I can dig this… Great Lakes is a solid example… They once had a slim, but elite line up: Burning River pale ale, Edmund Fitzgerald porter, Commore Perry IPA, Dortmunder Gold, and Elliot Ness Amber lager… With their once prized Christmas ale. These beers were killer. Then they lost focus on their bread and butter and ventured to different beers. These seasonals had their minute, but the staple beers’ quality declined. I rarely drink a Great Lakes beer anymore unless it’s my only craft choice. There is rumor that they aren’t going to brew their Christmas ale this year because they got stuck with way too much left over for the last two seasons.
Now, I love their fall special, Nosferatu Imperial Red IPA… One of my favorite seasonal of any beer.
I can dig this… Great Lakes is a solid example… They once had a slim, but elite line up: Burning River pale ale, Edmund Fitzgerald porter, Commore Perry IPA, Dortmunder Gold, and Elliot Ness Amber lager… With their once prized Christmas ale. These beers were killer. Then they lost focus on their bread and butter and ventured to different beers. These seasonals had their minute, but the staple beers’ quality declined. I rarely drink a Great Lakes beer anymore unless it’s my only craft choice. There is rumor that they aren’t going to brew their Christmas ale this year because they got stuck with way too much left over for the last two seasons.
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Great Lakes Brewing is a good example of what I was referring to about corporate layers. I went into 2 stores on the 15th looking to get a 6 pack of their Conway’s Irish Ale. There weren’t any. I realized Great Lakes hadn’t packaged enough 6 packs to last through St. Patrick’s Day. And if you’re right about them being stuck with tot much Christmas Ale, it sounds like they need to look at who’s in charge of production planning.
I was feeling burned out on all the new breweries and varieties, and decided to just stick with a few breweries I know I like. Great Lakes is one of them, and I regularly buy the sample pack, as I still love the original line up. I was just tired of buying pretty good beer, when I know that I will love Edmund Fitzgerald and Dortmonder Gold. That is a shame about the Xmas ale. I love that. Nosferatu is probably my favorite seasonal. Ages beautifully too. Just drank a 2013 version the other day.
Some of the older breweries with a larger presence have stuck to their staples because they have a market and there’s no reason for them to slap their loyal customers in the face by running away from those beers. If you have a good product and a market for it then you don’t need to get into the running for fad beers or at least not give up your core market for it.
There was that stretch in the late aughts and early teens where there was a new fad that came and went each year. Here one year and dead the next (e.g. imperial everything, saison, saison again, Belgian yeast in everything). Now fads stretch longer and breweries can specialize in those spaces and build a longer term market in it (e.g. mixed fermentations, fruited saisons, murky IPAs, adjunct imperial stouts).
I’m not sure Alesmith completely fits into OP’s list. Alesmith still puts out a few beers with solid trade value and many of the beers still trade fairly well in markets where they do not have a footprint. Alesmith is also growing and exporting to new markets so who knows how long that will last.
That brewery’s beers are terrible and terribly overpriced for the quality. I think they are doing so well in part because Jester King has created a demand for sour beer in the area that they cannot fulfill while this other brewery is pumping out so much beer that we’re getting it fairly easily up here in DFW. FWIW, you can find roughly the same low quality kettle sours in all of the major craft beer markets around the country.
Guess I have been out of the Cleveland market too long. As a restaurant manager, I vividly recall never getting as much Christmas Ale as I had ordered. It was always a beer to chase around the city. Getting 2 out of 5 kegs on a delivery and knowing I would be out before the weekend even started was always miserable. Guess those days are gone.
It’s unfortunate that drek is getting shipped north to you. I’m sure kettle sours can be done well, but I’ve yet to find one and this one definitely doesn’t do it well. Heading to Jester King this weekend. Every time I go now I bring an extra $100 or so because I know I’ll want to stock up on what’s available. Damn they make fine beer. And yes, it seems the curse of good sours are that they do take time.
There’s just so many Christmas options out there now. I think GL tries to flood the market, but in turn, take a hit. They brewed significantly less this year than last year because they over-produced by so much. My local bar, which is small, went through 22 kegs and are still offered more. I spoke with the manager at my local Giant Eagle (grocery store) last week and said his distributer is still offering cases up to him.
Funny thing is… A local beer store, Vintage Estates, offers 1000s of beers did a blind tasting of 13 Christmas beers. Great Lakes finished last lol.
