"Hometown" Breweries You Do Not Frequent

[Contemplatebeer]

Ideally, you have been at least once or tried their beer- NOT simply breweries you haven't visited/tried yet. Also, hometown can be your literal town, or could expand to your immediate region of residence.

In/Around Louisville, KY:

Against The Grain- Their experiments seem more miss than hit in recent years; some of their brewery/brand artwork is just gross; their beer is crazy expensive for the quality.

Monnik Brewing- Never visited IP, because they made a fatal mistake for me- they set an opening date that they missed... by 3 1/2 years. So, I will also delay my initial visit by 3/12 years. Still about 1 1/2 years to go. Had a couple of their beers, and only 1 of 3 was something I'd drink again.

Goodwood Brewing- None of their beers have drawn me in enough to have another; all have some sort of weird "wood" treatment that really just seems like old BBC (Bluegrass Brewing Company) recipes they have rebadged and added wood. Speaking of which...

BBC- Used to be a frequent visitor to their original location for the food; the beer has been inconsistent for a very long time, due to brewer turnover (and over).

Great Flood Brewing- None of their beers excite me much; I walk by them (shelf cans) with barely a second though and reach for more reliable options.

Apocalypse Brew Works- They do manage to make the occasional hit, but they are pretty much a brewery-only operation (no packaging, outside of the occasional guest keg) and their tap room is sorta odd. It's a little too much like something out of that Maximum Force arcade game. I'm afraid zombies are going to attack, forcing me to draw my plastic handgun. (Glock?)

Who makes your list? Why?

 

[tikk]

Photekut has some great ideas.

 

[abawol01]

Photekut has some great ideas.

Gone too soon.

 

[mbh]

I used to live in Louisville and I’m glad that I don’t have to share the city with some like you anymore.

 

[Contemplatebeer]

I used to live in Louisville and I’m glad that I don’t have to share the city with some like you anymore.

I'm even less likeable in person.

 

[Lutter]

Only got 1 from the Austin area:

Family Business Beer Company.

Their beer is actually alright (the brewer came from (512) Brewing) however, I’ve been twice and things have rubbed me the wrong way:

1) The place is owned by an actor from Supernatural (Jensen Ackles?) and has a good truck run by someone from Duck Dynasty. Because of this the place has been overrun by fans of those series. I waited 30 minutes for a beer there once.

2) The place is like the stock market. Talking to friends there is a fluctuation in pricing for pints between $7.50 and $5.50 any given day. At $7.50 for a normal style (non BA, DDH, etc...) that’s the most expensive pint at a brewery in Austin! And they’re in the boonies (even further out than Jester King).

3) They check your ID and make you wear a wristband for beer. This ain’t a beer fest, son. Don’t accessorize.

You’ll see me practically anywhere else in Austin. Bad breweries don’t last here.

 

[FoudreGuy]

Seattle:

Bad Jimmys - brewery over in Ballard that focuses on high ABV beers with flavor infusions. I went once and have no interest in going back.

Peddler - Another brewery in Ballard that is middle of the road. Not terrible, but not worth my time when Reubens, Stoup and Lucky Envelope are all within walking distance.

 

[jmgrub]

"Official Hate on your Local Breweries Thread" would have been a better name. Unless a brewery offended me in some way, I'm generally not going to rip them online. No reason to dissuade people from trying something new. They can form their own opinions.

 

[Gonzoillini1]

Chicagoland:

Flossmoor Station - Place has churned through really good brewers (Todd Ashman formerly of 50/50, Matt van Wyck of Oakshire / Alesong, Bryan Shimkos of Blue Island Brewing) as the ownership is clueless regarding running a brewery. The food has always been good to better, and the space is pretty cool (adjacent to a train stop), but I hate supporting a place that I know any talented brewer will be using as a pit stop.

Solemn Oath - When they opened up they had one of my favorite local brewers (Tim Marshall from Rock Bottom Lombard), but he was constrained by ownership's demands and used the same Belgian yeast strain for 80% of their beers which all ended up tasting the same. The taproom sucked, I wasn't a fan of the beers, and now Tim is gone. No reason for me to give them my disposable income.

