Biggest discrepancy between regular lineup and seasonals/specialties

Discussion in 'Beer Talk' started by sacrelicio, Jan 8, 2013.

  1. sacrelicio Member

    Location:
    Minnesota
    In your opinion which breweries have the biggest discrepancy between their regular lineup and their seasonal/specialty lineup? IMO Central Waters and Boulevard. Both have a couple solid, decent regulars and some that are mediocre, but specialties that are just amazing.
  2. ChadQuest Member

    Location:
    Illinois
    Lost Abbey
    OneBeertoRTA likes this.
  3. kojevergas Member

    Location:
    California
    Boston Beer Company/Samuel Adams. Boston Lager? Meh. Stony Brook Red? More, please!
    djaeon likes this.
  4. StubFaceJoe Member

    Location:
    Colorado
  5. FunkyMacGroovin Member

    Location:
    California
    New Belgium. See: Fat Tire vs La Folie.

    Alternately, any other brewer (like Russian River or Lost Abbey) who brews fairly typical beers all the time, and amazing sours once in a while.
    BlackBelt5112203 and afrokaze like this.
  6. WYVYRN527 Member

    Location:
    Minnesota
    I agree with you here. Although CW has some awesome regular offerings. Satin Solstice and Mudpuppy are awesome beers.
    BrownAleMale likes this.
  7. JamesMN Member

    Location:
    Minnesota
    Surly... hear me out. Furious is great of course, but Wet, Abrasive, Darkness, etc. blow Cynic, Bender, etc. out of the water!
  8. THANAT0PSIS Member

    Location:
    Wisconsin
    Seconding Goose Island. Their normal beers are just a few steps above macros (I'm not saying that because they're now owned by InBev), but BCBS and variants, Night Stalker, Big John, Belgians and Sisters, and even Christmas Ale are all fantastic beers, not to mention King Henry.
    mackeyse and sacrelicio like this.
  9. ChadQuest Member

    Location:
    Illinois
    But BCS is a regular lineup beer.......
  10. THANAT0PSIS Member

    Location:
    Wisconsin
    I had read that this was discredited? Great news if it is going to be year-round! I stand by my statement, barring BCBS.
  11. maximum12 Member

    Location:
    Minnesota
    Central Waters, hands down, every time I think about this question.
    Duff27 likes this.
  12. Thickfreakness Member

    Location:
    New York
    That's like saying Surly Darkness and FFF Dark Lord are regular line-up beers.
  13. VladTepes Member

    Well, it is not. BCS is...
  14. sherm1016 Member

    Location:
    Wisconsin
  15. MarcatGSB Member

    Location:
    Michigan
    Their Belgians (Matilda, Sofie, Pere, Pepe) are part of their every day line up, and I think they are great (not Pepe)...
    I'd have to say Lienies...Big Eddy Russian Imperial Stout and the DIPA were very good...Wee Heavy was okay, and the Baltic Porter was pretty tasty.
    BrownAleMale likes this.
  16. coreyfmcdonald Member

    Location:
    Georgia
    I think we have differing opinions on what the OP meant. BCBS is apparently year round now, or may be. However, it is not part of their "Urban" or "Classic" lineup. So, it's a special lineup, but could possibly be year round. Darkness and Dark Lord are brewery only one day a year releases.
    THANAT0PSIS likes this.
  17. incutrav Member

    Location:
    Minnesota
    I agree Central Waters as well. Stout and Porter are pretty good, but the pale ale, IPA, Red, Hefe, etc are all totally forgetable. I cant recall the last time I saw ANY of their regulars on the shelf, all places I frequent only carry the 4pk stuff.
  18. StoutSeth Member

    Location:
    Virginia
    Williamsburg Alewerks... Regular stuff sucks, but Cafe Royale, Bitter Valentine, and BB Porter are incredible
    legend8706, ceazaleo and MrOH like this.
  19. lokieman Member

    Location:
    Texas
    New Belgium and Alaskan get my vote. NB has some decent stuff (ie...Fat Tire, Ranger, Abbey) but nothing I ever seriously consider picking up. Their Lips of Faith series though is a completely different story...many horde worthy offerings. Alaskan's year round stuff is just a notch above BMC for me...I can tolerate the Winter if need be but their Smoked Porter and BW are both well above average.
    sacrelicio likes this.
  20. WagonCircler Member

    Location:
    New York
    Captain Lawrence
  21. westcoastbeerlvr Member

    Location:
    California
    Alpine: special stuff includes BA Token, Exponential Hoppiness
    Normal stuff: Nelson, Duet, Pure Hoppiness

    Wait, I actually like their normal stuff better!
  22. sacrelicio Member

    Location:
    Minnesota
    Two more great brewery examples. Very middling regular lineup and great specialties.

