pale Ale , Old Guardian and a bunch of others that don't make it to shelves. Same is true for DFH and Founders. Doesn't bother me at all .
Would certainly love to be able to make it to any or all of those taprooms, but, alas, I am near to none of them.
My $.02 - 1. Great Brewery can not only produce great beers, but they can do a variety of styles and do them all at a high level. I have more respect for a brewery who can do this versus the breweries who are just IPA/Sour houses. 2. Good destination - presentable premises both indoor and outdoor spaces, events and themes that draw and keep customers 3. Good customer service 3. Don't get entangled with disastrous PR stories (jerking customers/employees around, engaging in any racism/sexism/discrimination, shady & unethical business practices)
That's unfortunate. That's very unfortunate. I'm a fan of both breweries and would gladly visit both if given the opportunity. I bet that ice cream is pretty good too?!
I would agree. That said, the Cantillon's of the world have my respect as well. Too right. These two things show attention to detail and interest in their customers and in furthering the industry, as a whole. Should go without saying, but, unfortunately, it needs to be said.
Would definitely give The Alchemist another go, no grudges held, but Von Trapp is now one of my favorites. They can almost do no wrong in my eyes. Fantastic. The whole experience was fun, even though they weren't giving tours.
I'm not a huge fan of metal music but im a huge fan Ghost Town(Oakland,Ca) beers which is a "metal brewery". I beleive the brewers were bandmates before brewing, the GREAT beer made the music passable. The music wasn't being played at a loud volume at all. It was a rather peaceful environment.. i even recall seeing people reading books and working away on their laptops enjoying their beers and snacks. The most impressive beertender I've witnessed was at Toronados(metal beer bar in SF) for their 38th Anniversary this past August. The dude pouring beers(closing shift) was a one-man army, a beer rockstar. He was pouring the most perfect over-flowing pour for everyone there and would semi-slam the glass on the bar presenting you with a perfect beer. He was moving to the pace of the music, serving everyone, cleaning glasses, racking them. Moving kegs around. Made me appreciate metal music just a bit. It was otherworldly drinking there.. an experience I wouldn't mind revisiting.
Pretty much this... an IPA factory thats close to me is eventually gonna get boring. All these things would make it great
Great post /response. Just curious how much you factor and how important is ambience? A beautiful setting is great and one that is important to me which can override mediocre beer however if you never make it to the brewery than the beer remains mediocre? , when you have both great beer and surroundings that is sublime , as your photo above