 

[Gonzoillini1]

"Official Hate on your Local Breweries Thread" would have been a better name. Unless a brewery offended me in some way, I'm generally not going to rip them online. No reason to dissuade people from trying something new. They can form their own opinions.

Fair, and I generally try to be pretty positive about spots on social media (be it here or Facebook), but I stand by my above comments.

 

[tosh1]

We have do many ****ing awful breweries I am just glad to avoid them. If idiots want to drink there beer I have no sympathy.

 

[jmgrub]

Fair, and I generally try to be pretty positive about spots on social media (be it here or Facebook), but I stand by my above comments.

To each their own! Was just sharing my personal philosophy. I certainly find value (sometimes) in beer reviews and brewery reviews, but an entire thread dedicated to negative feedback on local businesses ain't my thing.

 

[Contemplatebeer]

"Official Hate on your Local Breweries Thread" would have been a better name. Unless a brewery offended me in some way, I'm generally not going to rip them online. No reason to dissuade people from trying something new. They can form their own opinions.

Firstly, I'm not trying to dissuade anyone from anything, I'm just sharing my opinion of the breweries in question. By all means, give them a whirl if you are in the area and form your own opinion. I'm just a fat guy on the internet- If I'm forming your opinions for you, you are frankly a very weak minded individual (not you per se, but anyone swayed by one stranger's opinion on much of anything).

Secondly, it's offensive to me that I might spend my money on beer that the brewer can try themselves and tell it's not up to snuff. If they wish to release it for public consumption, it's up for scrutiny just as much as the ill-fitting shoes you bought on Amazon that prompted an ill-favored review.

 

[wuntrikpony]

Ideally, you have been at least once or tried their beer- NOT simply breweries you haven't visited/tried yet. Also, hometown can be your literal town, or could expand to your immediate region of residence.

In/Around Louisville, KY:

Against The Grain- Their experiments seem more miss than hit in recent years; some of their brewery/brand artwork is just gross; their beer is crazy expensive for the quality.

Monnik Brewing- Never visited IP, because they made a fatal mistake for me- they set an opening date that they missed... by 3 1/2 years. So, I will also delay my initial visit by 3/12 years. Still about 1 1/2 years to go. Had a couple of their beers, and only 1 of 3 was something I'd drink again.

Goodwood Brewing- None of their beers have drawn me in enough to have another; all have some sort of weird "wood" treatment that really just seems like old BBC (Bluegrass Brewing Company) recipes they have rebadged and added wood. Speaking of which...

BBC- Used to be a frequent visitor to their original location for the food; the beer has been inconsistent for a very long time, due to brewer turnover (and over).

Great Flood Brewing- None of their beers excite me much; I walk by them (shelf cans) with barely a second though and reach for more reliable options.

Apocalypse Brew Works- They do manage to make the occasional hit, but they are pretty much a brewery-only operation (no packaging, outside of the occasional guest keg) and their tap room is sorta odd. It's a little too much like something out of that Maximum Force arcade game. I'm afraid zombies are going to attack, forcing me to draw my plastic handgun. (Glock?)

Who makes your list? Why?

Firstly, I'm not trying to dissuade anyone from anything, I'm just sharing my opinion of the breweries in question. By all means, give them a whirl if you are in the area and form your own opinion. I'm just a fat guy on the internet- If I'm forming your opinions for you, you are frankly a very weak minded individual (not you per se, but anyone swayed by one stranger's opinion on much of anything).

Secondly, it's offensive to me that I might spend my money on beer that the brewer can try themselves and tell it's not up to snuff. If they wish to release it for public consumption, it's up for scrutiny just as much as the ill-fitting shoes you bought on Amazon that prompted an ill-favored review.

You may be contemplating beer too much.

 

[JulianB1]

Secondly, it's offensive to me that I might spend my money on beer that the brewer can try themselves and tell it's not up to snuff. If they wish to release it for public consumption, it's up for scrutiny just as much as the ill-fitting shoes you bought on Amazon that prompted an ill-favored review.

