Breweries

[Eric Perry]

Here in Phoenix, beer, and alcohol in general, is significantly cheaper than back in PA where I'm originally from.

At my local Total Wine, a sixer of Ballast Point Grapefruit Sculpin is $13.99. That's ridiculous. A six of DFH 60 Minute IPA is $9.99, and a six of New Belgium's Voodoo Ranger is only $7.99. All three are pretty comparable to my palate, but the price differential is significant.

 

[Alkali Ike]

This went for $17 a 22 oz bottle over the 2017 Xmas season. It’s really good, but crazy expensive.

The Abyss - Barrel Aged Imperial Stout by Deschutes Brewery

 

[RadioactiveGuy4]

New Orleans and Louisiana has some Great Breweries

www.greatraftbrewing.com is in the Northen Part of Louisiana. I love the Reasonably Corrupt Black Lager

Nola's home town favorite is Abita Beer. They are actually in Abita Louisiana but is close enough

The closest to me is Invalid Link Removed They have a great selection.

The thing I love about traveling is trying all the local breweries.

 

[zachoff]

The Boulder, Lousiville, Lafayette, Longmont area (where I live) has enough breweries to sustain any beer nerd's/alcoholic's needs. In fact, we're riding the Brew Hop Trolley around Longmont for my birthday in a couple weeks! Not sure there are any in the immediate area that I haven't been to. Quite a few in Denver though... It's kinda ridiculous how many breweries there are in Colorado.

Colorado Brewery Map – Colorado Brewery List

 

[the harp unstrung]

Gawd bless my tea totaling li’l sister...who lives in Longmont!


Damn!

 

[bluesblaster]

South Shore Brewery in Ashland, Wisconsin.

If you stop by for a tour, say hello to brewmaster, Bo.

South Shore Brewery


View attachment 3014826

Their beers are authentic to style and are exceptionally well made. I believe these are the best tasting beers I've ever had the pleasure to drink.

The nut brown ale is heaven in a bottle.
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My most favorite brown ale, I have to shoot right across the border into Osceola to enjoy it, cant get it here (Mn.)

 

[Yools]

There are six breweries within a 1-mile radius of my home in N. Austin, including the aforementioned Celis. All have great taprooms, and my favorite changes from week to week. We have one of the three [Invalid or Expired Link Removed] breweries in that cluster; great taproom and the Hotbox Coffee IPA is one of my current favorites. Celis and [Invalid or Expired Link Removed]do the Belgian styles

(which I'm not too fond of, but I'll drink 'em)​

really well. Right now, Link Removed is my favorite - the Bat Country coffee stout is unbelievably good, and the Kung Fu Robot is a great post-work mosaic IPA.

I love going to taprooms, and I've gotten kinda spoiled by it - I don't like ordering beer at bars/restaurants any more because you never know if the keg is old, or if the lines aren't clean, etc. Taprooms only do their own beer, so they have to do it right.

Damn... wish I didn't have to work late...

-Y

 

[hbarcat]

I love going to taprooms, and I've gotten kinda spoiled by it - I don't like ordering beer at bars/restaurants any more because you never know if the keg is old, or if the lines aren't clean, etc. Taprooms only do their own beer, so they have to do it right.

We had a new restaurant/brewpub open up in DeKalb, Illinois (a university town) about 15 years ago and their beer was just awful. Some batches had obvious bacterial contamination but every brew they had suffered from poor brewing techniques of various types. They obviously didn't know what they were doing. They stuck it out for about a year and then went out of business.

At the time, new brewpubs were popping up everywhere and everybody and their uncle thought they could just buy a pile of equipment, dump in the ingredients and then start selling great beer within a month.

There is a saying among brewers - "It's easy to make good beer. It's even easier to make bad beer."

 

[Member8675309]

Last I checked, we had somewhere around 25 breweries in Nashville and the immediate surrounding area. Out of those, I will list my top three.

#1-Tennessee Brew Works
#2-Yazoo
#3-Blackstone

Overall, in the U.S., I’d have to say.....
#1-New Belgium
#2-Rogue
#3-Stone

 

[Yools]

We had a new restaurant/brewpub open up in DeKalb, Illinois (a university town) about 15 years ago and their beer was just awful. Some batches had obvious bacterial contamination but every brew they had suffered from poor brewing techniques of various types. They obviously didn't know what they were doing. They stuck it out for about a year and then went out of business.

At the time, new brewpubs were popping up everywhere and everybody and their uncle thought they could just buy a pile of equipment, dump in the ingredients and then start selling great beer within a month.

There is a saying among brewers - "It's easy to make good beer. It's even easier to make bad beer."

That definitely was the case about 20 yrs ago when all the micro/brewpubs started up. There were about 15 in Austin, and only one of them lasted past a couple of years, because all but NXNW were at best bland and at worst really terrible. That's the great thing about today's brewery community here - you can't put out a bad product, because people are too discerning and they will not patronize.

That's similar to the saying I came up with after years of tasting the mediocre home brews my friends kept producing, and what I tell everyone who mentions that they want to try brewing... "It's easy to make beer. It's just not easy to do it right and make it good."

-Y

 

[Member8675309]

I wish breweries would stop churning out so many options of ridiculously hopped up beers. I’m about sick of seeing hop this, hop that, crazy super ridiculous hop happy craze beer, and so on and so forth. I used to love them, but it’s getting a little ridiculous.