    Also NB La Folie and Alaskan Baltic Porter are great examples of each style.
  23. danfinegan3 Member

    Location:
    Florida
    how has no one said southern tier yet? regulars are yucky (save for 2xIPA and 2xstout) but the others (blackwater series, pumking) are much much better
    sacrelicio and THANAT0PSIS like this.
  24. sacrelicio Member

    Location:
    Minnesota
    LA and RR are pretty consistently good though even with their regular offerings. Although, I am only really basing this off of ratings...I have very limited experiences with both breweries.
  25. sacrelicio Member

    Location:
    Minnesota
    Actually Darkness makes it to stores (sells out uber fast but it still gets there), and is on tap for months at bars throughout Minnesota.
  26. mhksuccess Member

    Location:
    California
    drakes brewery there regular lineup is just ok
    but they make some crazy barrel aged beers on tap at the brewery and there aroma coma is once a year IPA is fantastic
  27. Thickfreakness Member

    Location:
    New York
    Show me where to get GI BCBS all year round and I'd be a happy man!
  28. brewbetter Member

    Location:
    Nauru
    Really? Can you buy a hundred of those bottles in a foreign market weeks after release? Because you could with BCBS.
  29. Thickfreakness Member

    Location:
    New York
    This isn't about bottle counts, it's about everyday brews vs. seasonal brews of a particular brewery. Read the post!!! BCBS released once a year, Darkness and DL once a year.
  30. PittBeerGirl Member

    Location:
    Pennsylvania
    Brooklyn

    Regulars: Lager, Brown Ale, Pennant Ale '55, East India Pale Ale, Pilsner
    Speciality/Seasonals: Local 1, Local 2, Black OPS, Black Chocolate Stout, Sorachi Ace, Brooklyn-Schneider,
    jglowe77, sacrelicio and djsmith1174 like this.
  31. FunkyMacGroovin Member

    Location:
    California
    I disagree about LA's regular lineup being "consistently good," but the point I was mainly making was that their regular lineups are generally common beer styles - pales, saisons, IPAs, etc (LA a little less so, but still), while their seasonal/limited releases tend to be things like sours and barrel-aged beers.
  32. ChadQuest Member

    Location:
    Illinois

    EDIT: I meant to say this beer is super rare, i'll trade some away for some really nice barleywines.
  33. semibaked Member

    Location:
    Kentucky
  34. BrownAleMale Member

    Location:
    Wisconsin
    Tyrenena, there Brewers gone Wild and seasonal stuff is amazing while there year round stuff is very meh.
  35. tonyseleski Member

    Location:
    Michigan
    Short's. Not in the way you might think though. Their main lineup is very solid with a few highly rated brews. Their seasonals and beers they brew one batch of once a year, every other week (seemingly) are sometimes downright awful.

    Keylime Pie beer anyone? No thanks.
  36. n2185 Member

    Location:
    North Carolina
    Dark Horse. Their regular line-up and most of their seasonals are pretty mediocre. Their stout series, though, is great across the board.
  37. spinedocschabel Member

    Location:
    Kansas
    Tank 7, Sixth Glass, Long Strange, Dark Truth and Double Wide are all fantastic year round Boulevard beers. That's a pretty sick lineup right there.
    gueuzehead likes this.
  38. Drew26 Member

    Location:
    Wisconsin
    +1 Central Waters, though I do like their Mudpuppy Porter. Along the Wisconsin lines, Capital falls into this category too I believe.
    Diotima and sacrelicio like this.
  39. sacrelicio Member

    Location:
    Minnesota
    Those are specialties though...I'm talking about regular lineup versus specialties/seasonals/rotating/one offs. Their regular lineup is not nearly as good as their special four packs and whatnot.
  40. Thirstygoat Member

    Location:
    Illinois
    Agree, and I'd include Double Crooked Tree among the very good.

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