I know from some contacts that their original recipe has changed drastically, and most of those changes since they lost their head brewer. I was always led to believe that he had gone to or started Thirsty Dog in Akron. I never fact checked that, but I did go to gradeschool with him, and 12 Dogs of Christmas is an excellent Holiday beer. Sorry to get so off track
Yeah. I feel that their traditional beers have changed too. Thirsty Dog makes nice beers. My wife loves 12 Dogs. I don’t necessarily care for Christmas beers.
I’m sorry to hear this about Great Lakes. There was a time when I though GL was one of the most underrated breweries in the country. They’re the reason I started brewing Dort lager. Stuff happens I guess.
I wouldn’t say that their beer is bad. It’s just that I feel that their focus has changed. “Eddy Fitz” is still a world class porter in my opinion, and it’s tough to be a Burning River even though I feel that it’s changed. Gearing this back towards the OP, their focus has become “innovation.” It seems like they release at least one new distributed beer a year. A few years ago, they release a few new ones… The Wright’s Pils, Rye of the Tiger RyePA, Ohio City Stout, Alberta Clipper raspberry porter, Alchemy Hour IIPA (switched to Chillwave after a year), and High Striker Single Belgian are all relatively new. These are ones that I can think of. That’s a lot of new beers for a relatively short time. Conways, Black Out Stout, Nosferatu, Xmas Ale, and Lake Erie Monsters are also seasonals, but I do believe that they’ve been around for awhile. If you go to the brewery, they usually have 4 small batches on tap that are brewery exclusives.
As the market grows and new breweries pop up, staple breweries are expanding, and, I think, start missing their craft. I’m not saying that Great Lakes is hurting. They are the reason why craft beer is growing in NE Ohio. People who don’t know about a whole lot about craft beers will ask “Hey! Do you have any Great Lakes on tap?” The bartender will say yes. It doesn’t matter what the beer is. This consumer does not now what style beer he’s drinking. He just knows that he’s drinking Great Lakes lol. If I owned a small bar in my area, I would for sure have GL on tab.
Maybe I’m crazy, but it seems to me that at the larger craft breweries the head brewer shouldn’t be irreplaceable. They ought to have their recipes and process down so that they can keep brewing their standard offerings without losing quality or changing flavor regardless of the head brewer.
When you get to the one-offs, the seasonals, etc. I think that’s where the individuality of the head brewer would be more noticeable. But if there’s only one guy who knows how to make Great Lakes standard beers, that’s problematic.
Joe, I fully agree. Unfortunately, the reality is that when losing head brewers, a lot of breweries see slight or nor so slight changes in the end result of their brews. Who knows why if recipes stay the same? Not the same level of familiarity through fermentation, unnoticed change in ingredient make up? It seems to happen to the best of them from what I read and hear. Most of the time though, I don’t pick up on it due to my desire to try lost sof different things. Talking about Great Lakes, I really have not had a single one of their beers since I moved away from Cleveland 4.5 years ago, as an example.
I guess I’m not really sure what the “hot” breweries around here are, other then Surly. Their bomber releases seem to only be getting hotter. Fortunately, out in the suburbs where I live, I can just ask the local liquor store manager to hold a couple bottles for me. Other then that, the old hands, Schell’s and Summit are still cranking out quality beers. Summit’s unchained and union series seem to be doing well, though they aren’t always in styles I care to chase down. Meanwhile, Schell’s Noble Star line has been so successful that they are opening up a new taproom and brewhouse just for them (and Firebrick is still every bit as good as it was a decade ago).
What else do we have? Fulton, I guess. I haven’t been much a fan of their beers, though the imperial red last year was tasty. The rest I don’t really follow since they seem intent on mostly just putting more PA/IPA on shelves (Bent Paddle, Indeed, Lucid), or are just better at the tap room (Fair State, Boom Island, Tin Whiskers). Then there are places like Lift Bridge that still seem to be on the rise.
Mostly though I think the most interesting local beers are coming out of the breweries that don’t bottle. Places like Fitger’s, Hammerheart, Forager, Townhall, and Dangerous Man.
This is true in Austin as well. 512 Brewing and Live Oak Brewing don’t bottle but make some damn fine beer. You just have to find the right bars to enjoy it in (or pay too much money for bad growler fills ). I don’t know if this is generally true but the non-bottlers around here tend to stick to a core of 3-4 that never change and put out a couple of seasonals each year and that’s it.
I moved away from MN almost 15 years ago and man was the beer scene different than what you describe (and what I’ve heard from friends still there). Summit Extra Pale Ale was my gateway into craft beer and I’m happy for it.
). I don’t know if this is generally true but the non-bottlers around here tend to stick to a core of 3-4 that never change and put out a couple of seasonals each year and that’s it.