Recently read a Beervana blog post discussing the potential negative impact on breweries of drinker promiscuity/churn/always seeking the hot new beer/brewery - The Outlook is (Pick One: Gloomy, Exciting) — Beervana. Not sure whether drinker promiscuity is a real threat to breweries’ sustainability (for example, I don’t believe this is what caused the closing of The Commons), but something worth considering.
While I value variety in my beer consumption, I’ve never been one to chase down every hot new beer/brewery/beer style. Once I find a brewery that makes a number of beers to my liking, I tend to continuously buy their beers.
Which led me to think about which breweries I would buy from if I ever had to limit my purchasing to 5-10 breweries. I compiled the following list based on availability (not a beer mail person). So this is not a list of favorite breweries, but rather ones that I can obtain without much difficulty and that produce a line-up of well-made beers for my palate. I have a feeling two soon to be opened Seattle breweries, Floodland and Fair Isle, may eventually make their way on to this list.
Top 5 (in alphabetical order)
Anchorage Brewing
DeGarde
Heater Allen
Holy Mountain
Upright
Next 5 (in alphabetical order)
Cascade
Chuckanut
Logsdon
Pfriem
Structures
Interested to see a similar list from other board members.
I’ve cut way back on trying new things. I’ll still pick up a bottle that looks interesting when out shopping here and there but not chasing new releases at all anymore. So very very very very few have been worth the time and money.
I’ve gone back to many of my favorites craft brewers that were doing it before it was cool. Anderson Valley, North Coast, Anchor, Deschutes, Samuel Smith. The only two I regularly stock my fridge with that are more new school would be Dale’s Pale and Founders Breakfast Stout.
Yea, I decided that my beer buying was one thing that could be greatly simplified and so far I’ve enjoyed the change. I mostly buy beers I can count on from breweries I feel good about doing business with.
Sierra Nevada, New Belgium, and Deschutes are all pretty heavy in my rotation. Locals like Live Oak, Real Ale, and Hops and Grain see a lot of love from me too.
While I like to try new beers, I do not actively search out new breweries or go after hard to get beers. There have been a few times I have asked someone to send me a few beers from their local breweries that we just cannot get on the east coast. They are not hard to get beers generally speaking, just hard to get here.
My go to breweries are as follows, in no particular order:
Bells
Great Divide
St Bernardous
Dogfish Head
Straffe Hendrik
I can’t keep up with the younger guys that are all new to the beer scene and camp out for all the new releases or are buying everything out at 2:00 PM on a work day. I’ve pretty much just started drinking local beers.
Decent beer has finally made its way to Napa thanks to Fieldwork Brewing and the soon to be open Stone. I drink RRBC when convenient but generally speaking there is enough well made beer nearby, I just stop when I want/need it.
Sounds like me talking about the scene here in So Cal. I just drop in to one of my favorite’s on a weekend afternoon when I want beer and fill a grower or two. The FOMO HYPE factor has really taken it’s toll on how much beer I have been buying/drinking. I keep forgetting I have a cellar full of amazing wine that needs attention too.
It seems like most of the line seekers are buying to trade. However, I am constantly amazed even in what I consider an underwhelming Seattle beer scene how many people will continually wait in line for all sorts of beers, whether good, mediocre and bad.
It’s one of the reasons why I’m excited about the new Seattle brewery Floodland. No lines! If you have a membership, you are allocated certain bottles every year and get first dibs on others to pick up at your convenience. No membership, you bid online for bottles for pick up at your convenience.
DeGarde would be an easy DROP. Their beer must drunk fresh. I made the mistake of letting a variety of bottles sit for 6-9 months. omfg what a disaster.
Since you’ve posted, I’ve been thinking about this. I actually feel pretty good about the Seattle beer scene – there’s a whole lot of pretty good, very good, and great breweries in the area and I enjoy visiting many of them. I very rarely have waited in line for a new release, and since I don’t go out much perhaps I’m not in that demo that the article is criticizing. Checking my WABL passport, I’ve hit 36 or WA state breweries in the past year, so I do manage to get around somehow. And while not completely faithful, the vast majority of my beer consumption is local (and Oregon). I like that there are so many places to try. I’m not sure how they all make it, and I can see that some of them won’t. I’ve only run across one actively bad brewery (Epic Ales – I don’t think I had a single beer from them that was palatable). And even the ones that are known for their IPAs manage to brew some good and interesting stuff (Georgetown, for instance).