 

[hbarcat]

That definitely was the case about 20 yrs ago when all the micro/brewpubs started up. There were about 15 in Austin, and only one of them lasted past a couple of years, because all but NXNW were at best bland and at worst really terrible. That's the great thing about today's brewery community here - you can't put out a bad product, because people are too discerning and they will not patronize.

That's similar to the saying I came up with after years of tasting the mediocre home brews my friends kept producing, and what I tell everyone who mentions that they want to try brewing... "It's easy to make beer. It's just not easy to do it right and make it good."

-Y

I started homebrewing in '85 and was determined to make the very best beer I could, which meant that I followed the proper procedures to the letter and never took shortcuts. I had the support of a very dedicated brewing club and it was a matter of pride to have members taste your beer and determine it to be of good quality. With experience, you can tell exactly why a beer tastes "off".

Over the years, I mentored numerous homebrewers and always encouraged them that it was never a good idea to homebrew just to save money by using cheap ingredients and by being lazy with the process. If it's worth doing, it's worth doing right. To me, it's something like a sin to give a half-hearted effort and make a beer with obvious flaws. I can understand why an amateur homebrewer could make a less than good beer, but it's amazing to me that so many people put up some real money to invest in a commercial brewery and then screw it up.

 

[hbarcat]

I wish breweries would stop churning out so many options of ridiculously hopped up beers. I’m about sick of seeing hop this, hop that, crazy super ridiculous hop happy craze beer, and so on and so forth. I used to love them, but it’s getting a little ridiculous.

YES! Please stop hopping the crap out of every beer just because you can. It's way past time for this fad to go away.

 

[Eric Perry]

I love IPAs, but I agree they have taken over to an extreme.

 

[jmattbassplaya]

Orpheus in Atlanta specializes in sour beers. They're very unique and tasty, and they have a nice venue overlooking part of Piedmont Park.

Scofflaw, also in Atlanta, has some of the best, easy to find IPAs I've ever had. They also aren't hopped to death and go for more of a fruity taste. There are others that are better like Pliny the Elder and Heady Topper, but those are very hard to come by.

Dogfish Head also gets a nod for making unique, tasty beers. Those are my top three, but I rarely drink anymore. I might have, of all things, a margarita when I'm out for Mexican, but that's about it. I'm saving money, my clothes are a little looser, and my face is less puffy and prone to lines

 

[hbarcat]

I love IPAs, but I agree they have taken over to an extreme.

A traditional IPA certainly has a greater hop bitterness, flavor, and aroma, but homebrewers in the early 90's took it upon themselves to push the envelope.

I remember going to homebrew tastings where some club members were putting 10x the normal amount of hops in their beer. It was literally so harsh that nobody would drink it.

The craft breweries saw what was going on and also overhopped their IPA's, but then began to overhop other beer styles, as well. These were sometimes called "American" versions of traditional styles.

I don't want to drink an American Imperial Stout with a pile of extra hops in it. But some people must be drinking it because craft breweries are still making and selling it.

 

[zachoff]

There are six breweries within a 1-mile radius of my home in N. Austin, including the aforementioned Celis. All have great taprooms, and my favorite changes from week to week. We have one of the three [Invalid or Expired Link Removed] breweries in that cluster; great taproom and the Hotbox Coffee IPA is one of my current favorites. Celis and [Invalid or Expired Link Removed]do the Belgian styles

(which I'm not too fond of, but I'll drink 'em)​

really well. Right now, Link Removed is my favorite - the Bat Country coffee stout is unbelievably good, and the Kung Fu Robot is a great post-work mosaic IPA.

I love going to taprooms, and I've gotten kinda spoiled by it - I don't like ordering beer at bars/restaurants any more because you never know if the keg is old, or if the lines aren't clean, etc. Taprooms only do their own beer, so they have to do it right.

Damn... wish I didn't have to work late...

-Y

The wife and I were in Austin a couple weekends ago and my favorite was Hops & Grain. The Owl place was the worst, but I dislike sours, so there's that.

 

[csala]

As a fan of boozy, barrel aged beers, I'm fortunate to have a Firestone brewery about 3 miles from my home. Stickee Monkee (my all-time favorite beer), Sucuba, etc always on tap. Alesmith in San Diego has interesting variations on their Speedway Stout at the brewery and that's always a fun visit. Ballast Point because they have great food to go along with a very respectable beer list.

I'll be visiting The Bruery in Norcal this summer and I'm excited about that, lots of barrel aged goodness.

 

[Member8675309]

We began to carry Ballast Point here in TN very recently. They make a solid beer, and it seems to be one of the only brew, at times, in our locality to not be hopped like mad.....in general stores such as Kroger, anyway.

I’d like to add that virtually any beer I have had from England has been brutally good. “Old Speckled Hen” and pretty much every single beer from Samuel Smith has been so, so good.

 

[Pilgrim]

I wish breweries would stop churning out so many options of ridiculously hopped up beers. I’m about sick of seeing hop this, hop that, crazy super ridiculous hop happy craze beer, and so on and so forth. I used to love them, but it’s getting a little ridiculous.

Amen. There are a couple of local versions here that are like having a drill bit run up each nostril. Great for opening up the pipes, but DANG - too bitter.....