I agree with this to an extent. I'm generally not one to **** all over a brewery just because they are making meh beers or because I don't like the recipe composition, but if they are releasing stuff that is obviously full of objective flaws but don't care then I have little problem saying so. There are 3 local breweries for me, which I won't name mainly because I doubt most/anyone here have heard of them. One of them is a brewpub that whose "house" beer is a pilsner that always tastes like creamed corn because there's so much DMS. They did a "Belgian pale ale" (that was initially just going to be marketed as an IPA, there was no Belgian yeast in it) that is legit one of the worst beers I've ever had - it was pure bandaids soaked in formaldehyde - and all kinds of other beers have diacetyl, massive phenolics, and so on.

Or for another good example where it's warranted, this DDB review:


(Link to media)

 

[nathanmiller]

ill-fitting shoes you bought on Amazon that prompted an ill-favored review.

I don't shop on Amazon.

 

[Lutter]

"Official Hate on your Local Breweries Thread" would have been a better name. Unless a brewery offended me in some way, I'm generally not going to rip them online. No reason to dissuade people from trying something new. They can form their own opinions.

jmgrub Please.

Breweries and other sugar water manufacturers are not any better than your local poke stand.

This site isn't going to be guiding the majority or even a fraction of 0.01% of beer consumers in general so giving people a little direction when they go to another locale isn't going to hurt anything.

 

[yeahnatenelson]

So long as it's honest and not mean-spirited I don't see anything wrong with giving criticism to breweries.

Personally, I'm the type to finish my bad beer, thank the staff for their service and then never go back. I could say I do this because I'm a polite person but that's not really true, or at least it's not the real reason. The real reason that I like to avoid unnecessary interpersonal conflict and there's nothing for me to gain by telling a server or brewer that their Pilsner shouldn't be so murky or taste like green beans.

If you don't want to publicly criticize a brewery, or give them negative feedback, that's totally fine! As a consumer you are not responsible for righting their ship. You are not a stakeholder in their business. But let's be clear: following the old adage of "if you don't have anything nice to say..." is not doing these establishments any favors.

 

[Contemplatebeer]

So long as it's honest and not mean-spirited I don't see anything wrong with giving criticism to breweries.

Personally, I'm the type to finish my bad beer, thank the staff for their service and then never go back. I could say I do this because I'm a polite person but that's not really true, or at least it's not the real reason. The real reason that I like to avoid unnecessary interpersonal conflict and there's nothing for me to gain by telling a server or brewer that their Pilsner shouldn't be so murky or taste like green beans.

If you don't want to publicly criticize a brewery, or give them negative feedback, that's totally fine! As a consumer you are not responsible for righting their ship. You are not a stakeholder in their business. But let's be clear: following the old adage of "if you don't have anything nice to say..." is not doing these establishments any favors.

I completely agree with this, 100%. Especially your closing sentence... in fact, if you do happen to care about your local scene, giving some honest feedback is one of the best things you could possibly do.

You may be wondering: have I said anything to the breweries in question? The answer is yes, when reasonably possible. If my opinion is asked when visiting, I'm glad to give it, even if it's "this is not my favorite beer of yours" and this has happened. Sometimes, you are not on the premises, but having a guest tap somewhere. That's a little tougher, since I'm reticent to send a message simply to say "your beer (insert beer name here) was (insert criticism here)."

Really, I can see how you would disagree with me starting this thread, or how I criticized the breweries (personally, I don't think any of my comments were unduly mean-spirited) but to say that you should never criticize an establishment just because it's local isn't something I can abide.

 

[Contemplatebeer]

You may be contemplating beer too much.

There are far less worthy pursuits in life.

 

[yeahnatenelson]

I'm sure that brewery DDB posted about wasn't super thrilled with him calling out how bad their beers are but he gave very good and thoughtful criticism, both positive and negative.

We keep hearing about the industry bracing for a squeeze that will culminate in a significant die off of breweries. If everything about your taproom experiences was great except the beer, maybe the kind thing to do is to tell them that the beers taste off so they can possibly make corrections and not watch their business go under.

 

[vav1]

There are too many to list, and for reasons such as quality, concept, service, distance & general ****chopery.

 

[JGlitz87]

Dallas is just now experiencing the boom so many others are on the contraction side of. I will say this, other than Small Brewpub, Collective Brewing Project, Turning Point, and Peticolas... I will not be sad if any close shop. They are not bad, they just don’t really produce a beer that I would miss.