But I sat down and made a list of places I like enough to go back to. And then I tried to determine the non-local breweries that make great beers I’ve drunk, so here it is (in no particular order):
Schooner Exact – I’m wary of what they will be like when the reopen the pub, because I loved going there with my family. Great sour and barrel-aged program – their festival beers were almost always among my favorites.
Seapine Brewing – As far as I’m concerned, they make the best hef in the US. And their other beers are also great.
Westvletern – Overhyped? I don’t think so. The ne plus ultra of Belgian beers.
After these three it gets tricky. Today I’ll add:
Fort George – Diverse range of great beers. They really has success in pretty much any style.
Great Notion – newcomer, but I was really impressed across the board.
Holy Mountain – they are making the most interesting beers in Seattle at present.
I’ve got high hopes for a new brewery opening near me – Best of Hands, which will specialize in barrel-aged and wild ales. They cannot open soon enough.
By the way, I always thought Commons did not charge enough for their product. Other breweries were showing the market for 750s at well above the $11 - $12/bottle I was getting Commons for, at similar or lower quality levels. I was happy to be getting good beer for a good price, but I don’t think I was contributing to them staying open.
Adam, Best of Hands sounds promising indeed. Had not heard of them, but hope to make it over to West Seattle once they open. Great Notion was in the running for my list, but just missed the cut, both because I like the other listed breweries that much and because I have to go to PDX to obtain their beers.
The Commons had problems across the board with a poorly executed expansion that drained their pocketbook. Pricing was just one factor.
I’ll add:
Weak distribution
Poor location with parking a bitch (odds are it was an expensive location to boot)
If you found a place to park, they didn’t make a reason for you to stay and spend more. (Steve’s cheese was a gimmick at best, lack of seating, poor vibe to the space, …)
I’m not sure if weak distribution is fair. Poorly trained distribution would probably be better, as their distributor did just great with other brands. The Commons location has the potential to be great as all the high-rise apartment buildings go in around it. It probably sucks if you’re trying to drive (and park) to it from somewhere else in Portland, but that’s true almost anywhere - try parking near Pok Pok. At least the Commons was only a block from the Streetcar.
I think the two things that the Commons brought to light are that the margin for error is significantly smaller and the danger of leverage is significantly higher than it was a decade ago. Today I talked to someone who works with a lot of breweries in the Pacific NW as part of their job, and he is expecting multiple closures in the Portland area in 2018. I believe he used the term “bloodbath”. There are a lot of breweries that need to sell 4,000+ barrels/yr to make ends meet. Getting that kind of distribution in a hyper competitive marketplace like Portland is tough.
I think a lot of the “promiscuity” is because people are so quick to chase the new hot thing, yet most of those beers are either not that great or not really drinkable (good for a tasting, not for an 11-12 oz. serving), so people quickly move on. I guess I’m saying that in many cases, the breweries have a negative impact on themselves and it isn’t the fault of consumers.
Over the last few years of chasing beers, there are a few beers /breweries that I regularly come back to- I still try other things, but these are my go-to’s (in part due to what is readily available though- I don’t have time or inclination to go to far out of my way to get to specialty stores very often)
Pfriem- in general- like most of what they do
Breakside- Similar- but mostly the IPA side of things
Fremont- IPAs and Pales mostly, especially Summer Ale
Chimay Blue- when at Costco for $12 I stock up.
Duchesse de Bourgogne
Anderson Valley Blood Orange Gose
Ayinger- Ur Weisse and Brau Weisse
Logsdon- Seizeon Bretta
Goose Island- Sofie
I like a bunch of the other breweries listed, but this is my more regular rotation.
I’ve been incredibly underwhelmed by most bottles of theirs that I have tried. Don’t get me wrong — they’re good — but the quality just doesn’t match-up with the hype and price tag.